What are the enduring understandings that teachers must grapple with?

Enduring understandings are a big part of education because they stick with students and show true understanding of content and knowledge rather than just memory. When students are able to take information they have learned in class and apply it to everyday life I feel they have truly processed the information and know how to properly use it.

Teachers have to deal with "enduring understandings' in their everyday classes, and this can be a challenge for any new or experienced teacher. Finding ways to transfer a teachers knowledge to a students is a huge challenge itself. It can be very frustrating for a teacher when a student is not processing new ideas that the teacher is trying to teach. There can be a few reasons for this. Sometimes students just don't care about the subject they're in and really don't show any interest, but there are also students who just may not get certain information for whatever reason it is. The teachers challenge is to find ways to get their information across to both types of students in a way that sparks the students interest, so after they have learned the knowledge they just don't memorize it, but also apply it to other things.

For me, a physical educator, it can be something as simple as throwing an object. I work with students of all different skill level in my classes, and some students pick up skills very quickly while others can struggle at times. I believe there is a sense of "enduring understanding" if a student uses similar throwing techniques learned from a previous softball unit in a football unit later on. Although they are not exactly the same throw there are similar motions, and that shows the students has taken prior information and transfer ed it to the key idea of trowing an object.

What are the characteristics of a successful novice teacher?

I believe there can be many different characteristics of a successful novice teacher because there are so many different ways how any teacher can be successful. First off, novice teachers need to be continuous learners. At times there can be a lot of information thrown at new teachers, and instead of becoming overwhelmed with all this information they need to find ways to use it a learn from it. Teaching is a constant growing experience where teachers learn new things daily. Successful teachers make positive experiences out of the new information they learn. Another characteristic is a teacher who communicates with other teachers and professionals. I know the biggest help my first year of teaching was communicating with members of my department. Any question I had they were willing to help with, and if I needed an idea or some guidance they always pointed me in the right direction. I know this is not the case for everyone because not everybody like the people they work with, but in my case it was helpful. If you don't communicate well with the people in your department it's important to find somebody in the building that you can communicate with and share ideas because it can be a very valuable tool. Finding ways to manage time is another characteristic of a successful teacher. Novice teachers can become overwhelmed with all that is going on when they start teaching and if they don't figure out how to put things in order there's a chance of falling behind. The last characteristic is to make sure that new teachers really enjoy what they're doing because if they don't want to be there it's going to make things impossible to deal with.

Backward Design

I feel that if used correctly backward design can be a very helpful tool in education. In order to come up with a desired final product a person must determine the results they wish to obtain before they get started. These questions that will be asked at this point will be the questions will be the questions that will be focused on during the entire process so they should be focused on main points. After you find out what the results should be there needs to be a source of assessment and evidence. There need to be facts that support the results a person is searching for. The last step is to plan the instruction. I feel that planning the instruction will now be much easier to do because the majority of the work has already been done. I know for has been a few times for myself where I had trouble planning instruction because I didn't know exactly which direction I was going in. If I knew exactly what my desired results were it would have been much easier to plan what I was going to do.

What is curriculum? Who should design it? Who should control it?

From what I have learned in my short teaching career the curriculum lays out and explains different subjects and information that should be taught in class. It doesn't have to be followed word for word, but it is a guideline to what should be taught in the classroom. All different subjects have their own curriculum and the goals and objectives of each can be very different, but they are all aimed at improving students' knowledge and skills. Where as a physical education curriculum may focus on improving one's health through physcial activity, a math curriculum's purpose is working with algebra, geometry, etc. Although these two curriculums are very different they are both benefiting the student.

I feel that teachers should be the primary designers of curriculum. I feel this way because who has a better sense of what should be taught in classes than the people who who are doing the actual teaching. They know what goes on in class, and what work or doesn't work. When developing curriculum it's very important to stay current with what is happening in the present time. I feel curriculum does need to be changed oftern in some circumstances because what may have worked ten years ago might not make much sense now.

I think curriculum should be controled by groups of teachers, administrators, and specialist. No one person should have the final say if curriculum needs to be changed. In order for changes to be made it should go through a group process in which the majority of the group agrees that changes need to be made.