As a newer teacher and a current graduate student in the MAT-TESOL@USC, it is no wonder that I am constantly learning how to improve my curriculum and pedagogy. As I was writing my curriculum for this school year, I found myself thinking about numerous opportunities to enhance my curriculum – how it can better reach standards, maintain student interest, and create a meaningful learning experience. I began to get all of these dazzling daydreams about how I could completely transform the English classroom using aspects of the learning theories I learned about in Educ. 518, bits of classroom management a la Harry K. Wong, a new project-based learning system, a “class focus” on critical thinking skills and the development of intercultural competence, more activities aimed at kinesthetic learning styles, and a bunch of new technology that I am interested in making use of, but haven’t mastered yet.
However, as I was finalizing my curriculum maps and syllabi, I began to feel kind of overwhelmed about how many new challenges I had set for myself. Is it realistic to achieve everything that I want to accomplish if I am having difficulty keeping track of all of the modifications even before I’ve started? What would I tell my students if they tried to change so much of their own routine all at once?
I haven’t changed my goals, but I’ve decided that if I try to simultaneously tackle too much reinvention, it is likely going to be unfair to my students because these changes won’t be executed as effectively as they could be if I focused on a few at a time. The big picture for me is that I will be making a bunch of changes to better meet my student needs; and, there is no doubt that these big goals will need to be continually modified as I learn from my more seasoned colleagues, from myself, and as I progress in my graduate program. In the meantime, I need to be realistic and focus on meeting a few key goals and then expanding or “rolling out” additional changes as the initial ones begin to run smoothly.
So, I encourage every teacher who reads this blog – even the newer ones like me – to be bold in their class instruction and curriculum design. You can enhance your curriculum by big leaps and bounds if you do so pragmatically: with caution and care. Focusing on a few changes and then making additional changes and modifications that will slowly move your classroom towards your big goals will lead to a transformation of your own design.
If you’d like to know about how MAT@USC can help prepare students to earn their TESOL certification contact our Admissions office at 888.MAT.1USC or email us at matadmit@usc.edu.
