Episode 101: Using Your Creativity in Curriculum Design

In this episode, I talk about how fun and exciting curriculum writing can be, and how it's such a creative outlet. One of my favorite things about curriculum development is that you get to think about things that are interesting in the world and bring it into the curriculum that you create.

When developing curriculum, you get to create what you find interesting and what you want to see out there in the world. As teachers, we can feel really boxed in by what we're told we have to teach or how we have to teach it. So working in curriculum design for me has been really an exploration and freedom. It’s why I think more teachers should try it!

 

Topics Discussed:

  • How to create the curriculum you want to see in the world

  • How fun curriculum development can be

  • Next steps for learning about curriculum development

Resources mentioned:

Related episodes and blog posts:

 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

Today I want to talk about how fun curriculum writing can be, and how it's such a creative outlet. And this was something that really I started thinking more about. I feel like I'm always thinking about it, but it made me think more about it this past week, when I was teaching our advanced curriculum development program. And in this program, I teach educators how to write unit plans and how to really create unit plans that are engaging and fun. And I do this through sharing a unit plan that I created. The unit that I share in this program is all about community gardens, and it's a unit I developed for kindergartners that came out of me reading this article of what it sounds like when plants cry. It was published in the New York Times years ago, and it actually had like these little audio snippets of what it sounds like when plants cry or make other Express other feelings. And so they had these little audio snippets. And it was so fascinating to me. And as a human, I was just interested in this, and I kept talking about it with friends and family and bringing it up. And so I also started thinking about, huh, is there a way that I could use this in my curriculum development, which is kind of one of my favorite things about curriculum development, you get to think about things that are interesting in the world and bring it into the curriculum that you create. So along the same time that I was thinking about this, I also was at a science fair at my son's school, and one of the kids had done this project where she had grown plants, and for each of the plants, she had talked to them differently. So she had three plants. One she talked to very kindly, like, Yay, you're growing so well, I'm so proud of you. One, she talked to it neutrally, like, you are growing. And the other, she talked to it very harshly, which just seemed really funny thinking about a second grader yelling at a plant. But anyway, so this science fair project, which again, I saw in my normal life, made me think about that article that I had read of what the sounds plants make when they cry or they get cut or different things happen to them. And so I started thinking about this idea of well being, and what, what that idea means to plants, but also what that idea means to humans. And so that kind of led me to community gardens. There's actually a beautiful community garden in my neighborhood where people can come, if they don't have the land to garden on their own, they can come and they can garden in this public park, and so it made me think about the relationship between humans well being and plants well being, and that's what led me to develop my unit about community gardens. So that's all to say that curriculum development can be so fun and interesting. And when I was sharing this unit with the students in my class, somebody brought up this article that they had read that teardrops are actually shaped differently depending on whether they were cried out of sadness or out of happiness or out of different emotions. How crazy is that I was so fascinated once you brought this up in connection to the article that I had shared, and just started thinking about all the possible ways that you could use this article or this research in curriculum, like, what about a social and emotional learning article or lesson or unit where students developed different tier shapes, like some art project to represent different emotions. I mean, the list could go on and on right. But really what I want you to think about is that when developing curriculum, you get to create what you find interesting, what you want to see out there in the world. And I think so often as teachers, we can feel really boxed in by what we're told we have to teach or how we have to teach it. And so working in curriculum design for me has been really an exploration and freedom, and in getting clear on what is interesting to me and really getting clear on the curriculum that I want to create for students. Because, of course, it starts with what's fun for us, what interests us, but really it's about what's interesting to students, and so I think that we often have many commonalities, though, if you find something interesting, you will create an interesting unit or lesson or curriculum about it. If you find it boring or like something you have to teach, then you might accidentally create some pretty boring curriculum, and so it really is important to lean into what you find interesting and find those ways to pique your curiosity and then really make it fun for students connect to their interests. Think about, are they going to be interested in this? Is this something unique about me that found.

This interesting, or is there a way that I can connect it to students interests, and this is where your expertise so the teacher comes in really knowing what do students resonate with, what do they respond to, and creating curriculum that meets them there, and then from there too. Of course, we have to work in standards and grade level expectations. I couldn't just create a unit about community gardens if there were no connections to what students were supposed to be learning in kindergarten or whenever I might be developing this unit for and so it's important to make sure that there are connections to standards, whatever standards you might choose, and grade level expectations there. But I really want to encourage you to embrace your creativity when working in curriculum design, and if you're feeling that need to be more creative, I encourage you to explore working in curriculum design and creating the curriculum you hope to see out there. One of the other great things about working as a curriculum developer is you get to learn so much as teachers, I think that we are lifelong learners, and we're so interested in all the things around us, and that curiosity is so important to bring to curriculum design and really embracing the learning process along the way. I find it endlessly fascinating to be working on curriculum projects and getting to read books and articles and watch videos and find different resources. Not only do I get to create impactful curriculum, but I get to learn so much myself too. So if you are interested in all of this, in creating curriculum, in being paid to create curriculum that's really impactful and interesting to students and to you too, then I definitely encourage you to look into curriculum design. I teach not only our advanced curriculum program, but also our curriculum development Foundations Program, which teaches you all the foundations of how to create the curriculum that you want to see out there in the world. If we start in this program by really thinking about our teaching philosophies, what do we believe about education? What learning experiences do we want to create? Because I think so much as teachers or so often we become disconnected from this. And so the first part of this program is really getting clear on what do you believe about education, and then connecting some to some of the great research and thinkers who have done all this amazing work in education, and thinking about what resonates with you, because this is about finding your own voice as a curriculum developer and being able to create from that place. So through the program, we get clear on what do you believe, what do you want to create? And then we teach you how to create it using frameworks and pedagogies that are used in the field right now. We also work on developing your writing skills, knowing that curriculum development is a new genre of writing for many of us, and so you get the support of an expert curriculum coach who reads everything you submit and commits and give you feedback and really supports you along the way. So we'd love to have you check it out. If that feels like something you want to explore teaching our curriculum programs are one of my very favorite things to do, and we'd love to support you there you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lily Jones