What advice would you give a brand new C&I Superintendent? That’s the question that popped into my head earlier today, and for some reason, I can’t get it out. It’s a tough question because a part of me is tempted to offer advice along the lines of technology integration, encouraging one-computer classroom approaches in schools, moving away from drill-n-practice, etc. However, those are failed approaches for the most part…if they weren’t failures, we’d have heard about what a resounding success they were in K-12 schools.

So what advice would I give to Curriculum Department Person in Charge? It might go something like this…

1. Broaden your reach with social media. Budgets are shrinking, and you can use social media to broaden your reach into classrooms, bypassing–without excluding–the administrators and leadership that mediate between the school district and the classroom workers (e.g. teachers, instructional aides). At the risk of repeating myself, why not use Moodle to build those online communities?
2. Open source the curriculum guide development process. Teachers are wondering–rightly so–why curriculum writing is something that happens in the dark, dank dungeons at Central Office when everyone else is using wikis and letting the sunshine burn away the vampiric remnants of boring curriculum that sucks the excitement out of teaching and learning.
3. Build capacity for technology inside Curriculum but don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. Often, school district central office types are caught up in this “I’m an expert, I’m not going to learn anything new unless it fits my way of thinking or aligns to what I’m doing because it’s too much work to do it that way.” A few years ago, I realized that Educational Technology isn’t responsible for integrating technology into the core content areas. It’s a liberating feeling to realize that because you realize what has to happen next isn’t that you take greater ownership of integrating tech into everything, but that you enable other people. You provide opportunities for them to learn tech, then turn them loose and see what happens…and you accept that it’s not your creation. If you can open the eyes of Curriculum people to what can happen with technology within their content area, with the people they serve and children impacted, well, then, that’s success.
4. Empower people to learn anywhere, anytime. I’ve seen a thousand of these workshops where a curriculum person walks into a cafeteria, and waiting for him/her are 50 or so people waiting to learn something new. Wait…aren’t we all lifelong learners? Why do we need one curriculum person to be the match? How can we facilitate those teachers out there to learn when we’re not standing in front of the cafeteria? Obviously, I believe technology can help us accomplish this…in fact, I believe technology is the ONLY way to accomplish this and reach hundreds, thousands of educators.

So, those are my 4 tips for Curriculum Superintendents. I must be missing a whole boatload of ideas and tips to offer, but that’s what I’m counting on you for. What advice would you give?

var addthis_pub=”mguhlin”;

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

Be sure to visit the ShareMore! Wiki.

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure