Up until recently, people worked on their own in their rooms. I mean curriculum development was something we did with maybe a colleague or two. Maybe someone you went to your credential program with.

We engendered this sense that this curriculum was going to be owned by our teachers rather than purchased for them.

That conversation helping figure out if they actually misunderstood it or if they just answered wrong, you know?

Like if they’re just not using the right terminology, and their understanding is correct
but they’re not talking about it the right way.

Ongoing professional development is coming from the communities of teachers
at Science collaborating, making decisions about their own practice. Teachers that are using the curriculum all come together able to share student work.

If you look at all of these, they’re the same. I mean these are a little more spread out, but they’re pretty much the same. But her explanation on it shows that she’s at least understanding that there’s a difference between three things.

[Eric Lewis] They are able to share some of their concerns and questions about the curriculum, but also do a lot of learning together.

I wanted them to understand that hot air is less dense. I wanted them to actually see, or at least in the explorer, that hot air was less dense.

They’re able to make comments. They’re able to put something into a discussion board. They’re able to share some of the adaptations that they’ve made that might take us into a different direction. We get to get our voices heard and you get to really share information and as a teacher, really you want to share information.

To have somebody who has been involved in the development of the curriculum, and that same person takes it back to their own classroom and tries it out, you
get really deep insight.

We get to help the curriculum along as we do it. Collaboration days that we get to come to are actually really beneficial.

Aptos Middle School