Designing Integrated Curriculum

Integrated curriculum allows students to have a goal for their entire school year and cohesiveness with all of their teachers and classes.  The teachers in the video mentioned that with this type of curriculum they would be able to know what their students have learned in past courses no matter who they had as a teacher. This can sound simple and like it means that all teachers are doing the same things on the same days, but that is not necessarily the case. Teachers have standards to hit, but can teach them in a manner that works for their students.

Designing this type of curriculum requires that all teachers be on board and does certainly seem like a lot of work. Teachers would need many hours of uninterrupted time in order to make this a fully functioning curriculum and the first year would most likely not be 100% smooth, but a chance to work out the kinks and even get student input into how things could have changed or improved.

To make this a reality in my current district, there would most likely have to be an entire year to plan based on what each course consists of as well as a summer to put the plans together. Some teachers are not project minded, and this would be a slow process as far as becoming a school wide movement. It would most likely happen with one team of teachers and after success they would be able to give their colleagues professional development on how to plan and implement this type of curriculum.