One District's Story...Continued

This summer, about thirty colleagues and I took a dive. Not the dive into the swimming pool that our vacationing students were enjoying, but a dive just as exciting and frightening nonetheless. We dove headfirst into a Curriculum Initiative that will leave our district in Hudson Falls, New York forever changed. Little did I, or any of us, know the journey we were embarking on. I think on some level, we thought, “Summer curriculum writing…been there, done that!” However, within the first hour of the first day of our first meeting, we realized…this was not the mere update of curriculum, as we had seen in the past…this was a launching of greater importance…unprecedented and overwhelming at first glance.

We began our summer, knowing that we were members of the English Language Arts Curriculum Initiative Committee. At the same time, another committee would be working on our Mathematics curriculum. There would be four full day meetings spread out over July and August, and every committee member was approved for forty hours of paid curriculum writing, to be done at our convenience. At our summer kick-off meeting, there was teacher representation from every grade level, kindergarten through grade 12 including special education and intervention specialists, along with administrative representation, technology support personnel, and students videotaping our progress. This was the first hint that what we were doing would be something different. The Hudson Falls Central School District is a district containing a Kindergarten Center, Primary School, Intermediate School, Middle School, and High School. Over the years, we have rarely had the opportunity to work as a full group K-12, typically working within our own buildings, with opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in other buildings on a rare basis.

Obviously, we knew that our task was to update our English Language Arts Curriculum. On day one, however, we were informed that, not only were we updating our curriculum, we were going to be entering the entire curriculum into a template that was in the early phases of development. ClassLink Inc. was in the process of writing a program and we, as teachers, would be the co-creators of the product, giving feedback and suggestions as the template was being developed and utilized. If we thought the prospect was daunting at first, imagine the ripple of energy that surrounded the room at that announcement! The room was dense with nervousness, followed shortly by gathering waves of excitement at the challenge laid before us. We knew if we did this well, the impact on our district would be profound. We would have the ability to write and maintain a cohesive curriculum based on New York State Standards, that was at once accessible and user friendly.

Enter Kate Kelly. Kate, ClassLink’s VP of Education, took the Red-Eye flight from Pennsylvania to our school in Upstate New York. She arrived with a Beta and a smile! Kate’s excitement filled the room, and as she showed us the Beta (first draft) version of the ClassLink Learning Experience program, it was clear that the vision was a promising one. Although I would be remiss if I said everyone had the vision to see the possibilities, a good many of us did, and we couldn’t wait to begin working with the program. The Curriculum Mapper within the Learning Experience program would be our main focus over the summer, as we rebuilt and updated our curriculum and entered it into the program. However, the Lesson Library, Rubric Builder, and the ability to assign groups and activities were also introduced to us on this first day. At the end of the day, as we were sent on our way with assigned tasks, and a new software program to learn, we held on to Kate’s e-mail address, along with the hands of our own technology department, like a lifeline.

And so it began. We consulted with our colleagues, sat down at our computers, and dove into the task of redefining an entire district’s English Language Arts program. We were told to contact our technology department, as well as Kate Kelly and her team directly, to consult with them on any problems we ran into while working with the new software program. We were encouraged to remember that we were working with a draft copy, and so many of our problems would be “bugs” that would need to be worked through. Did we run into “bugs?” Oh, yes we did! I am certain that Kate would have liked nothing more than to block any incoming mail from our school district at times! However, every problem we ran into was taken seriously, as well as any suggestion we made to make the program more user/teacher friendly. We asked for an editing function, we were given an editing function. We asked for a printing function, we got a printing function. We asked for a function which would allow us to change the order of our links at will, we were given a function which makes it easy to change the order of our links at will. It got to the point, late in the summer, where I stopped mentioning glitches, because I knew from experience that they were already being dealt with. All I had to do was wait a day or two and, “Voila!” problem fixed “auto-magically!”

As the summer waned, we continued to meet periodically, updating our progress, working with each other across grade levels, to create a comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum which transitions smoothly from one year to the next. We continued to have dialogue with Kate Kelly and her software engineers, utilizing conference calls, shadowing capabilities, and e-mail. We worked closely with our technology department who were instrumental in providing support from our smallest problems to our largest ones. One of the pleasures of working on this Curriculum has been the ability to work from home thanks to ClassLink’s remote capabilities. I was able to log onto my district’s website, and access all my files and the Curriculum Mapper from my home once my children were asleep and the house was quiet. It was very convenient, as well as a great incentive to get involved.

Thanks to the vision and hard work of a myriad of people, we now have a program, accessible through our district website, which allows our teachers to go in, click on their grade level, and see the English Language Arts units which have been adopted as the curriculum. Every unit can be “clicked on” and there is everything one needs to utilize the unit, complete with Key Concepts covered, Resources, Implementation advice, Activities, Lesson Plans, and Assessments. Every unit is linked to the New York State Standards, and once the program is completed, all a teacher will have to do is look to see which standards are covered by a given unit. In my opinion, one of the most exciting features is the ability to click on a link in the unit, and up pops the graphic organizer, short and extended response questions, or quizzes that are appropriate for use throughout the unit. Materials are all there at the click of the mouse…no more rummaging through folders and thick binders! This ensures that all teachers are using similar materials, addressing all the standards, covering the same key concepts, and accessing the materials easily. We are also able to see what our colleagues at other grade levels are doing, so we can ensure a smooth transition from one year to the next, and also to ensure that we are not duplicating materials and resources. The dialogue opened up between buildings, and the friendships forged through the implementation of this initiative, has been the most gratifying piece of the entire process.

And so the summer comes to an end, bittersweet, but with the lasting impression that we were a part of something groundbreaking and altogether exciting. I cannot speak for my colleagues, but I cannot wait for the first day of school, when we can share with our friends the wonderful developments that have taken place over the summer. We dove into a task that was exciting and fraught with challenges, and have emerged as a district renewed with a breath of fresh air, and a technological advancement that will aid us in tracking our curriculum in every subject and grade level. English Language Arts and Math were only the beginning. What began as a forty hour commitment has turned into a limitless potential.

Submitted by: Danielle L. Kuba
Grade 4 Title 1/Writing Teacher, Hudson Falls Intermediate School
Hudson Falls Central School District, Hudson Falls, New York

A former graduate of Hudson Falls Central Schools, Danielle Kuba has been teaching in the district for twelve years, the first seven as a self-contained Special Education teacher, the latter years as a Writing Teacher and Title 1 Reading Teacher. Danielle received her AA in Liberal Arts from Adirondack Community College. She then attended SUNY Plattsburgh, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Special Education, going on to receive a Masters in Reading from the State University at Albany. Danielle enjoys life in the Hudson Falls community with her husband and two daughters.