Curriculum Design

2007- 2009

I started working at a non-public school as a high school Spanish teacher. I was given a text book, a matching workbook, and a desktop computer, and nothing more. I designed a curriculum for my Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 classes without any oversight or guidance. This included an end of the year fashion show, monthly cooking projects, and a field trip to a restaurant to enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine. 

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2009 - 2012

I created curriculum for a K-12 therapeutic afterschool program for children with severe medical issues (students who had low vision, hearing impairments, severe cognitive deficits, seizure disorders, and who were paralyzed). I created fun hands-on craft activities, adapted P.E. games and exercises, and weekly cooking activities. I attended once monthly meetings with peers and we would chat about our experiences, gains our learners made, and upcoming events. However, all curriculum mapping and design was completed by myself. 

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Fall of 2016 

I had been working as a teacher in the Autism program at a middle school. In October I was asked to take on the role of a special education Civics & Economics teacher for a group of 7th grade students. This was in addition to my job as the Autism Specialist. I was given a packet of standards and a copy of the assessments that the general education teachers administered to their students. This was a brand new endeavor at this school and they had never before had a special education Civics class, so there was very little information. I used the materials I was given along with once a month collaborative working sessions with colleagues, and I crafted a curriculum for my class. 

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Fall 2016

I was given a Basic Skills Class to teach, but not given any curriculum, guides, or text books. I set about creating a curriculum of my own. The course was aimed to prepare students for high school and beyond. All students that were enrolled were in special education classes and had an Individual Education Plan (IEP) outlining education and work related goals. My curriculum covered the following areas: binder and locker organization (monthly locker and backpack checks as well), multiple intelligences and learning inventories (determining how each student learned the best), stress and choosing coping strategies, navigating friendships, identifying the size of a problem and using problem solving skills, filling out pretend medical forms and applications using a school ID card, forming healthy boundaries, and more. I taught this course for 2 years. I used the second year to fine-tune learning experiences and expand on areas that needed increased targeted instruction. During the second year I noticed that my learners needed more information about vocations and college, so I ordered several adapted books that talked about a variety of vocational skills, practicing for interviews, applying to jobs and college programs, etc. I used these social stories and texts to help my students understand what options were available to them post-graduation. 

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Summer of 2017

I worked at a privately funded summer camp for students with Autism. I created a thematic kindergarten curriculum. I was tasked with creating fun, engaging activities that tied in with the theme for each week. Most activities focused on encouraging proper social interactions, social emotional learning (SEL), recognizing colors, numbers, shapes, and learning school readiness skills (raising hands, waiting to speak, taking turns, sitting in a chair for long periods of time, etc.)

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Summer of 2018

I worked as an English teacher at a summer school program at a brand new public school with rising 7th, and 8th, and 9th grade students. My mission was to prepare remediation for students who did not pass the English Standards of Learning (SOL) assessment. After a 3 hour brainstorming session with colleagues, I set off on my own to create a 4 week long curriculum. The theme changed weekly, so my activities had to reflect this. Students began the day by answering a journal prompt and volunteered to read their responses to the class. Prompts were highly engaging and often resulted in lengthy discussions afterwards. I taught my students how to use reflective reading to provide thoughtful and considerate feedback to their peers after listening to them read. In return, they too received the same interaction from their trained partner. We read non-fiction and fiction stories and answered reading comprehension questions, vocabulary questions, and participated in Socratic seminars. I used gamification with prizes to gain buy in. 

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Week 1: Invasive Species

Week 2: History Mysteries

Week 3: STEM (a heavy emphasis was placed on African American STEM contributions/accomplishments)

Week 4: Outer space 

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Summer 2019

I worked at a summer program involving remediation and credit recovery for students who failed English and Math during the 2018-2019 school year. I worked as a math teacher for rising 7th grade, 8th grade, and 9th grade students. I was given a few bullet points to cover, a box of supplies (scissors, glue, dice, cardboard, string, colored paper, rulers, tape, etc.) and asked to create a 5 week curriculum on my own.

I wanted to teach practical, functional, relevant math skills. But I also wanted each activity to be engaging and fun. Each day we started off with a journal prompt about math. I went over a short slide deck introducing the concept and then I planned a fun activity that allowed students to practice their learned skills. I used an exit ticket to determine which activities were the most interesting for students. The top 3 activities were 1) Students had to solve a puzzle/riddle in order to make brownies. After solving the math riddle, they had to double the recipe and use measuring cups to make the brownies. 2) Students built a robot in small groups, but they weren't allowed to communicate through speech. Students used math, hand signals, drawings, and creativity to build their robots together. 3) Students were given a renovation project. They were provided with a sheet detailing 3 different houses, all coming with a set of blueprints and demo/renovation projects that needed to be completed for the home. They were allowed to select one house to renovate. Their goal was to renovate the chosen house and stay within the provided budget. They used QR codes to launch websites where they could pick out paint colors and lighting options for their remodel.

Throughout the course Gamification was used to increase student engagement and to aid with retention of subject matter. Students received study guides with practice problems and an answer key prior to test dates. I posted the slide deck with notes on the Learning Management System (LMS) for students to access and study on their own. Links to the online games I created, were also available on the LMS. 

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Week 1: Absolute Value and Integers

Week 2: Percentages, Proportions, and the Coordinate Plane

Week 3: Angles, Probability, and Geometry

Week 4: Graphs, Charts, and Ratios

Week 5: STEM Project, Word Problems, and Riddles

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2018 - 2021

I worked with a small group of colleagues in order to create curriculum and teach U.S. History (reconstruction to the present day) for 7th grade. Part of this curriculum development occurred during the pandemic, so I have experience with asynchronous teaching, 100% virtual led instruction and blended learning. After we returned to school, some students in my class remained at home; this created a situation in which I was teaching concurrently. In other words, I was talking to students on my computer screen while I was teaching students in person in my classroom. 

In terms of curriculum, we typically created slide decks using google and were able to upload these onto a Learning Management System (LMS) for users to access. We also created assessments which were also uploaded into the LMS for easy accessibility and automatic grading. 

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2021- 2022

After the publication of my book, I was asked if I wanted to switch from teaching History to teaching English. When switching departments, I also gained experience working with a different team of teachers. I worked with a small group of colleagues in order to create curriculum for my 7th grade students. I taught a general education academic (regular) English class and an honors English class in addition to 2 sections of self contained (special education) English. After we finished creating the products together, I would work with my counterpart (another special education 7th grade English teacher) to modify the materials so that they were accessible for my students with special needs. We had different planning blocks, so she would often modify an activity and share it with me, and I would modify an accompanying assignment and share it with her. In this way, we were both working towards the same goal and sharing the workload equally. Part of my tasks included creating assessments from scratch and voice recording the question and answer choices so that students with reading disabilities could independently take the test. I also created study guides from scratch. I made sure that they aligned with the Standards Of Learning (SOLs) and that they covered all topics introduced in class. The syllabus I created is linked here. 

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2022 - August 2023

There was need to increase staffing in the 8th grade wing of the school so I was asked to bump up to 8th grade English. I worked with a small group of colleagues in order to create curriculum for my 8th grade English students. After we finished creating the products together, I would work solo to make modifications to the existing activities and assessments so that my students with special needs could understand the activity directions and complete the work. I created slide decks using g-suite and uploaded the content onto the LMS. I created each assessment from scratch and audio recorded myself reading the directions and answer choices for each question. This allowed my learners with reading disabilities to wear headphones and work at their own pace. The previous English teacher had not used audio recordings, so this was an asset to the course. I also prepared audio recordings for all online worksheets including the study guides which I provided for each assessment. I made sure to include an answer key for the study guides so that students could review at home. Each unit also had a matching game (Kahoot, Gimkit, or Blooket) and I provided the link on the LMS for students to access at home. If several students were absent on a particular day, I would record myself giving the lesson in class, and upload this resource to the LMS. The syllabus I created is linked here. 

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