Capstone

My capstone for the course was focused upon time at the Ohio Department of Education on Thursday, February 25, 2010. The goal of the day was to interview and visit with the Social Studies Consultant team and the Instructional team for the State Department. I was able to accomplish this goal and much more. I attended two sessions listening, taking notes and learning about the process of curriculum changes and proposals. The team at the state consists of an eight member team. There are individuals from a variety of teaching backgrounds. My contact, Ms. Virginia Moore was an eight grade American History teacher for 23 years. The other members of the team all had at least 20 years of teaching experience.

During the visit, I learned how the team works with the State Board of Education and how this board controls all aspects of the final content standards. Many of current Board Members have no education experience. The team submits proposals, ideas, content standard revisions, lesson plans, technology issues and waits for feedback from the Board. Notable items from my session revisions include: the Board reads EMAIL, BLOGS and values any opinion that is sent via computer format and the Social Studies Team expects delays in the re-mandate of the OAA History test. The team also uses a mass audience of people for gathering opinions and current best practices. I was invited to attend a quarterly meeting that focuses on best practices in current Social Studies Skills and Methods and become part of state team of teachers who lead curriculum development for the state. Below are my notes from the day with handouts and information that I was able to bring back and share.

Total hours for the Capstone include 3 hours of travel, 8 hours for on site visit and 3 hours of sharing with Nagel Social Studies Content Team. The Standards were #1 Continuous Improvement and Standard #2 Instruction.