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=Curriculum 21 Summary=

What an exciting final discussion to wrap up our Curriculum Theory, Development, and Implementation course! This week, we were asked to reflect upon our readings in Heidi Hayes Jacobs' text //Curriculum 21//. This text provided us with the collective wisdom of educational thought leaders who encouraged us to rethink curriculum and its ability to prepare our students for a 21st century learning experience. After eight weeks of learning about the philosophical, historical, and sociological perspectives of curriculum, alignment, and differentiation issues, it is now time for us as 21st century educational leaders to transform our schools and implement curriculum change.

This wiki is designed to summarize the comments shared through our final VoiceThread discussion. We were asked to reflect upon the projects and strategies described in Jacobs' text and consider the feasibility of implementing the strategies using the following guiding questions:
 * Does your school have any similar initiatives or programs? What one or two programs or initiatives resonate with you and why? In other words, of the nine projects or strategies included, which one(s) would be most feasible to implement? Which one(s) would be the most difficult?
 * What are obstacles that hinder your school's ability to implement similar initiatives?
 * As a school leader, how can you begin to shift the mind set, or mental models of your teachers to begin to change the paradigm, and form new habits of mind?
 * What new habits of mind need to be developed to engage in long-term strategic planning for learners?
 * What tensions exist between past practice, the status quo and new challenges for the future, and how can leadership teams deal with tensions to improve curriculum for students in the 21st century?

Each of us found a few strategies that resonated with us, so I chose to organize my summary by strategy. Through the use of a wiki, our discussions and implementation plans can continue beyond the scope of this course. Many of our classmates commented that this text should become recommended reading for our educational leaders, curriculum writers, and teachers. Therefore, the wiki was developed in a way that a short synopsis and point to ponder is available for each of the thought leaders.

Jacobs, H. H. (Ed.). (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. []