Professional Introduction
Why the name Ms. Hoffman2.0? Well, when you work at the same school as your older sister the students will find creative ways to differentiate between the two Ms. Hoffmans. I work at Plantation High School (Go Colonels!) as the proud math teacher of Pre Calculus Honors, Algebra 2, and Pre-IB Algebra 1. I just completed my first year of teaching this past 2014-15 academic year. My sister joined the ranks of being a teaching Colonel the year before - she teaches different levels of American History. My sister and I shared several students this past school year and some of my current students were her's from the year before. When the students realized that calling us Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Other Hoffman was not going to cut it, they deemed us History Hoffman, my sister, and myself, Hoffman2.0. I was very lucky to have been hired right out of college. I graduated from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Davie, Florida in May of 2014. NSU is a small, private university in South Florida where I spent four years earning a Bachelors of Science in Secondary Math Education, a minor in Math, worked as a math tutor for undergraduate students and an assistant in the Honors College's Office of the Dean. I was a proud and active member of the Honors College, as well!Personal Introduction
That so far are my professional and educational accomplishments. On the personal side of things, my name is Marissa Hoffman. I was born and raised in sunny South Florida and still call this beautiful state my home! My favorite color is pink (and my classroom is a bright, bubble gum shade of this beautiful hue too!) and I love all things summer and sunshine! I have one sister and both my parents live in Florida too. I have only known education from the student and teacher point of view from what the state of Florida has offered and I am excited to see how the education profession is seen differently at Michigan State!Initial Meaning of Curriculum
Initially, as most people probably assume, I thought curriculum included the material used in the class. This meaning the standards that the teacher must cover, the textbooks that the school district issues, and any supplementing materials the teacher may find to meet, remediate, or enrich the standards. After perusing The Second Principle: Types of Curriculum by Leslie Owen Wilson, my perspective changed. The piece that resonated with me the most was the null curriculum, "that which we do not teach" (Wilson, 2015). There are news reports every year discussing that elective courses such as art, physical education, and music are removed due to budget cuts. It never occurred to me that not offering these courses might send a message to students that these subjects are not important enough to be included in a school's curriculum. For the most part though, different types of curriculum such as social media, what students retain from a lesson, and the material students are exposed to at home (2015) were all a part of a student's learning experience but now I will consider them as part of an overall curriculum.
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your fun opening post and welcome to the course! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone teaching in the same school with a sibling before. What a cool thing. The students, funny as always, have brought their creativity to the naming problem!
Most everyone in our MATC clases has some connection to MSU, so it's always fun to interact with a student who has no prior connection to Michigan or MSU. I shouldn't say it never happens, but it's still the rarity. That is changing, though, as everyone gets more used to online education and degrees! In any case, I welcome you and your pink classroom to MSU (another thing I have never heard of--how do the boys react to that?--with maturity and non-gender bias I hope!)
Your initial understanding of curriculum is very similar to most of ours. So it's great to see the evolution and, in particular, your attachment to the idea of the null curriculum. Curriculum must have some experiential elements, one would think. All knowledge was once experience for someone, right? So it makes sense that curriculum itself re-activate that experiential aspect. But once we bring in experience we make things messy. And I suppose that is the whole realization of becoming a teacher.
I look forward to working with you in this course!
Kyle