Integrated Curriculum Limitations and stuff

In the sciences and mathematics, there are interesting things happening in project based learning that will definitely improve student attentiveness and learning. As a high school teacher, it is difficult to appropriately implement project based learning in an integrated curriculum. An integrated curriculum may be difficult to implement in a high school class, specifically, because it focuses on one subject as opposed to involving knowledge from other courses and interweaving them in one lesson. However, if I was an Elementary school teacher, I would have an integrated curriculum because it is so profitable to students in many ways. Maybe I am just biased because I am looking to become a Physics and Mathematics teacher in high school. I will not be able to appropriately use an integrated curriculum to its full benefits because I have limited time with my students, as opposed to an Elementary school teacher who has all day work with their students and get to know them. Also, in high school, every students schedule is different and students have different knowledge on different subjects. So, in high school how can we use a subject within a subject if students have separate knowledge and students may not understand a concept while others do. But, in an Elementary school, the students should be on the same page with their knowledge and the teacher can used this to their advantage when designing a project based activity.

Basically, I don’t like integrated curriculum even though I see the benefits in an Elementary school setting.

As a teacher you need to change your methods, but it is difficult to change when you are brought up in this traditional teaching method environment.

I really enjoy working together in a group environment when designing our curriculum. Finally some collaborative work periods where students can design a project based activity inside their designed curriculum. I am thankful that we get to apply our knowledge in group work. In the past 4 years, it seemed to be all about learning in a classroom and how to apply it. Now, we finally get to apply it in a teambuilding curriculum activity. I am thankful that we get time in our groups to discuss what we talked about in class and what we feel would be an effective method in designing a curriculum. By gaining this teambuilding and collaborative skill, we can use it as future teachers when we need advice from other teachers, in a school environment.

Thank you Susan for this opportunity to discuss and apply instead of being fed information. Thank you for the change of pace.