Curriculum Work Group
Meeting Notes
February 13, 2019
Attendees: Julie Moye, Sasha Vinson, Tammy Huff, Tamara Tackett, Kim Strother, Kristen Idacavage, Lynn Rasmussen, Megan Hettig, Ruth Ann Rose
Lynn, Kim, and Julie have concerns about parent expectations with Reggio and feel it may be better with smaller group sizes. Lynn says most of the schools she researched that used Reggio are not a full day environment and not full day like KRK. Kim spoke about her outdoor playground and how the natural day play environment is a full time job to keep it aesthetic and well maintained with a dedicated person managing it. She wants to create opportunities for growth in motor development. She created a hill in her playground that encourages children to use different muscles than a traditional playground. Her playground has a rock climbing area, musical instruments, chalk boards, turf, and pour and play surfaces. The infant playground costs approx $60,000. Everything is set very low for the toddlers and young twos. She will be moving on to the next age level soon and then work on the area for older students. The curriculum she uses for outdoor time is managed by a teacher and includes both natural and man made components using a loose material curriculum. Children need to be shown how to use the materials and then put them up.
Julie researched literacy options. She spoke of a study that researched brian imagery of readers who were struggling with reading compared to those that were being successful with reading. After using phonics programs for 6 month, the struggling readers’ brains began to show signs similar to successful readers. She chose LetterLand curriculum for her school. It is story based and helps with long term recognition. Very child friendly. Goes from pre-k to 7th and is multi sensory including actions and music. Wake County school district uses it and it helps with transition to kindergarten. Julie would like to get funding from Corp to get some packages for the schools. Tamara said Huff schools are using the “Handwriting without Tears” and uses their literacy program. The Huffs bought the entire curriculum for each classroom and said it was reasonable priced. They are going to start using CLI (Children’s Learning Institute) and Circle (non profit), backed by UT. Tamara feels the curriculum is well laid out, online, easy to follow and flows well. Lonnie has spoken to Julie and Tammy about it. Tamara is checking into pricing and thinks it is $75 a classroom. But they want to confirm that pricing. Sasha would like to meet with CLI and Susan Landry. Tammy and Julie will work with Lonnie to get that meeting set up.
Sasha is still waiting on the Lynn University report. She cited their early recommendations.
They feel like it would be hard to change to Reggio due to how hard it would be to change the physical environments and are suggesting that KRK pull from many curriculums to get what is best for KRK. Sasha says we should look at all options before making any decisions.
Megan has been putting thought into how to give schools freedom to pick and chose curriculum that would build one curriculum by bringing in different components to help build KRK own curriculum using the best of the best for each category. She is curious about how to get all the KRK schools on the same curriculum for consistency across the brand.
Sasha would like the curriculum to become universal and be used by all the KRK schools.
Julie feels like the CLI opportunities and pricing has some exciting possibilities since it is a product that can be used and tailored to meet the KRK needs. It also has online training and has an assessment tool. They are Texas based and non profit so it is free for Texas schools if the schools take subsidized children. Classroom cost is $75 a year. CLI is always updating the online curriculum and it is constantly evolving according to Tammy.
Julie encouraged committee members to let Sasha know the programs they endorse so she can continue to evaluate them.
Sasha asked if they schools on the call celebrate holidays. Julie said “yes” as did others.
Sasha mentioned there is a school that will not allow holiday celebrate holidays and feels this is causing an issue with the brand. She feels that holiday parties is a large social and emotional piece of a child’s development and teaches parents how to interact with child’s school. Holidays also create memories, give marketing opportunities, and community involvement. International holidays teach diversity. Sasha asked for the members to post reasons why they love to celebrate holidays on the closed KRK Facebook groups to encourage schools to celebrate holidays. She explained that a mandated curriculum needs to happen to keep brand consistency.
Sasha feels that Reggio needs to be still be researched along with other options but needs help on determining if the model can be implemented over 185 schools. Megan will continue how the bare bones of curriculum could be implemented.
Next Meeting: March 6 11:00 Eastern
Curriculum Work Group
Meeting Notes
January 16, 2018
Attendees: Sasha Vinson, Julie Moye, Kim Strother, Lynn Rasmussen, Megan Hettig, Paul Hirshberg, Ruth Ann Rose, Allyson Locsin
Meeting began with an overview of the Work Group Purpose document filed on the UNOG Portal. The questions below were also discussed.
1. How we will educate ourselves and report to the group.
2. Begin to see how and if we could make this transition within our schools.
3. Discuss the changes needed in classroom materials
4. Discuss how to train
Sasha pointed out that there is a need for two kinds of curriculum, one for seasoned teachers (such as Reggio) and one for newer teachers, KRK Curriculum. The question is is which components of the current curriculum could be augmented by Reggio. The discussion leaned toward stating that they KRK curriculum is “Reggio based”. Deliverables and measurement are hard to combine and will be a challenge. The need also exists for ease of training and price effectiveness.
Many NC schools use Creative Curriculum as do most NC schools. It is expensive. Kim described her “hill” experience tool that her school uses and how the teachers are forced to be very hands on.
Megan spoke about her experience with curriculum development at Primrose in regards to Reggio, STEAM, teach guidelines and school environments. The process took four years.
Paul stressed that independence for children should be included and that having a blog on the KRK site would be impressive to prospective parents. He wants literacy stressed and expressed concerns about uniformity in training. He also discussed his partnership with “Mathnasium” and his school’s cooking classes.
Julie suggested that at some point a list of all curriculum components used by school should be compiled.
The Lynn University report on KRK curriculum will be done in about a month.
Team members will report on the following topics in regards as to how these curriculum components could be influenced by the Reggio method at the next meeting:
Allyson - STEAM Lab
Megan - Share more about her past experience with the Primrose curriculum transition
Paul Hirshberg - Literacy Program and After School Program
Lynn and Kim - Outdoor learning environment
Julie and Sasha will attend a Reggio Based conference in North Carolina on Feb. 23, 2019. Julie and Tammy are meeting with Lonnie Hutson on January 17 about his curriculum ideas.
Next meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 10:00 Central.