Curriculum Interview, June 15th, 2016

I had the opportunity to interview an individual that has been involved in curriculum writing for
the past three years for his Math department at the Chichester Middle School. Matt is has been a
Math teacher for almost ten years now and is very passionate about teaching. He attended West
Chester University and is working on a Supervisory Masters from Wilmington University. He
enjoys his job and has seen many positives and negatives from the curriculum changes that were
implemented over the last few years.
One major point that Matt talked about was having good leadership and a focus when creating
curriculum. A lot of the individuals in the creating room were teachers and everyone had their
ideas on how things should go. Luckily, the administrators and curriculum directors in the room
were able to keep the rooms focus and make sure that the process stayed where it was supposed
to. They focused specifically on creating Common Core aligned mapped curriculum with the
interests of the students as best as they could. Matt mentioned that the process usually lasts four
days or so over the summer.
When I spoke to Matt, he said that the best part of creating curriculum is putting it into play in
the school year. He stated that it was very fulfilling to see what he worked on in the summer
with his students during the school year. In particular, he mentioned mapping out his students
reaching a certain algebraic component during the school year. This was the exact time that they
set out to reach it during the summer and he stated that it felt great to see that. It is one of the
many examples of the fulfillment that curriculum mapping can bring to an educator. It was great
to speak to Matt about curriculum mapping and great to get insight into the process and
execution.