What are the critical factors that you would consider when engaging the three way

relationship of the teacher, curriculum and students in planning a teaching and learning
session?
To begin with I would like to say that the degree of academic freedom its important at the
moment of implementing the curriculum in the class. I mean with this that the sort of school in
which each teacher develops s/he work determines, maybe in a bigger range that we would
want, the behaviors we are able to practice.
For example in the concrete case of the country I live in, usually the public
maintenance schools let much bigger autonomy to their teachers to develop their every day
work than the private schools or semi-private ones. It happens this way because the public
schools policies depends more on the curriculum setted by each self-governed region (which is
the educational authority in charge of adapt the national government curriculum to the
particular needs of each region), while in the case of the private schools is the school itself the
one in charge of adapt this curriculum that is the common frame of national/regional
reference to their own needs (the needs of the school I mean, depending on which are the
main ideas or behaviors the school wants to transmit, that in most cases are linked to a
concrete religion beliefs and behaviors or the live style of a concrete community ).
So in private schools the informal and hidden curriculums are much more carefully
defined, resulting on less academic freedom allowed to the teacher in order to maintain inside
of the boundaries the school have marked for their desired outcomes and reputation.
What I would like to illustrate with this introduction is that in some cases is not so easy
to apply those ideas that each professional (teacher) consider optimum for s/he practice and
for the students, due to the restrictions that many working environments may cause.
In any way I keep on being strongly convinced that to adapt the curriculum to
the particular needs of each class, its the core of a good teaching practice based on the
student centered system.
I also think as Ive said before that the curriculum is the common reference frame to
be followed by the teachers in order to guarantee educational standards for the students. But
that the teacher is the vehicle who adapts it to concrete needs of the class (more that of the
class, I want to mean the needs of each individual student), and so the lesson planning is the
way to do this adaptation in the every day practice.
I was already convinced and commited with this ideas even before starting the course,
but now I am even more, because I am learning to support this interpretations theoretically.
When planning lessons, the tip suggested by Dr. Marcia Jackson of beginning by the
end, thats saying defining first the expected outcomes is very worthy in my opinion, and it
could be extended to planning the objectives for a longer time like the whole course or year,
and even a whole formative stage. Its necessary to know where do we want to arrive before
start planning the way. And the way to get where we want to do is the lesson plan itself.

Another very interesting issue related to this that is being discussed during this course
is the relationship between the assessment and the curriculum itself. Its well known that if the
effectiveness of the methods and plans we are applying is not tested and probed, well never
know if were doing efforts to implement the curriculum in the right way or not. And of
course that we , as teachers, would like to know if students are really getting and developing
the outcomes we want for them.
But I find here a big problem, and obstacle. The crowded classes. This circumstance
makes me feel in a contradiction between what I want to do and what I am really finally doing
in many occasions.
My main goal is to give to each student what s/he individually needs to develop. What
works perfectly for one doesnt works or is useless for another seated right beside. The
educational recipe doesnt exist. The knowledge contents (ingredients) are the same for
all, and are set in the curriculum, but the way of melt them (cooking them) should be
different depending on the abilities, and socio-cultural background of each pupil, to make the
most of its nutrients.
I get in the class everyday thinking on this, and come back home everyday thinking in
how to better adapt the curriculum to the particular needs of my students. But when theres
so many of them in the class, it is not possible to me to really fit the curriculum to each one. It
lacks me class time for it. So very often I have to make a standard, that I know that fit better to
some of them than to other ones, and to help those to whom my strategies to adapt
curriculum fit worse I can only offer emergency patches. This is a problem for me on how to
relate curriculum, teaching practice and students. And the only solution I am able to think
about is not crowd the classes or to give more weekly session to some subjects (like mine) that
are under represented. But unfortunately I have no power to do it. So this matters worry me,
and make me struggle every day.