A New Year!

I have not been good at keeping up on this blog because I began helping Frog Street Press with all of their trainings. But, I've made a new commitment to begin to add to this blog more frequently.

I had the privilege of doing a training session in Turtle Lake, WI, two weeks ago. Thank goodness it happened before the Arctic decided to move into middle America. One Head Start teacher raised a question about fidelity. That is the theme of their trainings this year and she wondered if it meant fidelity to their Frog Street curriculum (or any curriculum being used) or fidelity to the Head Start Outcomes Framework. I thought that was a relevant question.

From my perspective, which may not be shared with other agencies and teachers, is that she was hired to support the Head Start Outcomes Framework for the children in her care. That is what her agency is charged with in their grant. To me, that is the number one priority. Now, we hope that Frog Street, or any other preschool curriculum, would match the standards in that document. So, you use the curriculum to be true to the Outcomes Framework.

Some may argue that fidelity with the curriculum should result in fidelity to the standards. From my experience, that is not always the case. Teachers tend to let the curriculum drive their teaching. But, it should be the standards driving their teaching. If they see weaknesses in their students' understanding of a concept, the teacher should use any means necessary to create that support, even if it is not in the curriculum for the week.