My Curriculum Situation in 150 Words

     This semester I am participating in an Introduction to Curriculum class through Brandon University as part of my Masters program requirements. While there is a traditional class held in-person on campus I am one of 15+ students who tunes in via teleconference and online modules due to distance. Our course assignment is a large project that is slowly created piece-by-piece through the semester and is a collaborative work between two or three people. I am very fortunate to have a good friend in the course who lives only 20mins away and is also on Mat leave right now as well! So... of course, I asked to work with her and one of her colleagues who is also taking the course with us. 

     Our first assignment asks us to analyze our own Curriculum Situations in no more than 150 words. After looking at the examples provided by the professor I feel that this analysis should include:

- What I am teaching (or would be teaching if I wasn't on leave right now)
- What type of interaction I have with my students
- What type of learning opportunities I provide for my students
- Where I am teaching
- What demographic(s) I am teaching

     With that being said, my Curriculum Situation is as follows:

     My curriculum situation is working in a small rural farming community teaching middle- and high-school level science and humanities courses. This community has a strong Catholic influence and is situated in close proximity to an Anishinaabe/Ojibwe First Nations Reserve. While both of these cultural situations present themselves among the students in our school, with an approximate 50-50 split in all classes, there is often a noticeable cultural tension between students of different backgrounds. My interaction with my students occurs in a face-to-face classroom situation 90% of the time while the remaining 10% is maintained through individualized mail-out programs created for students with attendance concerns. I try to provide both experiential and inquiry-based learning opportunities that see "teacher as mentor". I strongly believe in the incorporation of technology that expands learning beyond the classroom walls, opens up opportunities that aren't possible with traditional tools, and allows students to curate and create.

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Remember, all assignments are collaborative so I am now uploading this to Google Docs to share with my two partners. Our next step will be to take all three of our Curriculum Situations and create one paragraph that appropriately represents all three of us at the same time.
Wish us luck!

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