As a writer, I look forward to any writing opportunities. I write middle grade and young adult novels in my copious free time 😉 and I am a community writer for our local (very local) newspaper, which is a whole other kind of writing.

But, writing curriculum…

That’s a whole other other kind of writing.

Curriculum writing is challenging in many different ways. It’s like driving with a car full of kittens running, hiding, and chasing over and under the car seats.  When I write curriculum, I feel as if I’m trying to corral a whole bunch of things at once. Is the curriculum engaging? Is it easy to understand? Easy to implement? Did I stray too far from the standards?

In this experience with my externship, I have additional challenges. Take a high-level experiment, or research, and bring to the level of a middle school student. In my first lesson, I felt as if I were reinventing the wheel, or maybe the mesoporous support 😉 In this go ’round, it has taken a lot more time than in my previous experience with curriculum writing.

However, I’ve had an equal amount of successes.

In creating a lesson plan from scratch, I feel a certain amount of creative license. And, when I find that perfect supplemental match, I feel I’ve accomplished a great task. I’ll have to admit, it also felt pretty darn good when my mentor’s critique of my first lesson plan only had a few minor suggestions. That’s success!