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"EVOLUTION of a CURRICULUM"

"ONLINE PROTOCOL: WHY EVERYONE STARTS with LEVEL ONE"

EVOLUTION of a CURRICULUM...
Where We Came From, Where We Are, and Where We are Going

Where We Came From...

We, the Kesslers, come from a family of educators and education-minded people. Both of us had grandmothers who were teachers, and very good at it. Our mothers were also involved in education, one as a children's librarian and the other as a perennial parent volunteer and member of the school board. Of the twenty-one of us in our generation, eleven chose the teaching profession.

Our first clue that maybe the public system was not serving our kids well came in 1982, when we found that our older son was NOT receiving the extra help his teacher had promised. In fact, the teacher told us that our son was one of the dumbest kids in his class. Not so, we thought. So, to rid our older son of such a demeaning educational environment, we braved the then hardly-ever-heard-of-action and began homeschooling ALL our children. We eventually put them all back in the public system, but only after proving our son no dummy - he took high school math courses from BYU in 7th grade! - and also after creating closer family bonds.

As a result of this experience and our familial background, when, in 1997, our youngest son came to me and said, "Mom, if I am going to get an education, it's going to have to be at home", (rather than the local public high school), I said, "Well, maybe not." I hated to see him miss out on being among his peers. And, so it was, after a few Husband-and-Wife/Dad-and-Mom conversations, we announced to our son that we were starting a school for him and others like him.

What set him apart? Well, he wanted a decent education in a morally uplifting and decent atmosphere, that's all. EVERY KID'S RIGHT, - we think. He wanted an education full of academic meat and full of Gospel-relevance. Hence, Sunrise High Academy - as we were originally called, came into being.

Where We Are...

Now, we have been at this business of private teaching or tutoring for thirteen years. You can read a bit of our history under "About Us". Through the years we tried several curriculums, all "canned", meaning that they came fully ready to use. However, we found them all inadequate, either in academic merit or in their underlying philosophies and agendas. We found ourselves often having to correct something in the texts, saying, "Well, THAT is how many Christian religions view this", or "That is how the humanists see things", and "This is the way Latter-day Saints look at the subject....". So... we decided to DO something about the curriculum, - take the best ideas out there, and incorporate them into our own, LDS curriculum.

We started this project over ten years ago. We gathered tons and tons and tons of info. You should see our library. People coming to visit are often impressed. Periodically, an opportunity arose to write on the curriculum and we did, afterward using it in our teaching. In late Spring and early Summer, 2009, we contracted with a local firm to change our website to accommodate our curriculum. During the Summer of 2009, our oldest granddaughter and one of our students each helped us sort and catalogue the thousands of volumes we had collected and written, - all in preparation for writing a final, complete version. Finally, in late fall, 2009, we got things under way, with lessons finally going online! Over the Christmas hollidays, we were on a roll, completing Level One Book of Mormon and getting other Level One courses organized. Then..

Then.. a small disaster struck. We moved our office, resulting in our internet connection being suspended for two weeks, and the volumes of curriculum - once nicely and logically organized - in disarray. HMM! Well, 'all things DO work together for good' for those who believe and have faith and so it was in this case. The enforced hiatus caused us to take a serious, critical look at what we had been doing. We LOVED the Level One Book of Mormon lessons, but not much else. We found three problems. 1) In converting OUR curriculum to the internet, we had tried to convert it to a new pattern, instead of our own. Why? I don't know. 2) We realized that we had to create our own resources, because we couldn't use the copyrighted ones we use everyday in the school. 3) We hadn't made the lessons USER FRIENDLY. They were expensive to print, required too much prep time, and took too long to deliver.

As our goal has always been to make it VERY USER FRIENDLY, we sat down with our creative people and asked for their input. The result has been a new perspective, something like 'Back to the Future'.

Where We Are Going
First, we are using the model we should have used in the first place, the model of our school. This Daily model consists of:

1. Opening with a Devotional: A Hymn and Prayer. We encourage everyone to do this.
   Then we continue with:
2. Religion I - Book of Mormon Study
3. Language Arts I - Brain enhancing and IQ expanding exercises.
4. Math 1 - Facts Drills, Games, & Problem Solving
5. Language Arts II - Phonics, Spelling, Penmanship, Vocabulary - Word Study
6. Math II - Concept Introduction, Study, Review, and Application
7. Social Science - Geography, History, Government, etc.
8. Language Arts III - Grammar & Mechanics; Sentence, Paragraph, and Composition Structure; Writing
9. Science - Earth, Life, Chemistry or Physics
10. Language Arts IV - Literature and Reading
11. Health or Life Skills
12. Music or Art
13. Religion II- The Life and Teachings of Christ; The Old or New Testaments; The Doctrine & Covenants; Church History; Preach My Gospel; or Personal and Family History

Second, we are putting the resources for each course into the Parent/Student Introductory Lessons. This way, the student lessons can be much shorter, much easier to prepare, and deliver, and much less costly to print. Also, at the beginning of the course, parents can see what resources are available and some of what is expected. To further help parents and students understand the full scope of each course, the FINAL ASSESSMENT lesson is published alongside the Parent Introductory, giving parents a detailed account of what their student will learn in the course.

Thirdly, a lesson template is being introduced in Lesson One of each course. This template - or - routine, will be followed throughout the course, helping lessons run on autopilot.

Finally, on February 19, 2010, the curriculum we had written over the years was finally shelved, again - IN ORDER, oh, FUN!! At Last! But, instead of getting started on the curriculum in earnest, as planned, an opportunity arose to work on a local US Senate campaign - with which we felt obligated to help, realizing the current political situation. Now, after a hiatus of almost six months, publishing our lessons can start in earnest. Have FUN with them, and - please, ALWAYS, remember to start your lessons with a prayer, inviting the Holy Ghost to help you learn. By doing this one thing, you will not fail. Kesslers Please SEE "PROTOCOL" below.

BEEHIVE ONLINE PROTOCOL:

EVERYONE STARTS with LEVEL ONE WHY? -

1. Every subject at Level ONE has material foundational to all the other levels of that subject.
2. If YOU don't do LEVEL ONE, you will miss catching the foundation of everything and may, eventually, have to backtrack.
3. There are skills taught at this level that even many competent adults have not yet mastered.
4. Do YOU know the 70+ phonograms and the 29 spelling rules - well enough to teach them to someone else? Level ONE Language Arts will teach you to do just that!
5. Can you look at a card with 5 shapes on it for 1 second and then recall the shapes or numbers in correct sequence? Taught in Level ONE Math and - Language Arts. Only, these kids practice up to a sequence of 7!
6. Can YOU correctly relate the main stories of the Book of Mormon? Try Lesson 180 of Level ONE Religion 1 - Book of Mormon and see how You do.
7. Can you list the Five Kingdoms of Living Things and give their characteristics? Can you name the nine planets in order? Can you give the main parts of an atom and draw a decent diagramm of One? Try Level ONE SCIENCE.
8. Can you name the different levels of government and their responsibilities? Can you name the major lines of latitude and longitude, the oceans and continents, the countries of North America, the states? Can you give a brief outline history of the world from the Creation to the present and also of the land of the United States from Creation to the present? Try Level ONE History.
9. Is YOUR family ALL capable ( except the very youngest of course) of walking five miles a day? If your child were alone, would he know what to take with him in an emergency? Try Life Skills Level ONE and PE Level ONE to find the answers.
10. Do YOU know how to correctly direct music? When to start? The right tempo? How to hold out a firmata? Try MUSIC Level ONE.
11. Do you know, can you illustrate or state the basic lines and shapes of design? Try ART Level ONE.
12. Could you give a timeline of the Savior's life and correctly place the different events? Try Religion 2 - Level ONE.

Now you know WHY we respectfully ask all students to Please start with LEVEL ONE.