Planning with Curriculum Organiser™

In December 2008, I was involved in a WA union trial of Curriculum Organiser, one of the most useful and inspirational pieces of software I have ever worked with. Designed for Australian educators, the software supports teacher planning across all learning areas (K-7, and now secondary learning areas).

The Curriculum Organiser™ database contains a wealth of syllabus/curriculum linked integrated themes, graphic organisers, unit planners, and subject learning activities for teachers to adapt to their own classroom situations. One of the most useful features is the database of instructional strategies (e.g. Think Pair Share, Six Hats Thinking, SWOT Analysis, Bloom’s Taxonomy) which teachers can employ to promote student engagement and higher-order thinking skills.

An individual licence costs about $200, but WA State School Teachers Union (SSTUWA) members can access it for free as part of their membership. I highly recommend the Curriculum Organiser planning software for graduate teachers, as (used effectively) it significantly reduces your planning workload across all eight learning areas, one of the hardest and most stressful tasks we face as new teachers.

My involvment in this trial ultimately led to the complete transformation of my teaching approach over the coming years, inspiring the creation of a unique electronic database of curriculum resources and enabling me to adopt a flexible ICT integrated approach to curriculum planning. More details on this later.

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