Ep 336: Elective Teachers With Standards But No Curriculum
From Secondary Teacher Podcast by Khristen Massic, Multiple-Prep Teacher Coach
May 19, 2026 · 10 min · Episode 336
About this episode
The episode discusses the challenges elective teachers face in creating curriculum from standards and the importance of structured planning.
Having standards does not mean you have curriculum, and elective teachers know that gap better than most. A course name, a standards list, and a blank planning page are not a roadmap. They are a starting point, and being expected to turn them into sequence, pacing, assessments, and instruction is not “just planning.” This builds on the first two conversations in the series: reducing the pressure to plan before August, then choosing the first unit with leverage. Now the focus shifts to the structure so many CTE teachers and career technical education programs are not handed. Standards tell you what to teach, but they do not show students how to move through it. That missing structure is where teacher workload explodes. These courses often require curriculum design while teachers are actively teaching, especially for a multiple prep teacher juggling several preps at once. That is not a personal organization problem. It is two jobs layered together. The shift is to stop treating the standards list like a curriculum map. Strong teacher planning starts by finding the foundation, separating big rocks from supporting standards, and building a repeatable lesson structure before creating…
People in this episode
Host: Khristen Massic
Topics covered
- curriculum design
- elective teachers
- standards
- teacher workload
- career technical education
- lesson planning
Keywords
- elective teachers
- curriculum
- standards
- teacher planning
- CTE
- lesson structure
- workload
More episodes of Secondary Teacher Podcast
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- Ep 342: Teacher Strategies for a 10-Minute End-of-Year Reset · June 9, 2026 · 9 min
- Ep 341: Teacher Planning Starts Here When You Have Multiple Courses · June 4, 2026 · 11 min
- Ep 340: Teacher Work Life Balance Without Giving Up Your Summer · June 2, 2026 · 10 min
- Ep 339: Teacher Planning With the Introduce, Practice, Produce Framework · May 28, 2026 · 12 min
- Ep 338: Secondary Teacher Strategies for Building Courses From Scratch · May 26, 2026 · 12 min
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