Navigating Curriculum as a Teacher

Navigate and search the curriculum as a teacher

Summary: As a teacher, you can browse and search the full curriculum from your classroom's Journal page to find the lesson you want to plan or record. With your classroom selected in the upper-right corner, open the Journal to see the curriculum organized by categories, subcategories, and individual lessons. Click the info (ⓘ) icon on any lesson to read its teacher details, grade levels, and elements, along with the parent-facing description and photos. If you do not know where a lesson lives, use Search lesson on the main category page to jump straight to it. If a lesson is not in the curriculum, it may need to be added as a custom lesson, which requires curriculum editing permission you may not have.

Who can do this

Any teacher can navigate and search the curriculum for their own classroom. No special role is required. Note that browsing the curriculum is a read view, and adding or editing lessons is a separate, permission-gated task covered under "If you cannot find the lesson" below.

Step-by-step

1. Select your classroom. Make sure your classroom is selected in the upper-right corner.
2. Open the Journal. Go to the Journal page. This shows the curriculum for your classroom.
3. Browse the structure. Open a category to see its subcategories, then open a subcategory to see the individual lessons inside it. See "How the curriculum is organized" below.
4. View a lesson's details. Click the info (ⓘ) icon on a lesson to read its full details. See "What you see in a lesson's details" below.
5. Search for a lesson. If you do not know where a lesson lives, return to the main category page and use Search lesson. See "Searching for a lesson" below.
6. Plan or record the lesson. Once you have found the lesson, you can plan or record it for any of your children.

How the curriculum is organized

The curriculum follows a clear hierarchy:

• Categories are the top level of the curriculum.
• Subcategories sit inside each category.
• Lessons sit inside each subcategory.

Lessons shown in blue have multiple elements. Elements are the measurable learning objectives tied to that material.

What you see in a lesson's details

Clicking the info (ⓘ) icon on a lesson opens its full details, which fall into two parts:

• Teacher information, the lesson description, appropriate grade levels, and the elements listed out.
• Parent/Guardian information, the descriptions and any photos that can be shared with families. If you record this lesson for a child and share it on an activity report, parents will be able to access and view this information.

Note that the eye icon on a lesson is a separate shared/private visibility indicator, not the details opener. To open a lesson's details, use the info (ⓘ) icon.

Searching for a lesson

When you do not know which subcategory a lesson lives in, search for it instead of hunting through the structure:

1. If you are inside a subcategory, click the book icon at the top-left of the Journal to jump back to the main category page.
2. Click the Search lesson field and type a keyword, for example, "pink."
3. Select the lesson from the results. It takes you straight into the correct subcategory where that lesson is listed, ready for you to plan or record.

If you cannot find the lesson

If a lesson does not come up in search, it may not be part of the default curriculum and may need to be added as a custom lesson. Teachers cannot add custom lessons.

Curriculum editing is available to Account Owners, Administrators, and any teacher an administrator has given curriculum-editor access. If you are not sure whether you have it, ask an administrator at your school, they can turn it on for you.

A few things worth knowing

• Lessons shown in blue have multiple elements; click the info (ⓘ) icon to see them listed out.
• The parent-facing description and photos are what families can see if you record the lesson and share it on an activity report.
• Search is the fastest way to find a lesson when you are not sure which subcategory it belongs to.
• If a lesson is missing, it likely needs to be added as a custom lesson, which administrators and teachers who have been given curriculum-editor access can do.

Related articles

• Edit curriculum and add custom lessons
• Recording a lesson and selecting its elements
• User roles and the Account Admin area

Watch the video

Here is a short video covering this topic for additional reference.