Still searching for a way of planning that works best for me? What do you use?
Above you'll find one of my best written unit plans. It's a thorough look at the essential questions and understandings need the for problem solving with radicals in Math 20-2. Now that I'm in the real teaching game, it is much more difficult to spend the time to go this in-dept in my planning. For me, it's now a fine balance between planning to be aligned to the curriculum and achievement indicators and providing a variety of formative assessment opportunities for students before taking on a summative evaluation.
Still searching for a way of planning that works best for me? What do you use?
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I was surprised how much I enjoyed planning this Dance Unit for ED 3700: Physical Eduction for Non-Majors. Dance can be a difficult unit to get middle schoolers excited about but I tried bring in multiple types of dance to hold students interest along with the opportunity to build their own dance and showcase their creativity. In this unit plan I've also utilized checklists, rubrics and student goal setting. Physical Education is a great place for student to practice goals setting as students can see results quickly and transfer this skill into there young adult life. There are many witnesses to my frequent complaints about self reflection. Uncountable eye-rolls sent in the direction of teachers, umpteen sighs of distaste, and numerous nights of "just get something on the page and the fluffier it is the more they will eat it up!" Four weeks ago, in the midst of my PS1 course work, this was still my predominate attitude. But, as a reflect *shutter* back on my most significant learning, I would have to say that being forced to reflect on every lesson plan, group project, and experience i've had in the past 8 weeks has actually done me some good.
In a learning sense, I've found that reflection forces students to think back to what actually stuck with them. Maybe nothing did, which tells the student they should probably pay more attention to what's going on, or maybe something groundbreaking stuck with them. I know I've had a couple of both moments over the past 8 weeks. I've found that being able to think back on what i've done and experienced gives that experience another level of learning, and stays with the student longer. In a personal sense, I've had a big helping of humble pie. I really don't know how to be a highly effective teacher... yet. I have had superb teachers model what this looks like, but I haven't done it for myself. I am not going to get better if I don't reflect upon what I do and how to improve. Albert Einstein said "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result." Without reflection, I may indeed go insane. My effective teaching skills will grow as I go through practicum, and they will stay with me longer and be most meaningful if I take the time to reflect on what goes well and why along with what goes poorly and why. (I anticipate answering the latter part most often.) I've come to realize that reflection is not always fluffy, "how did this make you feel" stuff. It is ownership of learning, checking for understanding and bettering yourself. These skills, are my most valuable learning so far in PS1. |
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