Thoughts and a Plan

Thoughts and a Plan

This week, as a work on the unit plan, some things came together; others became a bit more fuzzy. The idea of thinking through what I'm doing in a logical order showed me some weak points in my current lessons. When I think about it, most of the teachers I know have complained about testing taking time away from their lessons, or grade level field trips, or in my 8th grade case transition activities that are intended to getting the kids more prepared for life in the high school. I doubt that most have looked at how they can streamline what they do to assist this. I see now that this can be a huge time saver!
As I worked with my unit, I saw some real weak points which will have been addressed before posting. I'm also working on getting the state standards from other disciplines mapped into my overall plan. While my selected unit will be barely begun by the time the requirements for this class have been fulfilled, I feel that the start will be much more solid. I guess my idea of unit was quite a bit bigger than the 3 lessons required. I'm looking at doing the first 5 days of my unit. This will occur after all the introductory, text handout and syllabus/rules review is taken care of.
I look into the requirements and become a bit nervous. I'm seeing many things that will need to be set out for all to see. The methods behind doing this are currently beyond my knowledge. I have a set template for my lesson plans in my district(Word) (which works pretty well). I'm looking at using this template along with the template for the UbD (6 page template)(Word) to convey my intentions. How the next challenge is getting this out there. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you all. :)

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