Reflective Commentary
How did you develop ideas?
I developed a lot of my ideas from units and activities that I had learned in my college courses, seen in my practicum classes, or had done myself as a student. I began by going through and remembering what activities I had enjoyed or found useful. I had a very hard time determining what my overarching concept was going to be and what units would fall under it. I started by thinking of texts that I would like to teach that would also be appropriate for my context. From there, I tried to figure out what the texts had in common and which other texts could fit in with them. I ended up developing my units around my texts, and then my overarching concept from my units. Once I had my units and texts, it was easy to pick which activities and assignments to include. I adapted most of my ideas from activities I have seen modeled and the rest came from very creative people on the internet (I love the Monopoly game, I think it is such a great idea!).
How did you make decisions as you planned?
I ended up choosing my State Standards before I wrote any activities or assignments when I was planning. I liked planing in this way because I felt like it gave more structure to my planning. From the standards, I created my goals for each unit. After writing the goals, it was easy to plan the assessment which students would need to complete to show that they had achieved those goals. Using understanding by design, I was able to create activities that would help prepare students to complete the final assignment. Finally, I wrote my rationales last. By the end of planning, I had organized all of my thinking and what I wanted to accomplish. It was much easier to write my rationales when my thinking was organized than at the beginning when I had no idea what I wanted to do. Using this sequential order of planning was very helpful to me. It gave my planning a structure that it desperately needed. This order helped me make sure that I covered every required component and that each component worked in relations to the other components for the unit.
How did you address questions– including lingering questions?
I mostly consulted my classmates and other per-service teachers when I had a question with the yearlong plan. I also asked my match-up teacher for my 450 practicum and my student teaching match up teacher for advise and help when I was stuck.My peers were a great source for empathy when I had questions, and it was often helpful to see what they had done for the assignment and compare. My match-up teachers were extremely helpful because they actually execute planning in the classroom. They had the knowledge to explain to me which aspects of my planning would be helpful to students and which probably would not work out. I think that asking questions is such an important part of learning and growing. Asking questions is essential for being a new teacher to help you learn and improve. I will continue to ask my peers and mentors for advise and help as I enter the teaching world.
How do you think this yearlong plan will play out in the classroom?
I know that I will have to adapt many aspects of my year long plan if I were to use it in a real classroom setting. I tried to make my plan as flexible as possible with my calendar set up and open ended projects. I cannot imagine that I would be able to use my yearlong plan in its entirety, but I think that there are a lot of aspects of my plan which I could adapt to any classroom I might be teaching in. My unit themes and overarching concepts are universal and could be adapted to fit with a large number of required texts. I believe that many of my goals and corresponding standards could also be applied to a number of different texts. I believe that many of my activities are also adaptable to different texts, contexts, and ability levels. I cannot imagine that I will be able to use my yearlong plan as is, but I believe that it could easily be changed to work for any real classroom.
Anything else you want to share?
I really struggled with this project. It was difficult for me to harness all of my teaching ideas and give them the structure that this plan required. I spent a lot of time and effort in making sure that this plan conveyed the teaching philosophy that I believe in. I hope that I was able to depict the type of classroom I wish to achieve. I am happy with the activities and assessments that I created for this plan. I hope to use them all some day in my own classroom. It will be nice to have all of my ideas in one place!
I developed a lot of my ideas from units and activities that I had learned in my college courses, seen in my practicum classes, or had done myself as a student. I began by going through and remembering what activities I had enjoyed or found useful. I had a very hard time determining what my overarching concept was going to be and what units would fall under it. I started by thinking of texts that I would like to teach that would also be appropriate for my context. From there, I tried to figure out what the texts had in common and which other texts could fit in with them. I ended up developing my units around my texts, and then my overarching concept from my units. Once I had my units and texts, it was easy to pick which activities and assignments to include. I adapted most of my ideas from activities I have seen modeled and the rest came from very creative people on the internet (I love the Monopoly game, I think it is such a great idea!).
How did you make decisions as you planned?
I ended up choosing my State Standards before I wrote any activities or assignments when I was planning. I liked planing in this way because I felt like it gave more structure to my planning. From the standards, I created my goals for each unit. After writing the goals, it was easy to plan the assessment which students would need to complete to show that they had achieved those goals. Using understanding by design, I was able to create activities that would help prepare students to complete the final assignment. Finally, I wrote my rationales last. By the end of planning, I had organized all of my thinking and what I wanted to accomplish. It was much easier to write my rationales when my thinking was organized than at the beginning when I had no idea what I wanted to do. Using this sequential order of planning was very helpful to me. It gave my planning a structure that it desperately needed. This order helped me make sure that I covered every required component and that each component worked in relations to the other components for the unit.
How did you address questions– including lingering questions?
I mostly consulted my classmates and other per-service teachers when I had a question with the yearlong plan. I also asked my match-up teacher for my 450 practicum and my student teaching match up teacher for advise and help when I was stuck.My peers were a great source for empathy when I had questions, and it was often helpful to see what they had done for the assignment and compare. My match-up teachers were extremely helpful because they actually execute planning in the classroom. They had the knowledge to explain to me which aspects of my planning would be helpful to students and which probably would not work out. I think that asking questions is such an important part of learning and growing. Asking questions is essential for being a new teacher to help you learn and improve. I will continue to ask my peers and mentors for advise and help as I enter the teaching world.
How do you think this yearlong plan will play out in the classroom?
I know that I will have to adapt many aspects of my year long plan if I were to use it in a real classroom setting. I tried to make my plan as flexible as possible with my calendar set up and open ended projects. I cannot imagine that I would be able to use my yearlong plan in its entirety, but I think that there are a lot of aspects of my plan which I could adapt to any classroom I might be teaching in. My unit themes and overarching concepts are universal and could be adapted to fit with a large number of required texts. I believe that many of my goals and corresponding standards could also be applied to a number of different texts. I believe that many of my activities are also adaptable to different texts, contexts, and ability levels. I cannot imagine that I will be able to use my yearlong plan as is, but I believe that it could easily be changed to work for any real classroom.
Anything else you want to share?
I really struggled with this project. It was difficult for me to harness all of my teaching ideas and give them the structure that this plan required. I spent a lot of time and effort in making sure that this plan conveyed the teaching philosophy that I believe in. I hope that I was able to depict the type of classroom I wish to achieve. I am happy with the activities and assessments that I created for this plan. I hope to use them all some day in my own classroom. It will be nice to have all of my ideas in one place!