Cedu521: Week Six

I found the conclusion of this course to be quite interesting with the presentation of the Unit Plans created by each student in our course. It was valuable to see the different types of unit plans and the way that each worked to integrate technology into their classroom or library media center. Personally, I plan to use my created unit plan next year with my 9th grade U.S. history students and am excited to see if project-based learning is successful within my classroom.

Overall, this course really got me thinking about the planning that I do within my classroom and the importance of integrating more technology within my classroom itself and how every student and school is not the same. As a result, knowing your limits and being willing to try to add more technology, even if it is time consuming and/or difficult, will lead to the growth of skills and overall success in the classroom.

Cedu521: Week Five

This week was interesting because I finally made it to the final draft of my unit plan. I really think that using Google Docs as a way to share this unit is useful because I could see this as an excellent opportunity to collaborate with others. For example, I could easily share this unit plan and all of the attached materials with other teachers and they could do the same. I also liked how I was able to include links to the additionally needed materials within the unit plan itself, making the overall process and use quite easy.

In addition to my unit plan, I enjoyed being able to help another classmate by showing how I interpreted the unit plan that they had created. Hopefully, by looking at the project analysis form, my partner will gain an understanding of those areas that are clear in their unit and possible areas for improvement.

Cedu521: Week Four

This week I really focused on ways to make my unit plan clearer for others to understand. This goal was valuable to achieve because if I were absent while teaching this unit, I would need my substitute to have an understanding of what the students should be doing on a given day. This is something that I have not done with as much detail since I was an undergraduate in school and had to write up lesson plans during my student teaching. While time consuming, it is valuable not only for other instructors, but allows me to more fully envision the lessons that I plan to initiate with my students.