Week Five-Almost There

Probably one of the most frustrating things this week was trying to justify what LoTi level my unit plan attained. Throughout the course, we have been analyzing LoTi levels, so it shouldn’t have been difficult. I think part of my problem is that I’m so close, and it is hard to look at my unit plan objectively at this point. I need some more time and distance before I’m able to look at my unit plan without thinking if I have all of the requirements in place for class before thinking about how I could take it to a higher LoTi level. It’s so much more difficult to analyze your own work than that of a classmate.

On the positive side, I really appreciate how we were encouraged to work on our unit plan, and it was broken up into pieces. I had very little work to do on it this week because I had accomplished so much of it in the previous weeks. Overall, I think it was a positive experience. I hope that I have to opportunity to teach it and experience letting the students take control of their learning.

As Tim Gunn would say, "Make it Work" for Week Four

This week I was at a SMART Board class/workshop through a CESA 2 EETT Grant. I basically forced my Digital Footprint PBL Unit to fit the requirements. When I presented my final SMART Notebook presentation to the class, other teachers asked me to share it with them. I think this is because a lot of teachers know it is important to teach about the digital footprint, but don’t know how to go about it. That’s how I felt when I first started designing this unit. I really appreciate how PBL can be just as much of a learning experience for the teacher as it is for the students.

There were a lot of interesting articles put out by the Pew Research Institute. I read a few, and found them packed with statistics. While I get overwhelmed by all of the numbers, it has been my experience that administrators thrive on them. If I have to give a presentation, I would defiantly go through some of their research because it was comprehensible and easy to use.

Week Three-Delving Deeper

I remember hating reflecting in Undergrad classes. Now it's my favorite part of the week. I'm not certain of what has changed, but it could be that I don't have to reflect on one specific aspect of class. There is freedom of what I want to think about more. This is something I'm keeping in mind for future consideration in my classroom.

It has always been a challenge for me to take an idea of a unit and then structure it in a specific plan. Conceptually, I really like my plan of exploring the impact of the digital footprint. However, I don't know that much about digital footprints. I'd probably be learning along with the students. Therefore, my lack of knowledge makes it challenging to fit my ideas it into the required unit plan parts.

I recommend to anyone who is looking for additional content area standards for their unit plan to look at the Language Arts Media Standards. It's often overlooked, but it might apply to your objectives.