Unit Plan Reflection

After working extensively on my unit plan, I can finally say that I feel like my unit is complete. I plan units now, but never this detailed. The details that I put into the unit plan would allow any teacher to take the unit, and implement with any third grade class. It gives step by step instructions for what should be taught each day and how it should be taught. I also like the fact that it asked me to list literature and websites that would be useful when teaching the unit. I have taught a weather unit before, but never to this extent. The planning allowed me to stay on topic and plan for what I really want my students to learn from each lesson/activity. The plan is also helpful because it allows a teacher to gather all of the materials needed for the unit before starting the unit. Overall, I feel like my unit plan was very thorough, and one that I will definitely use in the future.

Teacher Support

I learned a lot about how to introduce a unit through this assignment. I created a power point that introduced my unit and briefly discussed what the students would be learning during the unit. Creating this power point will help me make sure that I introduce all of my learning objectives at the start of the unit. I think this is important because students need to know what they will be learning and what they can expect to do throughout the unit. In the future, I think I will create a power point to introduce every unit that I teach in science and social studies. It's a great way to find out what the students already know (their background knowledge) and to get them thinking about the topic. Overall, I thought this project was something that I will use again.

Student Support

The student support was actually a fun project for me to do. I created an activity where students had to categorize weather scenarios with the weather they would go with. This project helped me cover one of my objectives which was identifying the positive and negative effects of weather .

My second student support material was a quiz that covers most of my objectives. The students would take this quiz at the end of the unit and this assessment would help me determine what my students have learned and if they need more instruction on how weather affects their daily lives.

Student support materials would be an easy activity to implement into my classroom. This project allows the students the freedom to decide what they want to create as a support material on a topic they have selected. The students then present their materials to other students. Students learning from each other is a vital part of the learning process.

Student Samples

The student web project was somewhat difficult for me. I had a hard time getting my buttons to hyperlink to other pages. I also had a hard time getting it to link to my rubric, so I just added a rubric to my last web page.

Overall, I did learn a lot about how to create a web page. This was not something that I was familiar with, but it is definitely something I will use again in the future and teach my students how to use as well. I think my third graders would be able to do a group web project on a topic of their choice. This integrates content along with technology.

Reflective Learning Blog Entry # 1

From doing my unit introduction, I learned how to familiarize myself more with Power Point. I have made many Power Points presentations, but I didn't know how to put animations on my slideshow or sound. Sound is especially important for my unit because it is about weather and there are so many sounds that are associated with weather. If change anything about my Unit Plan, it might be the background that I chose. I would like to have a background that has some reference to weather in it. Overall, I learned that there is a lot about Power Point that I didn't know. I always thought that I knew how to use it, but now I have so many more things I can add to compliment my unit.

My First Blog Entry

My name is Hayley Ramires and I am currently in my last semester of graduate school. I am a third grade teacher in Shelby County. I have been teaching for 9 years and absolutely love it.

From this class, I hope to learn more technology that I can integrate into my classroom.

This is a picture of a West Highland Terrier that I found online. My dog looks just like this when he is waiting for me to get home.