Revitalized Unit Reflection

Learning: This project was a good summary and culmination of the concepts, models and strategies I learned in this class.  I really feel what I gained most from this class is a perspective change.  I think "less is more" rings true in the classroom because I feel IF I focus on developing their critical, creative, and metacognitive thinking skills, my students will take away infinitely more than if I stress both myself and them out in focusing on mastering all the specific information of the course.  This is the approach I took in creating this revitalized unit and the models were a huge aide in creating an easy way to facilitate deeper understanding of the concepts I have been teaching.  I feel like through looking at what I have been doing with the students in this particular unit and comparing it with the new information I have learned through this course, I notice huge gaps and lack of students' thorough understanding of the topics.  Students were mainly gaining exposure previously, whereas students actually gain deep concepts in my revitalized unit.  I can now see that it does not have to be impossibly difficult to create opportunities for students to consistently engage in higher level thinking; it can be a daily opener with the Williams Model approaches.  I am so excited about implementing this new unit and I think the kids will not only learn more, but have more fun learning while they are at it!

 

 

Evaluation:   I definitely feel I incorporated a wide variety of the models throughout the unit that clearly aligned with the goals I set for the unit.  I think I explained the models clearly and how much it differed from what I have done in the past.  I definitely looked for ways to implement technology to make the lesson more interactive and cause it to come alive, and I feel I connected the students with technological resources they can use once they graduate to help them set up their life and budget.  I felt passionately about the major strengths of the model, and I feel I justified their implementation well in my explanations.  For my video, the original turned out to be 16 minutes long!!  I re-recorded and made the material as concise as I could with trying to include the hows and whys of the models and strategies I was using.  I believe the 2nd video was much better!  I worked hard to organize and finalize the written material so it was clear and professional-looking.  I believe I deserve an A on this project as I demonstrate thorough understanding of the concepts in this class and have worked hard to create a plan to implement them into my teaching.