July 1st - Time to get serious

 25 days until I return to work. Yikes. It is definitely time to get serious about my planning. Since I wrote the last post, 7 days ago, I have literally switched back and forth between the three curriculum, iHub, Patterns, and Modeling, at least 3 times. My last post I was leaning towards the modeling. Then I decided that the Patterns would work better, but in going through that I discovered that the last couple of units aren't complete. I'm not writing whole curriculum, I'm just not. So I switched over the the iHub, but there is something about that one that just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe it's because it was developed for distance learning so everything is online I would need to recreate a lot of things. I don't know, but I keep steering away from that one. 

So here's what I want to do this year: 

• Keep up the notebooks
• Big ideas
• Summative Tasks
• Standard Based Grading

Honestly, the modeling curriculum lends itself the best to all of these. Another modeler gave me the learning objectives for SBG, so I at least have that to start with. I can base many of the big ideas off those objectives, and that would make sense and give the unit some kind of cohesion. I have to come up with the driving question for the unit. That is not my strong suit, but I looked at the objectives, looked at the Big Ideas I came up with and managed to come up with one for Unit 1. The students do not have to know if it's a crappy question or not. Also, I realized that the driving question and the anchor phenomenon should be something that ties the unit together.  I think I was looking at it backwards. I was trying to find an anchor phenomenon and develop a driving question first. From there I was trying to make the Big Ideas fit the driving question. That's backwards. By looking at the learning objectives for each unit, I can develop big ideas based on those. Once I have those, I can develop a driving question that each of the big ideas can help answer, and then find an anchor phenomenon to fit that. 

With both of the other curriculums, I would need to develop the learning objectives and alter things to fit the notebooks. Also, I know the modeling curriculum and can work with it better. The other curriculum I have to literally go through every thing to figure out what is going on and then adapt. The modeling curriculum I have used for 3 years (granted, that was Covid time) and have taken classes on. 

This month I need to get serious about my planning. It was okay to goof off for a few weeks in June, and honestly I needed that, but now is the time to dig in. I want next year to be easier than any year before. I want to have things laid out so I know where I'm going and what I'm doing. I do not want to be scrambling on a weekend or an early morning trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing. I'm done with that. I want to know what I'm doing well in advance. I want to be able to look at my unit plan and know exactly where we, what I need to do to get set up, and basically have it all laid out for me. Absolutely no scrambling this year. None!!! So starting this week, I will devote at least 2 hours every day to planning. Once I get on the roll with it, it will go quickly. But at least 2 hours every day. I need to get the curriculum all laid out. Then I need to get the notebook set up. Also, create some assessments to follow the learning objectives. So yes, 2 hours a day for 25 days will be 50 hours that should do it. 

And, I made my decision this morning that I'm sticking with the modeling. I'm going to dump all that other stuff. I'm going to set up binders for each unit. I will have the unit plan at the beginning, then all the worksheets, labs, whatevers behind it. I may even have a diagram of the notebook page so that I know what that should look like. 

Okay, so the game plan is to focus on one unit at a time. For each unit I will need: 

• Learning objectives
• Big Ideas
• Driving Question
• Anchor Phenomenon
• Summative Task
• Outline the unit
• Notebook pages 
• Assessments 

I think that is it. I may be adding to this list as I work through a unit, but I think this is basically it. 

Okay, I'm off to start to tackle this behemoth. It's really not. I have 8 or 9 units and 25 days. If I can get a unit done in 2 or 3 days I will be done in plenty of time. 

I'm out.