Analysis and decision time

-

 I just spent the morning (the last 3 hours) analyzing all my curriculum options. I listed out the units for each option, what was covered, and the time it would take. I then totaled it all up to see how many days this would take and then compared it to my school year. The results were as follows: 


Chemistry:                                                 Biology: 

Modeling:  80 Classes                                Illinois Storylines:      66 Classes

iHub:         54 Classes                                iHub:                             59 Classes

Patterns:     62 Classes                                Patterns:                         74 Classes

                                                                    Model Based:                 87 Classes


Considering I have 68 teaching days in my school year most of these exceed that. 

For chemistry, with modeling I have never been able to finish all the units, so that is just an estimate. Also, after 3 years I've decided I'm really not a fan. So that one is pretty much out. Patterns is below 68, but the units kind of trail off. Unit 8 has never been finished. Unit 7 is a little sketchy. So I'm thinking for chemistry, Patterns is out also. Since there is only one other option, I guess I will be going with iHub for chemistry. 

For biology, I didn't even consider the modeling biology because the one time I attempted to use it, I did not like it at all. So Patterns and Model Based are both well over my number of available classes, so I am going to eliminate them right off the bat. Illinois Storylines are below the 68 but they are really close. Also, I tried the Africa one and it went on forever. So I'm thinking that one won't work for me. Which leaves iHub for biology also. 

So it looks like iHub it is. 

Now, I've made a well thought out and researched decision and I am going to stick with it. I'm going to plan out the year based on these numbers and see what I have. One thing I like about the iHub is that it allows for catchup days. Those don't happen often, but they do happen. Also, I have some flex if I'm running a little behind. Okay, so iHub it is, now to dig in an plan. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going in too many directions????

-
Image
I'm having trouble organizing my lessons. There are a number of technology things that go with my lessons. I am trying to use Planbookplus to create my lesson plans: Which is great but has its limitations. So I thought I would keep all of my files in One Note so I could have access anywhere. That will be good but it is almost like creating lesson plans all over again. Then I have a class blog where things need to be uploaded and offered to the kids. As a result of trying all three of these things, I have completed nothing. All of them are half done and we have just completed the 2nd full week of school. I tried an external hard drive and thought that would be a good way to do it. It has proven to be more of a nightmare than a help. Ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What to do???? How do I organize all the electronic information I have???? How do I keep track of things and not make myself crazy??????? So that is my struggle this weekend. I am going to complete one or tw...
Read more

And so it begins.........

-
Image
We teachers returned to school on July 24th and the students returned on August 2nd. That means we had the kids 2 days last week, Wednesday and Thursday. And it went well. This year I had to revamp my classroom management system and I think I have something that will work for me. Let me explain; My first 7 years of teaching was at private schools. Even though these private schools were at the lower financial end of the spectrum and most of our students were on financial aid, they were nevertheless private school students. Classroom management was not a huge priority as these students did their work and listened and were respectful and all that stuff. So my classroom management was a little lax because it didn't need to be really strict and tough. Well, now I'm at a public school. And in spite of the fact that this is a charter school and parents have to go out of their way to send their students here, it is still a public school. Last year I handled my classroom management l...
Read more

A stroke of genius?????

-
Image
The ongoing theme of this blog has been organization. I've been teaching for 9 years, but I haven't found a way to organize my stuff that works really, really well for me. Every single year, I struggle finding things I know I have or recreating the wheel because I've forgotten I have something. So I've been working really, really hard to get organized once and for all with a system that works for me. I know that I need to have things written/printed and at my fingertips in order to make good use of them. If I have to go online and look it up it won't happen. I've played around with binders and didn't really use them after I set them up. The last 2 years I did find great success with planners. I would divide the day up into my classes - 4 each day - and jot notes on what was to happen that day. That worked great!! As long as I planned ahead. Too many days I would get to school and the planner was blank. That left me scrambling to figure out what I'm t...
Read more