Unit Plan

My first ever unit plan!
Right now everything with lessons and units seems extremely extensive. There has to be a unit plan, then daily lessons, then objectives and materials for each lesson and it all seems quite crazy. I do believe some of the best teachers are a little crazy though. Bringing things back into perspective, I had to write a model unit plan for one of my core classes on becoming an Agriculture Educator. I can already see how this tool will help me stay organized and lessen the stress I'll have when I get my first teaching position. By the time this is all said and done I will have a good majority of lessons and units prepared and ready to roll out with my new guinea pigs... eh um I mean students.

A unit plan has many parts to it, a few major ones being the length of the unit, supplies, daily learning objectives, PA academic Standards, PA Ag Standards, unit goals, assessments/evaluation, references etc. It is a tad difficult preparing a unit plan when I am not sure exactly what lessons I want to teach but this is such a great tool to lay the ground work. I can see when I get into my first job position that being able to pull out my plan for the unit and review it will be a great way of keeping myself organized. With ever increasing technology, I expect to have videos, PowerPoint and documents that will correlate with each unit organized on a flash drive. I look forward to making adaptations to the lessons and unit as I grow as a teacher.

My first unit plan was... interesting, would be the kind word I would use. I began writing it and didn't realize how much went into a unit plan! My original goal was to make a unit plan for an introduction to FFA unit. I found it most difficult to decide how deep I should go and how long topics might take to cover in the classroom. Using from feedback from my peers I revised my plan. The main edit I made was to my daily learning objectives and to my lesson titles. Thinking into how much time some topics will take I realized that 1-2 of my lessons will most likely be a two day adventure. I want to ensure that my students get the information they need to be knowledgeable about FFA but I want to do it in fun and interesting ways. I want to incorporate different activities that will peak their interest. My assessment for this unit is a written exam at the end and a participation portion to get full credit. I really want my students to get an FFA experience so their participation requirement will be filled by them attending one FFA meeting and one event/social that the FFA hosts. With this requirement I will have to ensure this lesson is done at the beginning of the school year, so the students have ample time to find an event that correlates with their schedule.

This was a great learning experience and I can easily see how it will benefit my future. So one unit plan down and about 10 to do to get ready for student teaching in January! Juanita Valley here I come!

Thanks for reading!