Alas, the last Sunday evening of summer vacation. I'm home, watching RHONJ, and relaxing. I had an epic day out with my girlfriends yesterday, and can definitely say I closed my summer out with a bang. I'm definitely ready and recharged.
This afternoon I spent 5 hours (yikes) at Corner Bakery Cafe working on planning materials. I had food, coffee, Justin Timberlake Pandora, and I was in the groove. My main focus of today was my unit plan for Matter & Energy. I'm so glad I have it finished! Will everything go exactly as I have it written? Of course not! But like my last post says, a failure to plan is a plan to fail.
I wish I could have an organized space when I plan, but it always looks like chaos. It's especially horrible for my actual lesson plans. Books, worksheets, lab manuals, eek! Here's what I needed today for my unit planning.
I created this about a week ago. It is not the same as my district's pacing calendar because I like to incorporate STAAR Olympics for review. I've had 3.5 weeks for this in years' past, but this year I am determined to get four solid weeks. I always have to rush a reporting category, and do not want to do that again. I'm also aware of which days I plan on being absent, so I can adjust the weeks. Yay for backwards planning!
Next to my coffee cup I have a TEKS chart that was given to me by my Region 4 Science Collaborative facilitators. I love it because it has sixth, seventh, and eighth grade objectives so it's easy for me to pull and recognize supporting standards.
Since my classroom notebooks, I want to be intentional with the foldables this year instead of creating them at the last minute. I also need to make sure I have a set of Cornell notes for each TEK because we are now an AVID school. The bottom right corner is a short list of the homework assignments. I like to number the homework assignments so when a student is missing one, it's easy to refer to.
How many writing utensils does it take for Ms. CJ to plan? Lol
My unit plan! I have the weeks numbered, TEKS listed, objectives (readiness and supporting), and assessments. I feel relieved knowing exactly where my students and I are headed, and how we will break each TEK apart.
My goal is to get the Force & Motion unit plan done before September 21. Let's see if that holds true.
Peace and blessings,
CJ