unit progress...

Greetings all, I hope you are all well and sane. So far, in creating my unit on Identity, I've come up with a unit map (a very sloppy web) of texts, ideas of activities, and questions, all things surrounding the conceptual frame work of identity and viewing identity through different perspectives. Sound confusing? It still is to me. My main goal so far is to make this unit make as much sense to me as I hope it would for my students. I keep asking myself, "so what?" after every activity or idea I come up with.

So far, unit planning has proved to be a huge struggle. I've been researching online and the library to solidify the texts I want to use in my unit. I think the intimidating thing about unit planning is the act of solidifying things. For example, it took me a while to really figure out the texts I wanted to use for my unit because I was scared of making that commitment! I feel like if I make that commitment, there's no going back. As cheesy as it sounds, I think my commitment issues and fear of solidifying aspects of my unit may be holding me back from embracing my unit and getting somewhere with it. Kudos to the teachers out there who can bust out units like it's no big deal. To say this process is really forcing me to realize and appreciate the amount of thinking and planning that goes into the teaching profession is an understatement. 

As of now, I have produced a rough draft beginning of my rational, lit reviews, an annotated bibliography for my texts, a unit map (still in the works), and a rough draft of a final project handout. I find setting our weakly goals to be very productive because it allows me to manage my time and keep up with developing my ideas in a way that makes sense to me and my unit. My goal is to take my vision for my unit and make it apparent through my questions and activities revolving around the conceptual framework. 

I think you guys couldn't see the image I posted a view weeks ago, so I'm attempting to repost it again...Whenever all my tests were coincidentally scheduled on the same day, I would imagine teachers doing this!

Until next time, 

-Ramina Odicho