Workshops

Hello, readers. I hope everyone is having a great week and that everyone is safe post-storm. That was absolutely insane!

Thus far, my unit planning is going really well. I haven't had too many huge struggles, and I have somehow managed to stay sane while planning. For this week, I am creating an evaluation plan for my students and working on an exploration of the methods I will use while teaching. I'm really excited by the way my unit is coming together.

Because I have no real complaints or rants and tangents, I thought I would discuss what I am gaining in workshops. Until this last week, Chris and I have been working alone in little groups. We are both incorporating Shakespeare's Julius Caesar into our lessons and we are really similar in the way we teach. Both of us are more interested in the process in which students create a final product (portfolio, multi-genre, etc) rather than irrelevant worksheets that don't teach to a larger lesson. Now, Michael has joined our group as well, allowing for even more input, which is great.

I am really thankful that I don't have to create this comprehensive lesson on my own. With practice, I will get used to how long I should ask students to spend on reading a short story and writing a poem. Right now, as beginners in the field, I think it is really helpful to put three heads together in order to figure out the things that are still new to us. As a group, we keep each other motivated and we push each other to improve things that we didn't expect to give a second thought to.

Last week, I wrote a post explaining how important workshops and discussions are for students from a teacher's perspective. Now, thinking about things from the other side (as I am still and always will be a student), I realize that this type of learning still benefits me to no end.

Hope everything is going well for all my fellow unit-planners.
See you all soon.
Alexandra K Wiesyk