Our group is incredibly awesome! Thus far, we've held three group meetings which every person has attended. I believe this is especially commendable as poor Arlen has a very length commute and the rest of us simply have packed schedules. Our first meeting was held on a Friday morning in the English Education meeting room. We were sure to bring breakfasty items such as juice boxes, doughnuts, and candy. We used this meeting to decide on the general topics of our unit [Identity & Perspective] and to brainstorm which texts we might use and what lessons we could teach with them. The room we held this meeting in was very useful as we utilized the available books and materials to spark our creativity. Our second meeting was held immediately following class last Wednesday; it lasted until about 11pm. Here, we narrowed down exactly what texts we wished to teach, the lessons we wanted to use, and who would be teaching what. We used the computer to explore various medias we could potentially include. We also typed up a draft of absolutely everything and included some questions we needed to ask Dr. Mortimore-Smith. This meeting was where we really ironed out what texts we would be using and outlined the lessons we intended to teach. We were all quite exhausted by the end of it. Beyond that, four out of five of us had History and Structure the next morning in the same exact room; it was like we never left.
Our third meeting was held in Starbucks with Dr. Mortimore-Smith. In this meeting, we went over our ideas and plans with one another and with Dr. Mortimore-Smith. She helped us to clarify certain things like our over-arching essential questions. She also answered the questions we had from our last group meeting. This meeting was quite helpful as it essentially clarified everything we were uncertain about. After Dr. Mortimore-Smith left, we stayed and divvied up who would be responsible for each section of the assignment and lessons. This worked surprisingly well as we had five people. Everyone took responsibility for a proportional amount of work. Lastly, we set dates and times for when things needed to be done. |
| Heather's and my laptops. |
Wow! You guys have done a lot of work in such a little amount of time. I am sure the pressure is tough being the first group to go. Even as the second group I am feeling the pressure of the deadline!! My group has met multiple times, but we are not together for such a lengthy time period. We have also split up our lessons and other work so that each person has a good amount to work on and we can put it all together at the end. Since we have put so much time and effort into this project, I am excited to be able to put our lessons into action. I am looking forward to your group teach on Wednesday! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your group accomplished a lot!! I liked how you guys held your first meeting in the English Education meeting room. I never even knew this existed but that sounds like an awesome idea, especially because of having all of those resources available to you. My group also decided to go about the planning of this assignment by dividing up different pieces of it to each individual person. I think this helps make things go more smoothly and helps to make it more organized and complete.
ReplyDeleteI found that much of the stress I had about the assignment was cleared up after we met with Dr. Shannon also. I thought that my part of the lesson seemed boring and we weren’t sure how all of our lesson ideas would be able to be combined, so her input was very helpful and helped me to feel more confident with the ideas that I came up with for my section. I really liked how you guys set dates and times of when things should be done. I think that if doing this assignment again, I would like to use that strategy to help make sure that every meeting held with the group is effective and to make sure that something gets accomplished at each meeting.
I really like your little Starbucks man! Way to be creative! I sure do agree with you about late nights and the feeling of living in romm 004. I am also proud of our group for managing to meet despite crazy schedules. I appreciate the sympathy about driving so far, but I really don't mind. Its just how it is till I get through school and I'd rather stay late than make additional trips, which you were all wonderful about that. Its been fun working together.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I am excited to participate in your lesson!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you guys had a lot of fun planning it out, even with all of the work and late nights, etc.
It is interesting to read how each group has been working together in different ways, too! This may come off sounding bad (in a complain-y kind of way), but it is not at all what I mean to express! I just wanted to comment that while you guys have had three meetings, my group has had at least double that! I just think it's cool to contrast how we have all worked to get this project done within our individual groups.