Unit Reflection

The "All About Me" Unit has been interesting this year. The children have really liked ldearning about themselves and others. The unit has developed into something unique and exciting with input from the children. I am very flexible and this is important with this unit. As of right now the children are not finished with the unit and I think that we will continue this unit all year long. For example, we have created many self-portraits using different mediums and we have documented their growth in this area. The children have been using their learning about self portraits and implementing these skills in their drawings and other school work. I am very proud of their learning and growth since the beginning of the year. The work very hard everyday and want to learn. This unit is a perfect fit for young children to explore themselves and others around them. For the next part of the school year we will continue their learning and go deeper into learning about each other using venn diagrams, time-lines, personal stories, traditions, values, lessons, learning and observations. The children are really involved in this unit and they have added to the unit in many ways and I hope this excitement continues.
Working with the art teacher has been difficult. She has been very busy with her work, learning and teaching. Time still remains a factor and has been a component in working together. I have consulted with her about specific skills and concepts for the children to understand and Kim has been very helpful and a great resource for me and the children. I am thankful for her guidance and support when I needed her.
Overall, I am very happy with the unit and most of all, the children's learning and achievement.
I am proud of them and myself for taking on this new model of learning and developing a meaningful and genuine learning experience.
Some recommendations I would make for myself and the children are;
more transformational uses of technology
more time to share their work
space and time consideration to display work samples
more time and people to collaborate with
year long unit of study so the children have more skills to do work more independently
I am thankful for the experience with the backwards planning design and I hope to use it more effectively in the future. I am happy that i have created real rubrics and anchor packets that
have value and meaning in the unit.
I am excited and eager to share this unit with other professionals and with other classes continuing to make changes and additions along the way.

Collaboration with Colleague

Cindy, Stacey, and Kim met together as one group for scheduling and convenience reasons as well as to collaborate and share ideas with each other. The time to collaborate with other professionals was very interesting. Having the time and new learning to apply is exciting and purposeful, while there is some nervousness to implement all the stages and integrate technology within all content areas.

We began by showing Kim our art integration sections of our blog with the embedded links and resources. We really wanted to show her our understanding and empathy towards the value of arts in the classroom. We felt this was a great way to start the meeting, as we showed our appreciation for her as a fellow professional.

At this time, Kim did express the concern that she is going to be involved in a masters program and that she truly wanted to help us, but does have some hesitancy towards the amount of work and time needed to implement the lessons (length of time, limited time with children, assessments, technology).

Before sharing stage 3, we thought it was important to share our stage 2 templates with Kim. This could give her a view of the type acceptable assessment evidence that would be expected during the units. Additionally, we had not previously shared our end of the unit authentic performance tasks, sharing these was important so that she would know the products and performances that would demonstrate student understanding. We also shared our product and presentation criteria. Kim expressed that she saw great value in these artifacts and was interested in knowing more about this stage and the backward planning model. Her experience has been to design activities before looking at assessment products and performances. This lead naturally into a discussion about the six facets. These lenses were the most difficult to share and explain. By using our completed stage 3 products we assisted Kim in beginning to organize her planning through the use of this design. We gave copies of our work for her to use as examples. We recognize that next fall, she may only be able to support us in implementation on a limited basis. She was however, interested in this backwards design model as this learning may be useful as she furthers her education.

The rest of our conversation focused around the perspective lens that we both chose for our units. We recognize that further conversations need to be held. She needed some thinking time to formulate ideas and suggestions about how we could integrated perspective into our units from a art educators point of view.

Reflection of Stage One

Cindy Stevens and I are working with the Art specialist in our district. All three of us met together to make the planning easier and more effective. I found that finding a common meeting time was difficult especially for Kim, who works in multiple schools. Trying to arrange a time that worked for all of us outside of school time was tough, but we did it.

I am very thankful to be working with Kim, she was very open to ideas and by nature is very creative, so she proved to be a wonderful partner. Together we had a great conversation, that really inspire all of in different ways. The time to plan and share ideas was truly beneficial and powerful. Kim was a little apprehensive about the requirements, expectations, and dedication to this unit when she does not have to take a course or receive credit. Cindy and I did explain that she would not be graded and not accountable for the overall unit outcomes. After that she was comforted of her responsibilities and role within the unit.

Cindy began by introducing Kim, the art specialist, to the process of Understanding by Design. Cindy began first and shared her completed Stage One for Language Arts and showed Kim the basic format of what we were to discuss with her. Cindy shared her unit first then I shared my unit. Naturally, Kim wanted to know about the activities that both she and we were going to do for our unit and we explained to her that we would decide those later based on our understandings. We explained that we were going to focus on the learning that the children will have after completing the unit of study.

We began by looking at the MLRs for Art and Kim told us that MSAD9 was in the process of changing the Art standards and they may change in the future. This may in fact impact us later on, but we decided to continue on in the process. We decided to focus on the Artist’s purpose for PreK-2, this worked out for both of our units. For my unit, we discussed the conceptual lens of identity and how to answer the essential question of how people are alike and different? Kim expressed that she can talk about perspective and provide children with different mediums to explore identity.

We then talked about the understandings, key knowledge and skills. The more detailed section like this one and the six facets sections were difficult to discuss. We problem solved and worked together to solidify how to incorporate art concepts into our units. Together we decided to meet again and firm up details of these concepts and sections. Before the meeting ended we talked about the performance tasks and the type two technology grid. Kim was most excited about the technology piece of the unit. She sees great value integrating technology in the classroom. This part of the conversation was the most inspiring to me and I think the rest of the group. It was a good note to end on.