Collaboration Blog #3

Integrated Unit Reflection

The Pythagorean Theorem integrated unit went really well for the first time teaching it. The students really liked participating in all of the computer related activities and assessments and also thoroughly enjoyed learning the new technological programs. Each individual assessment was completed in class and focused either on the mathematical portion of the Pythagorean Theorem or the historical aspects of the theorem and its creation. I worked closely with an ELL social studies teacher, who taught the same students. Together we created the unit and had it focus on the mathematical part as well as the social studies area. He worked with the students on discussing and researching Pythagoras, and we applied that information in several different ways through assessments done in math class.

Overall, I have no complaints on the unit. The only thing I wish I had more of was time. Unfortunately spending two and a half weeks on the unit is all the time I can spare in order to stay consistent and relatively close with the curriculum that the other Algebra 1 teachers are teaching. Most of the extra time needed relates to the students actually learning the program before applying it to the content. So over time, I think that students will become more familiar with technology through other courses and through everyday activities, that in turn, less time will need to be spent in the classroom showing them how to operate the technology during this unit.

One other issue that I ran into was the fact that I only had consistent PC laptops to use. A few activities that I wanted to try required programs on the Mac laptops, which I did not have access to. Therefore adjustments were made and alternate activities were created.  The students really enjoyed the assessments that I created with the PC laptops, so I do not plan on changing them for next year. The students performed well on all of the assessments, which was a bit of a shock to me. I thought they were going to struggle more with the assessments that required written responses and explanations.

I feel that taking on a leadership role in this integrated unit made things a lot easier. It came natural to me to discuss and direct the social studies teacher in the particular direction that I wanted. Although we worked well together and created a very successful step-by-step plan on teaching the theorem and the life of Pythagoras, it was easy to accomplish the finishing results because I was so direct on what I wanted. Luckily, he was very open to what needed to be done and could easily change his schedule around to accommodate the unit. His reliability, subject expertise, and flexibility played a huge role in unit and allowing it to flow relatively smooth. We also had many conversations about the unit and kept each other updated on what was occurring in our classes. We communicated through email mostly and once in a while we met face to face to talk. Communication was not an issue between us, which made everything a lot easier.