Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards

So far it has been a stressful few weeks gathering the information Carielle and I need for our unit plan. Our topic is The Age of Exploration, specifically in the Hudson Valley. Originally, this topic had us both questioning where we should start researching. The conclusion we both came to was Henry Hudson was our main idea of our unit plan since he is the person the Hudson River is named after and who explored, what we know as the Hudson Valley today.

Since we wanted to focus our three lessons on Henry Hudson, we now needed to break that concept down even further and decide what topics of Henry Hudson did we want the students to leave the class having learned. The first topic was the vocabulary used in many articles we read on the topic. We wanted the students to have a fundamental understanding of the words used to describe Henry Hudson and his exploration. The second topic was focused on the different voyages he took and the trail and errors behind each voyage. This lesson looked at distance and motivation for each of Hudson's trips. The final lesson, we felt was used to wrap up the entire unit as a whole. This lesson employed the students to draft a timeline of the specific voyage they focused on in lesson two and describe what he "saw" and came in contact with during that voyage.

We teach this unit next Monday October 19th. To say I am stressed or nervous is putting it mildly. I am beyond nervous for this experience. Although I know I will be a ball of jitters all day Monday, I know this experience will prepare me for my student teaching experience in the Fall of 2016.

Look for my blog next Monday after!