The beginning stages of tech lesson 1...

Ok....so I have to create a lesson plan for my tech class that focuses on a core subject (math, science, social studies, language arts). The question is always....what should I teach? There is SOOOO much that we HAVE to teach and then there are the things that you WANT to teach. I sometimes feel that the talented Teach goes with something that they want to teach and make it encompass the concepts that they have to teach.

Unknowingly, this is how my idea for the lesson plan blossomed. This gets a little lengthy..sorry but I have to be honest to my thought process...even if its convoluted....

So first thing you should know is that I have a new kitten named Shadow. She's 20-something weeks old and black! Like midnight black...its amazing. Anyways, in hopes to have a "nice feline" instead of the typical feline that pops into everyone's heads when someone mentions that they have a cat, I've been doing my research on how to train, groom, and play with cats. Whenever a concept or idea that relates to cat ownership comes up, I google the heck out of it! I want to know, man! (I'm going to get back to lesson planning soon....I think....) Ok, so, when the weather in Flag became warmer than usual I started to think of how Shadow was going to contend with the warmer climate. Will she be okay? Is there something I should know so I don't come home to a heat-stroked kitty thats half dead? I don't want to hurt her due to negligence in the form of ignorance.

So I was hypothesizing how cats adapt to hot weather.

• Do they sweat? 
• Do they pant like dogs? 
• I know rabbits release heat through their ears, thats why their ears are so big - do cats do the same thing? Probably not...her ears are far too small.

Literally - those were my thoughts.

THEN it came to me....how about I teach science and talk about how cats sweat? Eureka! I'm on the trail to a good lesson. Maybe. Perhaps.

I always do "research" when planning a lesson. By "research" I mean googling the topic to see what other people have done. ** If I use any part of the lesson, I ALWAYS give credit. ALWAYS. ** There are so many teachers who are on the front lines and have been for awhile that I figure that a good way of teaching something has to already exist. My teachers tell me that if you find something that already works, use it.

My first search showed me that I was far too specific. I got results for random things and none of it was science related. So I decided to look through my science text from ECI 306 with Jeffrey Bloom. In one of his textbooks he gives brief, but informative, chapters/sections on all things elementary science. Its mainly a resource book. Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy it. Its titled The Really Useful Elementary Science Book, by Jeffrey Bloom. I found the sections on animals and kept seeing the word adaptations. Then it dawned on me....I could expand this idea to "How do animals adapt to warm climates?" It was broader and gave me more options. To test to see if that was true, I googled it and added "+ lesson plans for kindergarten". BAM! So muchhhhhh came up!

Continued on May 24th, 2012.....

Ok so my lesson plan kept going around in circles. When I got into class yesterday, it dawned on me that I hadn't done enough planning or thinking about the concept. My ideas were everywhere and I kept changing my mind. It was bad and infuriating. Today when I did my lesson in front of my peers.....I don't think it went very well. For one, I ran out of time. For two, because I was first I got to sit through everyone elses and see how my lesson was just lame in comparison. Their lessons were much more hands on and interactive. They were all also within their time limits. I should've spent much more time on the planning. Ugh.