Looking at other posts from the class and within my group, it's easy to agree with the majority of the class in saying that at the start of this project, I didn't understand what UBD was, or why it was even appropriate to be implemented in curriculum and lesson designs. In retrospect though, as the class has evolved throughout the semester, the "big picture" so to speak has become much clearer for me.
Working backwards, and starting with what our goals are for our students (or teachers in the case of this project) makes a great deal of sense. In teaching history, I often do the same thing, in starting with the result or outcome of a certain world conflict (say The Crusades for example) and figuring out the reasons why things ended up the way that we did. Going back to this project, I feel as though our group worked really well together. Even though there were certain people that were responsible for putting together one part, I feel that our group really collaborated well together in creating each part or step of the process together. Everyone's ideas were heard, and so unlike many other group projects that I've been a part of, this was one of the only ones where it was actually a total group effort.
Professional development, as we all know since we are all a part of this graduate program, is paramount in preparing and improving teachers so that we can continue to help each other and reach our students. Knowing this, it is important that each district has a sound professional development program in place for novice teachers to provide them with a support system in answering any questions that they may have and in guiding them in the right direction within the scope of the teaching profession. More districts, mine in particular, need to reflect on what it is that they are doing for their novice teachers in giving them the support that they need, because I feel as though even though there are things being done, that there could be a whole lot more done in terms of truly helping and reaching these teachers. The UBD format and process is one that I feel works because it is a clear, concise, and organized approach that covers all facets of the teaching experience. Whenever I do decide to become an administrator, I will definitely think back to the work that was done on this project because I feel that many of the ideas that people have are things that need to be implemented to help out our novice teachers.
1 comment:
Some people I work with have studied UbD. They've seen some other frameworks and liked them better, from what I heard, but since this is the first one I've studied I feel partial to it. I do some curriculum mapping and even though it's set up differently, the essence of UbD is there and it makes organizing everything a lot easier.
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