Relevant, engaging, authentic, manageable, and empowering.
These are the (highly) ambitious adjectives I carefully selected to be part of my HMW question and which I used to guide the creation of the interdisciplinary unit that was part of my action plan. As I come to the end (of the beginning!) of my Cohort 21 experience, I feel like I could use these same adjectives to describe my journey.
Cohort 21 came at such relevant time. I felt like I needed something – a push – to stop avoiding creating this unit because I felt discomfort from previous failures. The F2F meetings were highly engaging and so were the Twitter chats – even the ones where I just lurked and didn’t contribute. The energy and excitement of the members and their collective expertise empowered me to finally fulfill my goal of creating an ID unit that I am proud of and that I think students will find meaningful. It motivated me, challenged me, and inspired me to know that there are so many educators in the CIS community that are doing incredible things. And now I have access to the best resource ever – a group of experienced teachers who are also learners. Finally, it was totally manageable because the experience is so individualized. From the initial design to the final reflection I have been able to work at my own pace. I have also realized that this action plan does not have to be perfect! Small changes will accumulate over time to make a big difference.
This post is short and sweet, but I intend to write a few more that actually detail the unit and provide some resources for anyone who’s interested in doing something similar.
Looking forward to catching up with everyone tomorrow!