I AM FREE AT LAST (Big Ideas for the Year - PLANNED and Ready to be Perfected)

Today was another amazing day! I know I sound like everything is perfect, but so far, it really feels like how I always imagined it would be. First, I am able to let my room explode with the creativity of Pintrest, Bloggers, and teachers alike. Now, this week I was asked to plan my year. That was it. That was all I was told. "Plan what you will be teaching." There are no limits or baselines set for me. Everyone is onboard with what I think should go. Because they trust me. Which is why I assume they hired me. 

*A Quick Look at What my Experience has Been: So many years of teaching, and in one way or another, there was always someone lurking who knew better than me - when in truth, it is all opinion. No one actually KNOWS what is the exact right way. We are all just using our educated-best guess based on our experience and knowledge of the kid (which is a lot to go off of if you are good). There will always be someone who knows more, read more, and has more to say. It is how they present themselves that matters. It's all about modesty that shows the most class and I think, who gets the most results.
Of course, I am not saying that I know everything (way far from it!), but I did go to school to be a teacher, I did grow up wanting to be a teacher (which as a kid, meant knowing which mints to buy was just as important as how to hold your Teacher Book on your lap juuust right so that the pages floated under the cardboard back cover - if you are a teacher, you know what I am talking about!) Maybe your obsession is with pencils, or new school supplies. I have a weakness for pens and books. I have to admit, that I know all of these things (smooth chalk was for teachers only and the hand held stapler was a major privilege) and others that pertain to actually getting kids to learn. For example, I not only know that pointers with an apple on the end are essential, but that individualized attention and meeting the needs of kids is just as important as making them feel comfortable and safe in the classroom. My goal every year is to have a room full of people that can trust each other and know what they need as learners. 

Back to this week's planning. I decided that my year will be based around 4 major themes or units. 

Yearly Goal:Students become advocates for themselves as learners as well as gaining a sense of independence. This is their last year as elementary students.

Unit 1: Kindness. For 6-8 weeks, I will teach how to be unnecessarily kind to each other, and why that type of caring for one another is important. We will be building each other up as well as building a team of people we can trust. At the end, we will have a team building project and a special lunch as a class on the beach.
Read Aloud: Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
Other Books (used for modeling reading comprehension): Thank You, Mr. Falker, How Full is Your Bucket, Chrysanthemum, Hooray for Wadney the Wat, The 100 Dresses, The Crayon Box that Talked 
Guided Reading: Maniac Magee, Loser - discuss how Jerry Spinelli's life and people in it have influenced his writing of fictional stories (summer assignment was to read his autobiography, Knots in my Yo-Yo String)
Writing: Write narratives like Jerry Spinelli did! Using our lives to influence our writing.
Goals 
1. To feel safe to share our thoughts, questions, feelings, etc  
2. Learn the expectations of the classroom, teacher, each other
3. Get a sense of the students as learners


Unit 2: Alaska: Learning about the history of the Inuit people, the internal conflict of accepting "the new" while holding onto/cherishing "the old" and how does our environment influence our way of life, the geography, and Scientific Method
Read Aloud: Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George 
Projects: 1. Study a state in an assigned region with your group and create a project (details come later) 2. Create an experiment to share with the class that relates to your state in some way
Goals: 1. Learn how to read and analyze the US map, use the Scientific Method, study and know how an environment influences a way of life


Unit 3: Black History: Biographies. Timeline of the history in the United States and a reflection on where we started as a country, where we are. Did we gain perspective and then suddenly step back again? In what ways did we gain perspective, where do we need to move forward still? Many great discussions and research will be held.
Projects: 1. Traveling Wax Museum. Students will dress up and write a story/speech that they will tell in the first person. 2. Students will write a biography on that same person who made a positive difference in history for African-Americans
Goals: 1. Write a biography. 2. Public Speaking with a speech memorized. 3. Understand conflict (not sure exactly how to specify this yet) - Any ideas??

Unit 4: (My favorite!!) Nutrition and the Human Body: digestive, muscular, skeletal, respiratory, and nervous systems will be studied. We will create our own magazines. I will be modeling how to write a magazine while simultaneously teaching these concepts. 
They will create their own magazines based around a certain interest of their own. 

The second part of this is for the students to put on a newscast for 3rd and 4th grade each week. Complete with commercials, anchormen, weather, local events, sports, etc! 

We will end the unit with a writing focus on poetry. The magazine will have to include an interview, informational article, narrative, poem, and crossword, comic, etc as any extra fun things as they want to add!

Goals: 1. Create newscasts. 2. Create a magazine based on a special interest (and all of it's little parts). 3. Learn how to write and analyze poetry

This is it! This is the basis of all the learning that will go on in Miss Julia's 5th Grade Classroom 2013-14!!

If you were a kid in my class, which unit would you look forward to the most? Did these ideas give you any great ideas for your own class, or how I can add to mine and make them better?

HAPPY LEARNING :)