Planning, creating, and implementing my unit plan has given me experience in designing

a unit to be used for instruction. I learned what teaching a unit is likefrom how you feel when
the students do well on a quiz to the feeling when something doesnt turn out as you imagined it
would. I learned about the amount of work that goes into designing a unit and carrying out the
ideas; I learned to think about the materials I needed and how that could limit the activities I had
planned. Similarly, I learned how to consider the amount of time I had and how to use it most
effectively. I had to decide which content was most important to me and how I could teach it so
that it would be interesting and applicable; I questioned why I cared about a formula or topic to
the point that I doubted what I had been taught years ago. I wanted to make the experience to be
more valuable to my students than just a unit with formulas; I wanted to show how they are
applicable to real-life objects and how, depending on jobs and interests, students could be using
these ideas in their careers after college. Despite the questioning and other setbacks, creating this
unit plan, implementing the lessons, designing and determining the content has been rewarding
as Ive been able to see it come together and teach it to my students.
During the construction of the unit plan, I was almost overwhelmed by how much content
there was and how I needed to create a coherent, cohesive unit out of so many ideas. I wanted to
include some two-dimensional topics as well as some three-dimensional ideas to show how
theyre related and how the topics can be interwoven together. While constructing each lesson
plan, I made PowerPoints to lecture from first, and then I went back and planned how much time
I wanted to spend as well as questions I wanted to ask while teaching. I used the students
textbook to help me determine learning goals, and from those ideas I searched for assessments
that would fit with what the students learned about two- and three-dimensional objects. I ended
up choosing one that used three-dimensional composite volume, but I feel that the formulas the

students learned for volume incorporated formulas they learned for two-dimensional figures to
the point where I dont worry that they forgot the two-dimensional work. As I taught, my biggest
worry was time: the students are used to having a few minutes at the end of class to work on
homework together with teacher supervision, and I think that the fact that they can ask me
questions and work with friends encourages them to start on it. However, I ended up having
plenty of time left over at the end of the period, which enabled me to feel more comfortable
teaching and planning the subsequent lessons.
Out of the six lessons I included in my unit plan, I feel that there was one that was not as
useful: the one on perimeter and area in the coordinate plane. I realize that students dont see
much use for learning formulas as no one will ask them hey whats the formula for area of a
triangle once theyre done with high school, but they are even less likely to be given a
coordinate plane and asked those questions. In hindsight, I think a lesson on geometric
probability would have fit there better, as students would use the ideas of area to calculate the
likelihood that for example a dart will land on a certain spot on a target, or something similar.
These concepts have the potential to be more useful to them than perimeter and area in a
coordinate plane, and they enforce ideas of area of regular polygons. I realized after teaching all
the vocabulary in the third lesson that I should have included a worksheet on faces, vertices, and
edges, and having students draw pictures/name solids that had certain characteristics just to get
them to think about the solids, so I would include that if I retaught this unit. Also, when we did
the end-of-unit project, I would bring in Legos and Lincoln Logs so students could hold physical
ones to understand what they were working with bettersometimes they struggled to see a
brick or a leg in three dimensions until I drew a three-dimensional representation for them. This
unit plan attempted to go beyond teaching formulas and to use content that is not difficult to

engrain problem-solving strategies, habits of working well with others, and problem-solving
formats in the students. Overall, in spite of the lesson that did not fit as well with the other four, I
think this unit was effective in both the content it sought to teach as well as the habits and
strategies that came along with that content.
I have never taken high school geometry. That being said, this was a new experience for
me because I had no previous perspective with which to compare this unit. My ideas came from
the students textbook and professional literature I found, as well as results from discussion with
my teacher. I enjoyed planning how I would teach something and considering possible places for
student error; I realized just how much planning goes into making a lesson effective. I challenged
myself to know more than enough about the topics I would teach so that I would feel
comfortable with the material, and I sought a deeper understanding of that content in an effort to
be prepared to answer student questions. However, as I researched my unit and built my lessons
and PowerPoints, I struggled with knowing what activities to include in the lessons: there are so
many possible resources and choosing just one activity to use in a solids and nets of figures
demonstration was difficult.
Through the design, planning, and implementation of my unit plan, I gained not only
insight on content and preparation, but I also realized the importance of classroom management.
If your content is prepared, your PowerPoints ready, and your technology working, but your
classroom management strategies are ineffective, then how successful will your unit be?
Classroom management begins before the year or semester starts, and it is an ongoing daily
behavior pattern that has to run concurrently with the lesson content. My first period geometry
students enjoyed a well-designed and organized classroom, and as I taught in that environment, I
enjoyed the benefits of that management and was able to get to know students instead of

behavior problems. That being said, the realization that I will be done teaching this group of
students in two weeks shocks me, and while I will appreciate the extra sleep, I will miss getting
to work alongside my students and teaching them the content and habits that I hope they will use
even after high school is over.