Reflection

This unit was really fun for me to develop. I personally learned a lot

about Natural Disasters that I did not know before. If I had the opportunity

to teach this lesson in my own classroom I would like to extend this lesson

over a month or longer. I think this topic is very rich and has many aspects

to explore. It was interesting for me to learn about how various Natural

Disasters occur and how they impact the earth. For me it was difficult to

decide which few topics I should focus on in my lesson plans and keep it

condensed. I would love to have more time to teach allowing students to

more deeply explore the content rather than briefly touching on each topic.

Some of the most fun activities for me to design were our Earthquake, and

Volcano lessons where we had opportunities to experiment with Natural

Disasters.

Originally it was challenging for me to pick topics that would be

meaningful and impactful for the students. I wanted to make the lessons

applicable to their lives. I was happy that I had the opportunity to redo my

Math lesson and change it to be more impactful for students. For me

designing the second version of my Math lesson was interesting because I

got to look at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website. On the

website you can explore through records of Earthquakes and Volcanic

eruptions. You can click on one and it shows you where it occurred on the
world map and shows how severe the disaster was. I spent maybe an hour

just looking through the website because it was so interesting.

I want to use this unit with my future class. Using my class as a guide

I could extend or shorten parts of the unit based on their needs. Designing

this unit about Natural Disasters showed me how I can easily integrate

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math into a Literacy or Social Studies

lesson. Designing this unit also showed me the importance of explaining to

students that they are Scientists and they have the capability to experiment

and problem solve. I also realized that Weather or Natural Disasters is a

good topic because there are a lot of resources available to us. I know as a

teacher I must design lessons that fit best with what we have access to. My

class would have easy access to the outdoors meaning the students can

collect and record an abundance of information about the Weather.

Everytime I design a unit like this I feel very accomplished afterwards.

I am happy that I have multiple portfolios of work that I may show a

potential employer in the future. Overall I always learn a lot from designing

these units and I feel like I am better at writing lesson plans now. Now I can

make sure that all of my lessons are creative and impactful for every student

in my classroom.