First is the Worst

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Our first. unit. plan. When I first sat down to try and think about what I would write my inaugural unit plan on and how on earth I was going to do it, I felt a little bit like that. I have a habit of doubting myself and my initial thoughts were that I had no idea how to write a proper unit plan and I definitely did not have enough content knowledge to do so.

I finally calmed myself down and decided to write my plan for the first unit I will be teaching in January, Dairy Management. I grew up surrounded by dairy farms and have taken enough classes surrounding the topic that I felt comfortable enough to make this the first full unit of instruction I will ever teach. That's a lot of pressure!

Once I began writing though, I quickly changed my mindset from freaked out and hopeless to, "Wow, I actually know what I'm doing!". It was a bit like riding a bike for the first time and realizing that you were, in fact moving on your own. It took me a few hours, and some fact checking in my ANSC 201 notebook, but I finally had a complete lesson plan! I made a few more revisions and sent it off to my peers for review!

It was nice to have a few fresh sets of eyes looking over my unit, especially as we all have different backgrounds and varying knowledge. After two of my cohort members read through my unit plan, they sent it back to me with some edits and thoughts. Based on their feedback, I made a few changes and refined some of my details.

Now, my unit plan rests in the hands of Dr. Foster. I am excited (and nervous) to get feedback from him so that as I continue my planning for student teaching, I have a better understanding of what I should and should not do in a unit plan.

All in all, as scary as the first plan was to sit down and write, it really wasn't that bad, and as they say, "first is the worst"! Only 14 or so more to go, it's only going to get better from here!