Everyone has to start somewhere...

My binder has begun!! I have my first official entry and I am happy, although I really wanted to type that I was thrilled or excited or some other adjective that would signify that this was a momentous achievement. I did not feel any of these emotions though. I do feel that having the first lesson plan finished and sitting securely in my binder was an achievement. I wanted fireworks and fanfare instead I completed a lesson plan that needs to be tweaked. Perfection takes time...
So, what was the first entry? Actually it was a duo of lessons. In my first class, I pulled out the bells and whistles lesson that utilized MP3 players, children books, and primary source documents to have it fail. Failures lead to sucess. Thomas Edison said that every success was the result of failing and improving and Edison is the epitome of success. For the first day of my second class, I did not begin with the same lesson as the original students lacked the necessary background knowledge to jump right into discussing the colonization period; instead I began with a basic lesson on the motivations for colonization for France, Spain, and England. Once the students had activated the prior knowledge of what they already knew concerning Columbus, the Puritans, and the couers de bois, the original lesson with all the bells and whistles worked smoothly. Yay!
Lesson one - done. Introductions, rules and procedures, motivations for colonization, and Body map of 13 original colonies. I added the body map to add movement. I truly believe movement is vital to learning. The students learn the colonies and which region they belong to by tying the name of each colony to a specific place on their body. There are 5 Southern colonies - Georgia (stomp the ground for G), South Carolina (touch your sock for S), North Carolina (Touch Knee because it sounds like ti starts with N), Virginia (bend deeply and say the ladies and gentlemen in Virgina bow), and finally Maryland (kneel for prayer and say Maryland was founded by the Catholics). There are 4 Middle colonies - Delaware and New Jersey are linked on the upper body ( Della wears a New Jersey), New York (hand motion doing an N and Y), and Pennsylvania ( hand holding pen shaking as you say Pennsylvania was founded by the Quakers). There are four New England colonies - Connecticut (your nose as it connects the 2 halves of your face), Rhode Island (circles eye), Massachusetts (Mass of brains in your head), and finally New Hampshire (hand held above head celebrating). Corny, but it works.
Lesson two - check. Station work with student moving to four stations for 10 minutes/each. The students will listen to the Hiphop song "Who Discovered It?" from Hiphop US History on MP3 players at one station, read a pair of children's books at one station, read a primary source document based on Hernan Cortes encounters with Montezuma at another station, and finally read a primary source document relating the conditions of an indentured servant contract. From their own interactions with these materials, the students will come away with a deeper understanding of the material than if they had sat there and blandly copied notes.
My binder has two lessons. Are they perfect? No. There are thing that need to be expanded, made clearer. I added those notes as well. The first lessons are good solid lessons though and everyone has to start somewhere....