TIMP REFLECTIONS
from February to May, 2004
by Sylvia Sheu, Librarian

The major problem our team faced was TIME. Everything felt rushed.
Second semester is the wrong time of year to start this project because of testing, May Day preparations, and many other activities which seem to escalate during this time of year. It would have been better to have had the first three workshops during the first semester and the implementation part during the second. It would have been wonderful to have had more time during the workshops for the team to actually work on their units and be able to request assistance when questions arose.

We were able to meet and discuss the project during recess, lunch, & after school, but not as often as we would have preferred to create and implement a lesson that is truly exemplary. A question arose as to whether the students had enough preliminary preparation in technology skills and research skills for this unit.

We changed the topic of our unit from “Why people immigrated to America?” because we felt that it required the students to research the conditions in Europe rather than North America. We refocused the unit on “What did the early settlers have to do to survive in a new land?” We further narrowed the focus to the 1600’s without realizing that appropriate research resources might not be readily available. Next year, the focus will again be readjusted to broaden the time span to cover living in Colonial America from the 1600’s through the American Revolutionary War.

Our library has quite a lot of materials available for the time period around the American Revolutionary War, but was very limited in terms of materials on the early colonists of the 1600’s. This was when I realized how necessary it is to get an early start on discussions and planning. The teacher intends to use this unit again during the next school year, so I have researched and ordered a lot of additional materials. (See bibliographies on the website.) The students should also be encouraged to look for resources outside of the school setting, i.e. the public libraries

The positive aspects of this experience is the opportunity for the three members of the group to work together as a team and the realization of how powerful a unit can be that integrates the strengths of each member. The negative aspect is the realization of how much time is required in developing and implementing a unit in this manner, and time is something that is in very short supply in today’s school setting. Despite the difficulties involved, working as a team is something I would like to continue to do and would like to expand the teams to include other teachers/grade levels.