Chapter 6b

            An interdisciplinary thematic unit can be very beneficial in the classroom if planned correctly. There is a lot of factors a teacher has to plan in order to teach an ITU effectively. I have learned about ITU before, but never in the detail the book went into. There were lot of helpful breakdowns given in the chapter. It really helped me think throughly of everything that goes into planning. As a teacher, I want to have many ITU in my classroom. I think it really helps gain the attention and interest of students. In the middle school, teachers need to see what topics their students are interested in and integrate those themes or maybe one lesson specifically to the students preference in order to encourage them to work hard. In this section, it talked about how to incorporate field trips. Most students see field trips as a day out of school, but the field trip can be very educational if the teacher plans for it the correct way. As a teacher, I want to be able to take several field trips with my students. They could be small field trips around the community, but getting students up and moving around really help students learning. One thing this section talked about was time and planning, I know that in the beginning of my teaching career, I will not have a good perception of how long lessons will take, but I have confidence that with a matter of time and teaching, I will learn how to plan with appropriate timing.