Hi Dawn,
Sorry I am so late. I have been checking the web blog but did not come in here so the last one I saw was my 3/9 entry.
Today the geography/world history and the biology teachers and I got the whole day to workon our curriculum for next fall. The principal hired substitutes to cover for us. We got the first quarter unit planned and started on the second quarter unit. It is really great planning together because both of them are so enthusiastic. The young man who teached social studies isn't quite as computer literature and the biology teacher and I (and we are taking an advanced technology workshop the first two weeks of June together), but he is really enthusiastic. We have to do one integrated unit a quarter for our action research project and for our grant. We already have our wireless laptops but the kids won't get theirs until fall.
We won't have some of the problems you had because of the grant. We each have the same 25 kids. No new kids can be added to the class because of the grant and also because of the dedication of our principal and superintendant to this class. They will have geography third period, composition 4th period and biology 5th period. Share a common lunch, and the three of us will have 7th hour planning periods.
The unit we set up today was based on our river (the Missouri) and The bicentenial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Their final product is going to be an online newspaper written in the style of 200 years ago. They will be doing journaling, mapping, studying ecological issues, habitat change, creative writing written on a What if scenario _what if L and C had never made the trip, etc. Several writings, a powerpoint, journals, etc. will all be part of the newpaper. We will include field trips to the river and the Visitor's center who has an extensive L and C display.
Since 6 trait writing across the curriculum has been one of our NCA goals, all of our teachers are used to evaluating writing using the 6 trait rubric. They have been doing it for four years and are all sold on it. I am getting really excited about our cross-curricular course. Our second unit is going to be an African safari which will result in a multigenre/multimedia presentation on geography (social studies) culture (my section) and diseases (biology - viruses, etc.) of Africa.
Our 25 students will each have a wireless laptop 24/7 so sharing a lab won't be a problem. The school is dedicated to getting this class up and running and, if the research pans out, keeping it going in subsequent years. That helps a lot I think.
Pat