Day 2 of Intel...
Yesterday I mainly worked on framing the essential and unit questions, after determining what course of study standards I wanted to focus on. It was a really quick day, although we all worked for a full 8 hours. It was hard to break for lunch, just like it was today...there's lots to do and it's very engrossing!

Today, we focused on modules 3 and 4. I got onto my wiki page (pbwiki.com) and set up a format for my students to be able to write in, after they've jotted notes down in a unit journal. We also talked about copyright laws and how to cite works. I completed that area in my unit planner, hopefully in the correct way. I had forgotten that you should also cite where you find pictures and graphics, so I will have to slow down and remember to click and copy those citations.

I have included several areas in the unit plan for students to conduct research and to collaborate with peers regarding their writing and thinking. Hopefully, this will help the resource students as well as the gifted students a time to be able to learn and share in a productive way.

We also talked about Internet safety for students. I want to include in my plan some specific sites that are "kid-friendly" for searching. This also reinforced for me that I need to intentionally and directly teach students how to appropriately search on the Internet.

I am creating a brochure and a powerpoint for my unit plan. I really enjoy creating powerpoints, and this will be much easier for me than the brochure. I have the feeling that I will be encouraging students to create powerpoints rather than brochures, although I need to allow students to have the freedom of choice.