So many activities, So little time

Yes, I know my last post had 12 activities. But I want to use this unit so I am thinking about a month-long series. My plan is to detail three technology-related lessons to turn in and leave the rest in narrative form.

The readings in the textbook have got me thinking. Since I tend to think out loud, I have had several conversations recently about backward design with colleagues. Most say they appreciate that we really shouldn't just "cover" the textbook or march through the pages just to get done. But with the TEST always looming, and the textbooks supposedly hitting all the standards on the TEST, what choice do we have? As colleagues were asking that, I was thinking, "Yes, but just skimming through doesn't cause retention. And it surely doesn't promote problem solving skill development that the standards are trying to address." Then I read the last chapter of the book and found the authors have come to the same conclusion. After congratulating myself for being so smart, I began to think yet again how we can change this thinking. From the text and from what I hear from colleagues in this class, I find some schools have embraced the UbD format. Other schools are implementing project based, authentic assessments wherever possible. I just wonder what was the impetus to move the administration to adopt these approaches.
One of my goals is to promote change in my own school. The best way I know to do that is to keep records and show how more constructivist pedagogy can succeed in an FCAT environment. I am fairly new to public school. (I taught my daughter at home for five years.) So I tend to defer to the veterans as to "how things are done around here." I know it is time to step up and try to bring about the kind of changes that can produce true learning gains for all students. Teaching for understanding instead of teaching to the test can deliver the results we all want--student learning. The TEST scores will follow.