The Process- Getting at a Willingness to Try

The messy work of Unit planning..

I think I've got a handle on this UbD Unit Planning.  I think of great ideas for lesson launch and cross-curricular integration while I am riding my bike to school.  I run through in my mind how awesome it will be when we go to our field science and service site this year and the class and STEAM lab work actually connects with what we see and do in the field- these are like teacher fantasies.
I've even had a few meetings with the grade 5 teachers who are the group I will be working with to get them excited about testing a unit that is grounded in the issues that are impacting the environment here and now and connecting students with their place and the realities of place for learning partners in coastal Alaska.
And then, I sit down with the email notes, ideas on scraps of paper, unit outline templates, readings from STEMS2 that I want to integrate, guest speakers I want to include, video and reading clips I need to get Lex scores for before I can assign to homework, notes from teachers on who needs what accommodations and, it hits me- this is a big deal!
My advisor gave me some good feedback this week- #1 "Make A Timeline- it will calm you down and give you something to pace yourself against" #2 "Ideas are your strength, that comes easy for you. Selling teachers on change is hard"

"Ideas are your strength, selling teachers on change will be harder"

What is this change-bringing, fear-inducing thing called STEMS that I am trying to "sell" them on? In my "ask" I have said it is a way of imagining the thinking and learning space in a way that makes sense for kids because it connects them to what is happening in the world and it respects who and where they are coming from. I have told them that it is something I am excited about because I know in my heart that a little extra creativity and artistry to think about the learning first and any of us should care about the content is far more stimulating for me as an educator and, I really believe, for students as wondering, doing beings. Now, as a scientist I MAY HAVE SAID I do not hold much sway with "belief"- give me evidence, where is the empirical data? So that brings me to the second part of the "teacher ask"... I would love it if you would come on this experimental journey with me and try some new things together. We won't really know how it feels for us or for the students if we don't try and think critically about  what happens.