At the start I had no idea what SIM CERs were, but I am always up for something that might help my students, so I attended. Upon leaving the first few days I had no idea if I would have the time to use these routines or how my students would take to them. However, I had a unit orgainzer created and I had free copies of it, so I gave it a try. It was far from perfect in it's implementation, but the students quickly realized how valuable that paper was to them. I wasn't totally sold, since unit organizers take quite a bit of time to make, but my students apparently were, and they asked for a unit organizer for the next unit. I had that one made too, so I got the copies and I went back to my books and tried to implement the routine a little more routinely. I found ways to reference the unit organizer during more activities. I didn't have one created for the third unit, but upon starting the unit the students asked for it, so I found the time and made one, eventually getting it to them before the end of the unit. I went about making one for the next unit and then scheduled time to make one for each unit with time to spare. As I went through the units I found that I was able to make connections I had never made before. The process forced me to take the time to figure out why the units were in the order they were, and why some standards were put into a unit together. The piece of my common board that was supposed to tell students why they were learning this started to make sense. Instead of telling students it was because they had a test on it, I had real answers. The time and effort I put in up front to understand the unit myself made teaching the students increasingly more clear. It changed the basis for how I thought about each activity and assessment I planned. The Unit Organizer Routine became in integral part of my own planning and the students' learning.
