Throughout this MAT year, I had ample opportunity to experiment within content areas and develop my practice in mathematics, ELA, science, and social studies.  During my practicum, I conducted read-alouds, investigated word problems, led student research, and engaged the class with science experiments.  I am thankful for the opportunity to grow in my practice and refine my lesson planning over the course of this year.  As portraits of my students’ experiences of learning throughout these units, as well as my experience of teaching them, I have outlined the goals, rationale, learning activities, and assessments for two of the units I led throughout the year, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Learning Standards for the associated subject.  The two units outlined in this section pertain to social studies and science, respectively.  The social studies unit shows the class discovery and research of three regions (The Midwest, Southwest, and West) of the United States, and the science unit is an investigation of energy, including kinetic and potential energy, the transfer of energy, and energy resources.