Internship 2/21 - Fun Friday and Individualized Learning!
As my full second week comes to a close in my 7th-grade internship classroom I find myself reflecting back again on what occurred today in the classroom and what I learned from it!
Today their teacher started off class as she does every day, by going over the agenda for the day. Also, since it is Friday they had their Friday tradition where they can share their 3As for the week (An Applaud, Apology, or an AHA moment... I explained this more in-depth a couple blogs ago). Another Friday tradition is to watch the CNN middle school world news report. I personally used to watch these every Friday when I was in middle school, and it was so funny to me that they still watch it! AND that it's the exact same host (who looks like he hasn't aged a day)! with the same catchphrases and everything! That really took me back! What I do appreciate about these news reports is that they don't report on political news or politically sensitive news stories, instead, it's usually stories about new scientific inventions, businesses, animals, travel, etc. This way they usually don't have the sensitive or political material that parents can complain about, but they are still important and interesting stories for the kids.
After all that, they had independent work time the rest of the hour for their research projects.
I mentioned in my last blogs that they are working on a mini-research project that goes along with their travel project where they are making an infographic! Today they were finishing up making their infographics and were starting to peer review each others. On Monday the final product will be due, but they will still have work time on Monday during class before they have to turn it in. A lot of the students were actually able to finish today! Those who finished got to work on other homework, and they were only allowed to do homework as playing online video games on their Chromebook laptops was NOT allowed. I learned from their teacher that ever since the students each got their own Chromebooks it's been harder to keep them on task and productive as all they want to do is play online games or watch Tik Toks after they finish their work or when the teacher isn't looking. Perhaps these school laptops should have more restrictions on them for the middle schoolers...
One of my favorite things that I observed or learned today had to do with the unit test they took last week over their Bleeding Kansas unit. During their independent work time, the teacher would call up students one-by-one to look over their graded tests so they could see what they got wrong and ask/discuss the teacher questions one-on-one about the test. I thought this was WAY more effective and beneficial to the students than the traditional sense of going over the test as a whole class. This way it's much more personal and makes the student's learning more individualized ... which we all know is one of the major goals of the education field to make learning more individualized!
A great end to another great week!
One-on-one discussions with the teacher about test results will ensure that kids can understand what they got wrong instead of leaving confused after a class discussion or if it is difficult to schedule a meeting with the teacher outside of the class hour.
ReplyDeleteVery good report. You have such a talent for presenting your thoughts so clearly.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of one-on-one test result discussions, as long as all of the other students are busy doing something productive during this time.
I'm uncomfortable with CNN in the classroom. Why is this particular media company a part of our kid's classroom experience? It's a matter of content and trust. Does someone from the District, or Board, vet ALL of these videos?
I agree that the children's laptops should be (heavily) restricted. School is for learning, not games. In my opinion, games are for after school and on weekends, under the direction of their parents.