So this semester, I get to run my very own center - me! 20 minutes of teaching a lesson with 4-6 kindergarteners. Now...I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit nervous thinking about it this morning. There was definitely a chance that she would give me the lesson for my group and it would totally flop. This is the most freedom I've been given at once - it's like I get to practice teaching my own lesson 5 times.
So at 8:00am I got my first set of instructions for my activity - we were going to be learning about force, defined as the push or pull that moves an object. Here's a little side note about me: science has absolutely, never ever, even been close to my favorite subject. But, I find myself in a situation I knew I was bound to encounter eventually, teaching something that really isn't my favorite but is a requirement for the grade level. Oh boy...
I had to introduce the topic to them and have a little discussion about force. Using blocks I showed them that I could be the force to move the blocks, and I could move them in many different ways. We also discussed how some objects can roll and some objects can slide and what makes them able to do so. Then, my instructions were to have them build a ramp out of other blocks, and measure the distance that the rolling and sliding blocks travelled, and if a taller ramp made them travel a shorter or longer distance. From there we discussed how heavier cylinder blocks would travel farther than light-weight cylinder blocks. Then we switched gears to a pendulum demonstration, illustrating how we could make it move, and stop, and how shorter strings would move back and forth faster than longer strings. We talked about momentum and gravity and forces...
The excitement on their faces was out of this world. I want to bottle up that kind of joy and awe and wonder and keep it forever to remind me of what it is like to truly be fascinated with the world. Getting the chance to predict which object would roll farther, and then seeing how much farther it actually went, must have been the coolest thing since sliced bread. And it didn't get old! No matter how many times we repeated the same little experiment, it was still exciting and fun and interesting.
The best part for me though was that everyone got it. And everyone was so in to it, like nothing I've ever seen during reading time, or math time, or writing time. It was something that reached even the ELD kids, and they could understand because it was visual and interactive and something that they could relate to. Our ADHD student was able to sit through the entire lesson with relatively no disturbances because he was doing something engaging that required listening and using his hands to create something that worked for a purpose. Yes, I was only working with 6-kids, tops, at a time. But the discussions we were having? Unbelievable. They way they could take the little demonstrations we were doing, and relate them to a rock falling down a cliff, or swinging on the swings at recess? Shocking. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Amazing.
I was also pretty proud of myself. My first rotation didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked. I mean, we still covered all of the material, but it was kind of chaotic and the kids never really left the rowdy stage to enter the academic stage. But by the second rotation, I sort of surprised myself with this level of intuition that I hadn't experienced before; I realized what I did didn't work the first time, and tried something new and more organized. And hey, what do you know? It worked. And once I figured out my system, the rest of the rotations were a breeze. I was explaining it to my best friend and she mentioned that maybe that's what the first year of teaching feels like...but once you get the first year under your belt, everything else starts to fall into place. Hmm.
So in other less meaningful news, I got my first classroom related injury. Sliced right through the side of my finger with a pair of scissors. One of the more smarty-pants kids said to me, "Well you know Miss Downing, I've never cut my fingers with scissors..." The sass...it kills me!
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