Yesterday was our first science lesson with the second graders. Although I was very nervous going in, I had a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back next time!
Alisha and I carefully planned our Mystery Bag lesson well ahead of time and made sure we had all of our materials and handouts ready to go. We checked with the classroom teacher to get her input and made some minor but important changes based on her feedback. We thought about what we wanted to say and who would lead different parts of the lesson, so we never had a moment where we were standing in front of the class with blank looks on our faces. I think we were able to adjust our plans as the lesson went on too, adding a few minutes here or cutting something a little short there to keep things flowing. The result was- the kids loved it! Their screaming was my biggest clue. They could barely contain themselves when they finally got to open the bag and see what was inside. Although the noise level might have been more playground appropriate than classroom appropriate, everything they were chattering about was directly related to their observations and the lesson.
One of our major focuses was how to make observations safely. We couldn't have asked for better kids. It felt a little bit like someone planted some little science geniuses in our class. For every sense, they had serious input about what might be unsafe. They brought up ideas like "if you smell something it might be poisonous and hurt your nose," and "an experiment might have an explosion and then you would never be able to hear ever again." I tried to acknowledge their input while reassuring them that we would not be doing anything that would permanently damage them in any way. One part of the feedback that we got on our lesson was that although the kids all practiced the wafting technique, some of them went ahead and took a big smell of the bag without wafting. We will definitely make sure to keep reminding them of safety throughout the unit.
Finally, I know this lesson wouldn't have been as fun or successful without my coteacher Alisha, aka the other Ms S. Working together we came up with a plan that I wouldn't have been able to pull off on my own. It was really nice to know someone had my back in case I couldn't come up with a word or lost my train of thought. Alisha took on the lesson intro which I am very grateful for, because it gave me a few minutes to get settled before jumping in. For our first experience working with a full class of second graders, it's nice to have two sets of eyes and two people to circulate and answer questions and check in with different groups. I'm glad to have Alisha for a partner!
Next week we'll start talking about caterpillars with the class. Hopefully the idea of having some long-term classroom guests will keep the kids excited about what's coming up next!
Hi Lindsay!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you and Alisha had fun!! I think it's really important that you added or cut time when needed; as classroom teacher's we're always going to have to be prepared for plans not going exactly as we planned, so it's great that you were able to plan accordingly and still keep the lesson flowing.
I also liked what you said about safety and the importance of constantly reminding the students to remember the safety techniques we talked about. The students are so excited to get going with the experiment, they might forget some of the things we had just talked about. Like you, I had a great time coteaching and I'm glad we all had a really great experience!
Lindsay, I completely agree that it was really important to get the teachers feedback...and use it! They know these kids the best and the minor changes that we made were very useful as well! I love how excited the kids were to do this lessons, they wanted recess to end so they could come back and find out what was in the bags!
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it was good to have partners for our first lesson! Sarah also took the intro for our class and like you, I was able to get more used to the situation. I think teamwork is really important in teaching and these first lessons truly showed this to me! I am sure that you and Alisha are going to do great next time too! Lucky kids!
Sounds to me like your lesson went really well. I think its really awesome that you were able to modify your lesson for time constraints while carrying it out, ecspecially because this is our first lesson. It shows that you have great management skills and can really sort out what would be the most beneficial for the students. Hope your next lesson goes just as good or better!
ReplyDeleteYes, teacher feedback is key and, although it seems intimidating sometimes, there are only a few times when you can get such consistent feedback.
ReplyDelete