Day 16: 2nd Lesson

Monday February 13, 2012 Blog Post

Today was my first time doing a kindergarten lesson at Ed Smith. I did one at Frazer, but this was my first time with this group. The dance went well, but there were a few students who didn't feel comfortable dancing. Mary Lynn asked that they at least do the hand motions. The other kids asked if we could do it again and seemed to love it. The video I had didn't work for some reason the computer wasn't playing it so I just ended up telling them what the story was about and going from there. I've spoke so many times with Fagbug and had technology issues that I've had to adapt and just be fine with doing things on the fly when necessary. It doesn't really phase me. I tried to write the poem with them as a group so the lines they filled in and the images they drew would all be the same, but after two lines they complained about how they didn't want to pick or have to draw a baby doll or dog, so we did the first two lines together. I had asked Mary Lynn about this and she suggested doing it together so we started with that idea. She wasn't sure how what they were capable of with writing. I think it was new to her to do a lesson like this with writing with them so we explored the best way to go about it. After two lines of writing, she said to try having them write their own words so we moved to that for the last four lines. Next time I will let them write their own words, and will check again to make sure the video plays (I did earlier in the day and had it up so assumed it would).

The 3rd grade class was much more talkative than the first class I had. They shouted out answers and didn't really listen to each other speaking. I feel in general more comfortable with the older kids but after both lessons Mary Lynn asked me which went better and I said that probably 3rd grade did. She said she loved the Kindergarten lesson and that it went really well so that was nice to hear. She said I just need to work on raising my voice and classroom management. The kids laughed in 3rd grade about Keith Haring's face so am not sure if I will keep saying that or not. Next time perhaps I will tell them we are having a discussion and to raise their hands when they have feedback to share.