Pop Art Reflection:
This was my favourite lesson of the year. The students were so engaged through the entire thing. I linked in English Language Arts with this lesson and it went over quite well. The students thought the word, “onomatopoeia” was a fun word and wanted to keep practicing the pronunciation.
After grasping the pronunciation, students were enjoying their time to work on the project. There were guidelines for this art piece but I wanted the students to have some creative freedom as well and I definitely saw that in their work. Whether it was patterns, colours, or design: the students were getting really into it which was amazing to see.
This was the last lesson of the day and it flowed quite nicely into our farewell. The students were in a good mood and we kept that mood up while we said our goodbyes. We assured the students we would visit and attend their Christmas Concert. I am looking forward to returning to the school in March.
Simple Machines Reflection
The reason I loved this lesson was because of the variables. It was the end of the day, last class and we happened to have a substitute teacher. Two things I definitely would have been excited about when I was in Elementary School. Surprisingly though, the lesson still went great except we ran out of time. How can one possibly teach two simple machines in only 30 minutes? I don’t think anyone can.
A main reason I loved this lesson was because I realized how great coloured sticks are to display opinions. It is a good way to assess knowledge without singling students out who may have the wrong answers. I have used this in many lessons from now on and it works great throughout a multitude of lessons.
I followed the lesson plan closely until the end of the lesson. We ran out of time so we couldn’t spend a lot of time on each poster. The development went great thought. The groups were excited to work together and there was excitement in the discussions. There was a comment that the class was too loud, but in my opinion it was great! Their conversations were science related and they were getting excited. I wandered around the classroom and encouraged students to explain to their group why they thought it was a wedge or inclined plane – instead of just saying it was with no explanation.
At the end of the class, we took a minute to go through complicated items that students were unsure of. It helped to clarify the confusion. The exit card was beneficial in this lesson because it reassured me that we were on the right track and with another 30 minutes, we would have made progress.