What Went Wrong:
- To Much Going On - 3 centres was too many! Even if they were supposedly simple, there was just too much going on. I tend to always over plan in hopes of keeping away idle hands and minds. But in this case, having so much to do made the kids frustrated or entirely off task.
- Poor Instruction - This is a weakness of mine. I get so excited for the students to start the activity, I tend to skimp on the instructions. This is not to say that I left them high-and-dry. I had clear task cards with step-by-step directions for each centre. I had a guided worksheet to fill in as they went. But here's the thing, about 98% of the students didn't read them. And really, why would they? When there's something new and exciting sitting in front of you, why would you read a piece of paper instead? Oral instructions are crucial. Always. Even you repeat them over and over again. You can't count on a piece of paper.
- Random Groupings - This was not unintentional. I really wanted to see how students worked with random classmates. Not with their friends. Not with their optimal partners, but with anyone. And the short of it is, they don't. I believe strongly in building the skills to work and collaborate with people. Because let's face it, you will definitely not love every person you have to work with in your life, but that doesn't mean you can get mad and quit. This was a good and necessary lesson that I assumed would be learned anyway, good to get it out of the way now. I now know I have to build up their collaboration and communication skills.
- Empty Threats - Please don't get me wrong here, they weren't like violent threats. I just said we would stop if...., we couldn't do____ if.... but I never followed through with it. It's just so easy to do. Because you don't want to cut and run all the time. Sometimes you want to pull through because many of these problems were my fault! And really, the kids shouldn't be punished because of my blind spots.
What Went Right:
- Classroom Management - In spite of the chaos, I did relatively well with classroom management. Sure there were plenty of issues but I was still able to quiet the class most of the time, and there were moments where nearly everyone was on task. I was proud of my abilities, even in times of quasi-crisis, to
- I was Gritty - I know this sounds a little silly. But I was incredibly perserverant. And it wasn't really a matter of stubbornness. I still believe those activities could have been great, and with tweaking there would have been some really good experiential learning happening. And I really tried to push through it. I thought about quitting twice and doing something else - full class demonstration or some such, but I really did want them to explore and try things. I didn't give up, even though I really wanted to some times.
Lessons Learned
- Always Have Paper Towels -- Or cloths, or a pressure washer or something. It was a huge mess. If I ever use some of these items again (plasticine, moon sand) there will be table cloths. And gloves. Something to stop the mess.
- Plan the groups, don't leave them random.
- Admit Your Mistakes to Your Students - Sometimes it might help to let them know that this going bad because of me, not because of them. I really didn't do that today, and I feel really bad about it.
- Less is More - This lesson took so much planning and so many supplies and we left with a big, angry mess.
- Give instructions for everything, always.
Thanks for reading folks!