Appreciating Individual Talents and Strengths at ATHENS
On Friday 11/20 I had the opportunity to teach a Life Knowledge
Lesson to the 1st period Horticulture Class at Athens Area High
School. This jam packed 40 minute lesson on Appreciating Individual Talents and
Strengths represented a lot of different things for me!
During the school announcements before I was able to begin
teaching, there were a lot of thoughts, emotions, and feelings running
through my head: … I was nervous to be actually “teaching” for the first time
in front of my cooperating teacher, but excited to get to know more students. I
was anxious about my time management for a 40 minute period, but felt
determined to keep the class moving and reaching our ambitious goals. I felt
prepared in that I had all the proper tools, papers, and worksheets, but also
secretly wished that I had practiced giving directions just one more time.
But then… the bell rang … and I had 19 pairs of eyes looking
at me. Some looked curious, others hesitant, and thankfully some looked excited.
Many seemed to be questioning in their head “who is this girl and why is Mr.
Steinfelt sitting at a desk in the back.” Aaaaaaaand, it was show time.
We started off the class by creating a name tent and
determining one thing they wanted Ms. Royer (me) to know about themselves, and
also determining one of their strengths. This portion took longer than I had
anticipated, and I think that I definitely stressed some students out by giving
them a time limit! Next, we participated in an interest approach relating to
memory! About 22 common school items (safety glasses, books, pens, stapler,
tape, paper clip, candy bar, etc.) were placed on a table with a blanket on
top. Students were given one minute to review the table, then the items were
covered and students had one minute to write down everything they could
remember. Next, students were allowed to get into groups and determine how many
they could all collectively remember. This activity demonstrated the idea that
individuals can bring different talents/ abilities to a group that make it
stronger or more effective. After reflecting on this activity, and relating it
to working as a group in Horticulture, we transitioned into a Go Get It
E-Moment. (WOW, I had the students move a lot during this lesson!) Students
retrieved one orange and one yellow slip of paper that had scrambled words on
it. We unscrambled the words in order to fill in the blanks of some statements
regarding the benefits of identifying individual
strengths and methods of capitalizing on individual talents. We then reflected
on these ideas and related this lesson to Horticulture Class, FFA, and then
life in general. After completing the learner satisfaction form, students were
able to reflect on the lesson by either drawing a picture or writing about
their biggest takeaway from the lesson.
Whew, that was a lot to do in 40 minutes
GEMS: Here is where I think that I did a good job.
- - Working students from bell to bell
- - Ensuring all students are engaged
- - Relating the lesson to Horticulture Class and
life in general so it wasn’t just a random lesson
- - Using students names!
- - Keeping students active, I had no discipline
problems at all
OPPS: Here is where I
think I could have improved
- - I totally FORGOT to go over objectives! This would
have clarified to the students what we were actually doing in class for the day
and what my expectations were for them!
- - Interest Approach at a better location to ensure
everyone can see better
- - Having students re-state directions to avoid
confusion
- - Time management! Whew, I kept them busy from
bell to bell, did they have enough time to reflect?
- - Scramble challenge! OH NO more stressful for
students than I had anticipated
Feedback : Here is the feedback from students and Mr.
Steinfelt
STUDENT FEEDBACK
The students completed a survey asking them questions about
what they liked most or least about the lesson, if they understood directions,
if they were comfortable with the speed of the class, etc.
- - It seems either students LOVED being up and out
of their seats a lot… or HATED the movement. I think it’s important to have kinesthetic
moments in the lesson, but this had a lot of movement, and I may have wasted valuable
instruction time with students out of their seats.
- - Some students felt that the activities were
childish
o
Ex. One student wrote they didn’t like doing
thumbs up if they understood the directions and felt the activities were below
their grade level
- - While most students appreciated the speed, some
felt it was too rushed.
- - Many students said their least favorite part was
unscrambling the words.
- - Most common response for what would have made
this lesson better… FOOD ha ha
FEEDBACK from MR. STEINFELT
- - Need to ensure all students engaged, don’t ask
the same students all the questions
- - Ensure thinking about audience! I wasn’t aware
of this before but I had six students with IEPs. The scrambled work activity
probably caused many of them stress and may have decreased their interest or
desire to continue with the lesson
- - Didn’t go over objectives! Should definitely do that and even think about checking them off at the end of the period during the summary, to say yes we learned this.
- - Good job summarizing at the end :)
- - Good time management working students from bell
to bell
- - After gaining students attention, ensure they
are complying with request. If try to modify students behavior, take the extra
moment to wait and watch or hear them change their behavior before teaching
again.
I truly enjoyed being up in the “Northern Tier” to teach a
lesson to my future students for next semester. This experience helped to make
next Spring seem more “real.” I am very excited to be at Athens starting in
December, and can’t wait to be working with these students and Mr. Steinfelt every day.
Best,
Ms. Royer
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