Skip to main content

Playing with Blocks!

 

  This week we created interest approaches to help our students get their feet wet at the beginning of our lessons. My interest approach was created for a SAE/FFA Leadership course introducing communication and the different forms we frequently use. The students partnered up and used legos to build the actions written on their chosen note card. One student was the "speaker" and used the legos to communicate the task that they wanted their partner to complete. The "speaker" was not able to talk, motion, draw, or give any hints to their partner who was acting as the "listener".  Once all of the students had the chance to play each role we discussed who was successful, who wasn't, and why they believed that was the case. We also discussed how they communicated with partners making the transition into the content for the day which was exploring verbal and nonverbal communication.

I chose this lesson for two reasons. First, I thought it would be a fun, unique, and a hands on way for the students to truly experience a breakdown in communication and how difficult that can be. Secondly, communication is one of the many building blocks I hope to help my students use to be successful in and outside of my classroom. It is important for them to be able to communicate properly and successful in whatever they do but most specifically about the agricultural industry. Whether they choose to stay within the industry or not they still are in the position to advocate and share important information and properly communication techniques can make their job so much easier!

Overall, I was very excited to see just how interested and excited my cohort members were to participate in the activity both in person and online. I believe that if I were to do it again I would possibly use a different set of legos just because students struggled with the pieces they were supplied. I also would consider changing some of the tasks and extending the amount of building time. One thing I accomplished through this lab was moving more fluidly throughout the classroom which was a task I struggled with previously. I really enjoyed this week's lab and all of my cohort members' activities whether it was being hands on with soil, tool identification, playing Guess Who, or videos to explore animal behavior. We all were collectively able to reach our students and steer their focus towards the day's content in a fun and creative way!


Comments

  1. Dr. EwingSeptember 17, 2020 at 3:13 PM

    Megan,
    Thanks for sharing your experience this week. I agree that this activity could be used in many situations, and you chose a good one from the communication perspective. I am glad to see that you have given some thought to how you can make this an even better activity for your learners in the future!
    -Dr. Ewing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michaela SmithSeptember 20, 2020 at 2:41 PM

      Playing with Legos was so much fun, Megan! I thought you did a great job explaining your interest approach, walking around the room checking in with each group, and connecting your interest approach to the lesson plan for the day. I agree that it might be easier to have individually selected different Legos pieces for the class, but your students can also make any piece work (which is what we did).

      Delete
    2. elise laudenslagerSeptember 22, 2020 at 8:10 AM

      Megan, I really liked your interest approach this week, and will probably use it in the future. I also think having a set of legos could be helpful for many different courses so it seems like a good investment. Overall, I think you did a great job engaging the class and keeping us on task. It was a fun activity and really showed us how much we rely on verbal communication. I was thinking that maybe to make it a little more interesting you could assign groups that could use verbal communication (just without saying the exact work) and some groups could use hand gestures and others nothing but the blocks and then students could race to see which team could get 3-5 words fastest. I think the discussion following this would e helpful to show how the incorporation of all types of communication are needed to get your point across. Great Job this week!

      Delete
    3. Alyssa LandisSeptember 22, 2020 at 2:44 PM

      Hi Megan,
      I loved how interactive your interest approach was and I think it connected to your lesson very well. I think that if you do this activity with your students in the future that you could possibly change it by giving everyone the same sets of pieces to even out the playing field (Maddie and I definitely had an advantage with the horse piece, not that I'm complaining)! This was such an awesome and creative idea!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My First Day of School... Lab Edition!

  This week I had my first day of school, though it wasn't with my students at Athens Area High School, I did have the opportunity to share it with my cohort members. The excitement of a new year with new adventures awaiting still filled the room, the difference you ask? Well this year all eight of us girls were the teachers this time, making our first day experience a little different.  Every student remembers the excitement of reuniting with your friends after a long summer away, seeing who you have lunch or study hall with, and finally seeing your favorite teacher you have missed all summer. For teachers, your first day of school sets the tone for the rest of the school year. Not only are you sharing what content students will be learning throughout the year, but what expectations you have for them while in your classroom. For my student's I used the framework "The 3 R's in Miss. Royer's Room", this idea came from my elementary school principal Mrs. Zmyslo....
4 comments
Read more

3 Days made full of plumbing projects, egg evaluation, and even some wild boars!

 Week 11?! How can it be! This week was shorter than most as we all had 3 days together but I can assure you we made the most of it! Starting the week off, we focused on any missing assignments and wrapping up projects since the end of the marking period is today! We also reviewed from our days on Zoom making sure we were all on the same page before we went on spring break! Yesterday we shifted gears to resumes, pituitary glands, wild boars, fertile eggs, and Shark Tank projects to continue our hard work with the little time we have left together! It was super exciting to hear my students discuss various invasive species found throughout the state of Pennsylvania and how they might differ from other states.     We also shifted gears in FFA/SAE focusing on preparing ourselves for life after high school, creating resumes to help with the job hunt. It was awesome to see all my students list out all of their accomplishments and focus what qualities qualify them for the j...
1 comment
Read more

Adjusting Your Journey!

  With everything in life there are times where you need to make a change, this can be with your job, your major or for students enrolled in an agricultural sciences courses their SAE project. This week we completed our last teaching lab virtually, focusing on transforming a Lifeknowledge lesson from the Nationally Ag Ed curriculum into an online lesson.     It was a bittersweet lesson, as I believe the information and skills taught throughout the lesson are important for high school student's to obtain to ensure that their goals within their agricultural science course are met. It was also a perfect remember to all of us as we enter into our student teaching experience that change is ok and very much so a good thing especially when it comes to meeting our student teaching experience goals!      I used new technology throughout this lesson that I had never used before to facilitate, Slido. This program allowed me to incorporate interactive questions a...
2 comments
Read more