Ice Breakers!

The First Day of Fieldwork!

Just like that, another first day of fieldwork has come and gone. I think this group of children will be a pleasure to work with. Overall, they were one of the most well-behaved groups of children I have worked with so far. This is a very curious, inquisitive, and bright bunch of students that I believe will be thoroughly engaged throughout our lessons. 

Being the first day, my group played a game with the students for an icebreaker. This game was called, "Saturn's Spectacular Science Showdown." It was a board game that consisted of four different types of spaces the students could land on that corresponded with different questions to answer, act out, or ask. The four types of questions included, "All About Me Questions", "Spectacular Science Questions", "7 Second Challenges" and "Ask the Teachers." For the most part, each category was landed on pretty evenly. However, the second group we worked with ended up landing on the "About Me Questions" and the "Ask the Teacher Questions" much more frequently than any other group. I wish we had a way to possibly make it so they had landed on more of the science questions. With the use of the digital spinner, the spaces that the students landed on were really up to chance. I believe our third group had the best possible outcome in the game, getting a variety of every type of question. The students in that group were also very interactive with one another, which allowed them to help each other when they did not know the answers. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on how technology is used today in various settings and how that is different from how it was used in the past. As the students answered these questions, I noticed that many of them heard stories from their parents or even their grandparents about what technology was like back in the 80s. Many of them heard about computers being as big as the room back then and how televisions used to have antennas. They were using these stories to base their knowledge off of. It was interesting to hear some of their misconceptions as well. One student who landed on a science question space was asked what a satellite is used for. He responded that it would be used to take pictures of the Earth from outer space, which is correct. However, when the other students chimed in to add their thoughts about what satellites do, one student said they are used to spy on us and one student said that they disturb the dead. I can imagine that the student who said that satellites spy on us learned that from watching TV, but I have never heard of satellites disturbing the dead. 

I believe that overall my group did fairly well administering the game. The students seemed to really enjoy it, so we did not have too many behavior problems arise. Sometimes, the students got carried away with a particular question and continued to talk about it, even after we had moved on to the next question. At those points, we reminded the students to listen to the other students' questions and allow them to think about the answers. We also had to remind the students a few times to leave the game pieces on the board until it was their time to move, but the students were quick to follow this instruction once given. I believe that my group was very good at sharing the speaking time when giving instructions. During our last presentation in class, one of our group members did not have time to speak, so I believe we are more conscious of that now. However, we did have a minor mishap at the beginning of our session with the first group. I had accidentally removed the numbers from the animated spinner. That took a bit of time away from the first group's playing time, but with the help of one of my group members, we quickly got back on track. One thing that we definitely have to work on in the future is using the word "guys." I did not realize how often I say that until I was trying not to. Every time I felt myself saying it, I cringed a little bit. I think now that I am aware of how much I say "guys" and when I am more likely to say it, it will be easier to prevent. Our group has also planned to phase our lesson plans before we teach to prevent this from happening again.