Today in class (ED 418/317) we had a full day of first day activities as we got to know each other. We started off the class as Dr. Pangan presented a me bag as an introduction activity. I have seen this idea before and always like it as a way to get to know the teacher and students. I think it is a great way to share a little bit about yourself without getting too personal and it is a fairly comfortable activity for the first day.
The next thing that was did was an observation and inference activity. At first I was a little bit confused about what the purpose was for this activity. I am not a huge fan of science and thinking scientifically is not something that I am used to. My brain is more wired towards English and social studies. But once we got started with the activity I understood why it was so useful and would be a really great teaching tool. It was cool to think about all of the ways the science is present in our daily lives. It made me excited to explore this idea further this semester.
After observing and inferring about what was in front of us we were asked to reach in and grab what was inside though we couldn’t see anything through the clear water. When we grabbed the invisicubes out of the water it was really shocking and fun to see. I can’t wait to try this idea with children and see their reaction. The next step to the activity was walking around, getting toe to toe with a partner, and sharing what we thought was a good metaphor for what we just did. I wasn’t as big of a fan of this part but I could see how it would work and be useful in a classroom. Anything that gets children up and moving is great. After toe to toe some students were asked to stand up and make a live model of a polymer. I thought it was a great visual and something that I will definitely use in a future classroom. The human polymer allowed me to see what was actually happening and remember it better.
When this activity was over the class took some time to introduce ourselves. Though it was a tradition pattern of sharing about yourself I really liked that Dr. Pangan had us stand up in pairs of two. In this class most of us know each other so we are already comfortable but on the first day of school with children this most likely will not be the case. Allowing children to stand up and share in pairs or bigger groups gives them a comfort level and does not make them feel alone.
After introducing ourselves we got to my favorite part of the day, Bubble-ology. We were split up into 10 stations, which excited me because I always loved stations as a child. I think they give you the opportunity to move around and do hands on activities. Being a hands on learner I always remembered those kind of activities. Each group was asked to become experts on their station before we began to rotate. Hannah and I were assigned to the make a stand bubble station. We started out by attaching a pipe cleaner to a clothespin and making a circle on the top of the pip cleaner so we could blow a bubble into it. Then we dipped it in bubble solution, took a straw and did the same, and began to blow a bubble on the stand. I liked this activity because it is very fun and active but it is also a great tool to teach students about surface tension and other scientific ideas. It could even work for social studies. After presenting our station we had the chance to try every station. My favorite one was where we were told to blow a huge bubble with “special solution”. I liked this station so much because it shows the power of the mind and positive thinking. The solution was really the same but we thought it was better and therefore blew a bigger bubble. I want my students in my classroom to feel like they can blow a huge bubble in terms of learning, that they can accomplish anything! Overall it was a great first day and I am very excited to see what this semester has to hold.
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