Tech Club Visit #3 (Tuesday)

On Tuesday, February 12th, I headed to Hyalite Elementary School in order to begin my 3rd Tech Club session. I had the 2nd grade students and worked with them in beginning to plan their script for their final puppet show. To start off, I implemented an "Ice breaker" game into the lesson plan in order to get the students actively engaged and excited about the activities planned for the rest of our time together. Next, we reviewed the four anti-bullying rules and I had the students reiterate which rule we are focusing on in our final project. I then explained the main points of a script and the necessities in creating a script. Today, the students chose the setting, along with the characters in their skit. They also created a rough sketch of their puppets and implemented characteristics (both physical and emotional) of what they want their puppet to look like. Finally, I passed out an "Acts of Kindness" Board in order to reinforce the four anti-bullying rules and encourage the students to implement them into their everyday lives.
There were definitely several struggles and successes in today's lesson plan. One of the greatest successes was that I definitely felt as though I had more control over the classroom and the activities I had planned for today's lesson plan went smoothly. It was also exciting to see the students so engaged in this anti-bullying project. One of the biggest struggles I had today was letting the students decide on their characters in the skit. They kept wanting to switch characters, and therefore the task took longer than I was intending.
One of the suggestions that Beth gave me in order to make some of the tasks go by more efficiently was instead of letting the students pick their own characters, I could put pieces of paper with a character role written on it, and have the students each draw a piece of paper out of a bucket. Not only would it make the task go by more quickly but it would also eliminate conflict. Overall, today was really great and I am so grateful for the feedback I am receiving, along with the experience I am gaining.