Reflection #6: Teaching Experience

06/18/13

         Today I presented my team building activity to Mr. Smith’s class. I would say it was successful. I had the children number off into four groups and the groups branched off. I made sure they knew that they were spelling “success” with their bodies, and I had them spell it to me in harmony. They then started trying to form the first letter using three of their group members. The teacher and I were the judges, and we determined if the letter was successful or unsuccessful. If the letter was successful they passed to the next letter, if it wasn’t they had to try again by the time I got back to them to judge. They had to use three group members for every letter except the second “C” (they had to use four people) the third “S” (they had to use four people) and the third “S” (they had to only use two people). When I asked them, after the activity, what they learned they told me teamwork and communication. I then asked the group that lost why they believed they lost. They told me “because we were all trying to be the leader.  We weren’t listening to each other.  We just kept bossing each other around”. I then realized that they learned what they were suppose to therefore, this lesson was successful. I believe that they learned more when I had them interact with each other because it showed them that sometimes you do have to depend on other people to be successful. Communication is a major factor and they learned that communication it always the key! I gave them a couple different scenarios, so they knew doing team-building activities isn’t the only time that you should practice good communication skills.

         I had one trouble student, and he basically was trying to be the boss of everything and instead of being a leader and guiding his classmates to success, he yelled at them and pointed out what they were doing wrong but not in the correct way. I had a situation where he was over in the other group telling them the “S” that they were making was ugly and that they weren’t going to win.  Then I let him know that he needed to go back to his group to help them build a better “S” because they may lose if all of their group member’s aren’t helping. They ended up losing and I pointed out to him that next time he should try to practice team participation skills so his team can win or have a better chance of winning. Overall, I had a good experience with the children and I’m pleased with the outcome.