Today was our last day in Mr. I’s 9th grade World Geography class. We spent the first part of the class watching Hotel Rwanda and the second part taking a whole class quiz. I had the opportunity to teach two different lessons on Africa; both lessons involved cooperative learning activities. My last lesson was a reading activity where the students were divided into groups and they read a short story and then created a poster to tell their story to the rest of the class. Even though the students were not entirely familiar with learning groups the activities were a success! The students created posters and then the entire group was responsible for explaining their poster to the class. I was very impressed by the student’s work and involvement in the activity.
In reflection, I now see how important it is to listen to what the students want. Today a student said group work would be eaiser if the students were allowed to choose their own groups. I wish I could teach another lesson so that I could give the students an opportunity to choose their own groups and an opportunity to show that they can be responsible when they are given the privilege of choosing their own groups.
Today we said goodbye. It made me feel so good when one student wrote that she would miss me. I put a lot of effort into encouraging this particular student and I think the effort paid off. In the beginning, she would rarely participate in class question/answer sessions, and now she feels more empowered to raise her hand and attempt answers! This makes me feel good. I wanted to teach because I loved my subject. . . it was my passion. I now want to teach because I love the kids! I can learn so much from these students.
