Ok class pay attention!
The lesson itself is a blue this week, and I only have a small pile of handouts littering my desk to show that we were actually taught something.
I put this amnesia down to the fact I had to do my presentation today…
Presentation
My presentation is a language game – I have drawn a shape onto cards, (basically a square, a circle, an Isosceles triangle and various others). I want one person to describe the shape on the card to their partner without saying its true name. Their partner has to draw the shape from the description, recognise it and spell the its name correctly Easy you may thing, but this game is designed for 9 year old children, whose language hasn’t developed to the stage of adults and is supposed to enhance the way they use language – Well that’s what I read anyway.
Having waiting four weeks to test it I was fully prepared for the ordeal (in fact I had been waiting so long I had almost forgot what I’d prepared!). For once I wasn’t nervous as I gathered my paperwork and walked to the front of the class. Although my legs were telling a different story, since they suddenly felt like a pneumatic drill trying to break through the floor boards into the room below. Disguising this from the class by stepping from one foot to the other worked for a while, but it moved to my hands and my writing became a squiggly mess on the white board, thankfully no one noticed as it was still reasonably legible.
I managed to compose the shuddering that was now beginning to take over my body, took one deep breath and turned to the class.
“Hello I’m Mrs Loveridge and today we’ll be playing a linguistic game”
“This game was first tested on children of West Indian origin by Wight in 1979 and is suppose to encourage and enhance the use of language skills”
“Firstly I would like everyone to pair up and then I will explain how the game works and the rules”
“I have here in my hand some cards, on the back of these cards are shapes. I want one person from each pair to take one of these cards, look at it without showing their partner, and then describe the shape on the card to them without actually saying it’s name or using visual aids, such as drawing invisible shapes in the air – Then I want that person to write the name of the shape they have just drawn onto their page”
“Are there any questions” “No…right away you go”
Nerves had all but gone by this stage. The shuddering was under control, except for my big toe that was still having a little dance in my shoes.
I walked around the class to shake the last of the nerves off, while checking that no one was cheating and of course to see how they were coping with the task, as expected surprisingly well, but they are mature students after all, so made my way back to the front of the class.
“OK…Is everyone done?” “How did we do?” “Good…Right, You get a point if you drew the shape that is shown on your partner’s card and they get a point for having described it well enough for you to draw correctly. You also get a point for recognising the shape and writing its name and 1 last point for spelling the name correctly”
“Right I’ll take those cards back and give them a shuffle”
“Now we’ll swap so everyone has the chance to get four points, so if the other person from each pair would like to collect a card…when you are ready you can start”
Again I walked around the room – that big toe wasn’t going to give up easily! The class knew what they were doing now so were flying along…maybe I should have asked them to pretend they were 9 year olds - That would have made it interesting? One or two did question the fact that a 9 year old wouldn’t know what an isosceles triangle was. Although I don’t know for sure, I think they will be surprised to know they do actually! As they were finishing up I headed to the front of the class again.
“OK…all done? “Right how did we do…Tally up your scores”
“So who got 4 points?” “Well done and 3 points?” “Good…did anyone get lower than 2 points…excellent – You are all smarter than a 9 year old” LOL
“I’ve got some handouts of the shapes you have just drawn and a few others for some information on the shapes”
“Well thank you for playing and I hope you enjoyed it”
Everyone applauded as we did for the others a few weeks ago, while I quickly returned to my seat. The tutor asked the class for feedback on the presentation…it was surprisingly good! Phew thank goodness it’s over.
You’re probably thinking if she’s such a nervous person giving presentations why on earth does she want to be a teacher? Well for a start it’s different when you are giving a presentation to adults, they are worse than children for criticism, as you can sense the sarcastic tone in their voices. Children are by no means little angels, but they haven’t had as long to work on their sarcasm.* The other problem is not having the knowledge of what I’m teaching – I’m sure if I knew what I was talking about I would be a lot more comfortable in front of a class.
*I recall a piece on Russell Brands, Ponderland television show about how mature children thought they were. One girl was having an argument with her mum about not getting a job and how she needs to be sensible about her choices in life. The girls replied, I am sensible, I’m not like dead yet.
I put this amnesia down to the fact I had to do my presentation today…
Presentation
My presentation is a language game – I have drawn a shape onto cards, (basically a square, a circle, an Isosceles triangle and various others). I want one person to describe the shape on the card to their partner without saying its true name. Their partner has to draw the shape from the description, recognise it and spell the its name correctly Easy you may thing, but this game is designed for 9 year old children, whose language hasn’t developed to the stage of adults and is supposed to enhance the way they use language – Well that’s what I read anyway.
Having waiting four weeks to test it I was fully prepared for the ordeal (in fact I had been waiting so long I had almost forgot what I’d prepared!). For once I wasn’t nervous as I gathered my paperwork and walked to the front of the class. Although my legs were telling a different story, since they suddenly felt like a pneumatic drill trying to break through the floor boards into the room below. Disguising this from the class by stepping from one foot to the other worked for a while, but it moved to my hands and my writing became a squiggly mess on the white board, thankfully no one noticed as it was still reasonably legible.
I managed to compose the shuddering that was now beginning to take over my body, took one deep breath and turned to the class.
“Hello I’m Mrs Loveridge and today we’ll be playing a linguistic game”
“This game was first tested on children of West Indian origin by Wight in 1979 and is suppose to encourage and enhance the use of language skills”
“Firstly I would like everyone to pair up and then I will explain how the game works and the rules”
“I have here in my hand some cards, on the back of these cards are shapes. I want one person from each pair to take one of these cards, look at it without showing their partner, and then describe the shape on the card to them without actually saying it’s name or using visual aids, such as drawing invisible shapes in the air – Then I want that person to write the name of the shape they have just drawn onto their page”
“Are there any questions” “No…right away you go”
Nerves had all but gone by this stage. The shuddering was under control, except for my big toe that was still having a little dance in my shoes.
I walked around the class to shake the last of the nerves off, while checking that no one was cheating and of course to see how they were coping with the task, as expected surprisingly well, but they are mature students after all, so made my way back to the front of the class.
“OK…Is everyone done?” “How did we do?” “Good…Right, You get a point if you drew the shape that is shown on your partner’s card and they get a point for having described it well enough for you to draw correctly. You also get a point for recognising the shape and writing its name and 1 last point for spelling the name correctly”
“Right I’ll take those cards back and give them a shuffle”
“Now we’ll swap so everyone has the chance to get four points, so if the other person from each pair would like to collect a card…when you are ready you can start”
Again I walked around the room – that big toe wasn’t going to give up easily! The class knew what they were doing now so were flying along…maybe I should have asked them to pretend they were 9 year olds - That would have made it interesting? One or two did question the fact that a 9 year old wouldn’t know what an isosceles triangle was. Although I don’t know for sure, I think they will be surprised to know they do actually! As they were finishing up I headed to the front of the class again.
“OK…all done? “Right how did we do…Tally up your scores”
“So who got 4 points?” “Well done and 3 points?” “Good…did anyone get lower than 2 points…excellent – You are all smarter than a 9 year old” LOL
“I’ve got some handouts of the shapes you have just drawn and a few others for some information on the shapes”
“Well thank you for playing and I hope you enjoyed it”
Everyone applauded as we did for the others a few weeks ago, while I quickly returned to my seat. The tutor asked the class for feedback on the presentation…it was surprisingly good! Phew thank goodness it’s over.
You’re probably thinking if she’s such a nervous person giving presentations why on earth does she want to be a teacher? Well for a start it’s different when you are giving a presentation to adults, they are worse than children for criticism, as you can sense the sarcastic tone in their voices. Children are by no means little angels, but they haven’t had as long to work on their sarcasm.* The other problem is not having the knowledge of what I’m teaching – I’m sure if I knew what I was talking about I would be a lot more comfortable in front of a class.
*I recall a piece on Russell Brands, Ponderland television show about how mature children thought they were. One girl was having an argument with her mum about not getting a job and how she needs to be sensible about her choices in life. The girls replied, I am sensible, I’m not like dead yet.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment