While presenting JA classes, I often arrive at the school a few minutes ahead of time or in the case of St Emily's, have two or more classes the same day with some time between each. There are a couple of church pews and a few chairs adjacent to the office at St Emily, so if the time is short, I typically sit in one of them and go over some of the upcoming lesson plans. During this time students often pass by for numerous reasons - two occasions in the past couple weeks were bloggable - hence the stories below.
The first episode is about two twin girls in the Pre-K class at the school. Both of them tend to walk on their toes and the front of their feet, so the Phys Ed teacher at the school spends two days a week with them to correct their habit. This involves both of them walking around with their socks on - he tapes some kind of metal cap to their heels and tells them they need to make sure they hear the click when they walk; they walk on the stone tile hallway floors. He leads them around the school running several small "errands" while they follow him. What is so much fun about this is listening to the banter between the girls and the teacher. They're constantly talking, asking him questions and making observations. My favorite comment was when they were following him past the front door and he said "I don't hear any clicking", to which both replied in unison, "We're on the carpet!" I told the Phys Ed teacher that their adventures are worthy of videotaping.
The most recent episode involved a first grade student, Nathan, who went to the office to get a lunch that day. While he was waiting he talked to me a bit, as I had finished their JA lessons about 3 weeks earlier. Next to where I was sitting was a three-panel display that one of the older students had done about their grandmother's immigration to the US from Germany in 1956. At the bottom of the center panel, there was a cut out map of Germany opposite a drawing of the United States. Between the two were some drawn waves and a ship akin to that of the Pilgrims - not the type that one would have sailed on 55 years ago. Nathan took a look at the illustration, then with a deadpan expression on his face asked me, "did the Mayflower come from Germany?" Quite an observation from a first grader!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
They Never Cease to be Amazing...
Yesterday I had two first grade classes at St Emily that provided some "blogworthy" moments, so I thought I would share them.
Teaching Junior Achievement to students in K-2 is pretty special. In these grades, children seem to have the most "discovery" moments - thinking and saying things where you can practically see the light bulb go on as they respond to questions and thoughts that are put out to them. I am grateful for having the opportunity to teach JA to these children as it is pretty special to be part of a moment when they respond with brilliance, share a thought that shows "kid logic", or just say something cute or thoughtful.
This was my second visit to see these first graders and the lesson was about "needs and wants". In my opinion, this is one of the core presentations in the JA program, as it introduces the difference between core necessities that are vital to life versus things that are nice or even good to have, but could be done without. The students at this school have historically done pretty well learning this concept, so I went into the class with good expectations.
Most of this lesson involves showing the students illustrations of meals, toys, homes, pets and clothing and asking them to hold up one of two cards that they are given, a "Need" card and a "Want" card. For this class, I decided to verbally teach the needs and wants concepts myself first, then use the cards to reinforce the concept. So I wrote the words "needs" and "wants" on the board, and began to discuss them, starting with needs first. There are three needs and after I asked the students in the first class to tell me what they thought they were, food and clothes were quickly on their list. Of course, "air" and "water" were choices as well, but I explain to them that everyone has access to air, so we don't include that and that water is already included in food. So at this point I'm waiting for the third answer, expecting "house", "home" or "a place to live" which is the typical response for the third category, but not the most inclusive one. So one of the girls in the class raised her hand and I called on her. "Shelter?" she said. It was a first! I've done about a dozen of these classes before and have never had a student reply with the actual correct answer. I gave her huge kudos - for most first grade students, shelter is a word that they have yet to encounter. Our discussion continued and I left that classroom confident that the children fully understood the concept of "needs and wants".
Enter the second classroom. It's fun when you enter the younger grades class as it's common with the students that know you from previous JA classes to hear a respectful and quiet "yay" across the room since the kids know JA is about to start. We started in the same way that I stared the other class, talking about needs and wants. After determining what the three needs are, we moved on to talking about wants. Toys, games, even ice cream (which we included because even though it's a food, it's not a food we really need!) all came up in the discussion. We had about five responses, so I asked for one more when a girl raised her hand. "A sister!" she said. What a cool thought - it's answers like that which make JA so much fun to present.
Like the previous class, this one proceeded quite well - the students at this school are fantastic to work with. AS I was winding down, one of the boys in the class said, "Mr Wick, weren't you supposed to have someone with you today?". That really surprised me, it's unbelievable how much students that age take in and remember. The student was referring to one of my Baja mission partners who will be helping me teach JA at the school there this March. I had just asked the teachers at St Emily last week via email if she could join me in their classrooms to observe. But she was sick and could not come. I had never told the students about her joining me, so the teacher must have mentioned it to the class. It surprised me that a student would think to ask me about her. You just never know what is going through their minds!
The speaker at my church, Willow Creek, this past weekend was the CEO of Compassion International, Dr. Wess Stafford. His talk was about regularly giving people (especially children) just one minute of your time as that minute can make a huge impact in their lives. I am fortunate to be able to give these students many minutes of my time through Junior Achievement.
Teaching Junior Achievement to students in K-2 is pretty special. In these grades, children seem to have the most "discovery" moments - thinking and saying things where you can practically see the light bulb go on as they respond to questions and thoughts that are put out to them. I am grateful for having the opportunity to teach JA to these children as it is pretty special to be part of a moment when they respond with brilliance, share a thought that shows "kid logic", or just say something cute or thoughtful.
This was my second visit to see these first graders and the lesson was about "needs and wants". In my opinion, this is one of the core presentations in the JA program, as it introduces the difference between core necessities that are vital to life versus things that are nice or even good to have, but could be done without. The students at this school have historically done pretty well learning this concept, so I went into the class with good expectations.
Most of this lesson involves showing the students illustrations of meals, toys, homes, pets and clothing and asking them to hold up one of two cards that they are given, a "Need" card and a "Want" card. For this class, I decided to verbally teach the needs and wants concepts myself first, then use the cards to reinforce the concept. So I wrote the words "needs" and "wants" on the board, and began to discuss them, starting with needs first. There are three needs and after I asked the students in the first class to tell me what they thought they were, food and clothes were quickly on their list. Of course, "air" and "water" were choices as well, but I explain to them that everyone has access to air, so we don't include that and that water is already included in food. So at this point I'm waiting for the third answer, expecting "house", "home" or "a place to live" which is the typical response for the third category, but not the most inclusive one. So one of the girls in the class raised her hand and I called on her. "Shelter?" she said. It was a first! I've done about a dozen of these classes before and have never had a student reply with the actual correct answer. I gave her huge kudos - for most first grade students, shelter is a word that they have yet to encounter. Our discussion continued and I left that classroom confident that the children fully understood the concept of "needs and wants".
Enter the second classroom. It's fun when you enter the younger grades class as it's common with the students that know you from previous JA classes to hear a respectful and quiet "yay" across the room since the kids know JA is about to start. We started in the same way that I stared the other class, talking about needs and wants. After determining what the three needs are, we moved on to talking about wants. Toys, games, even ice cream (which we included because even though it's a food, it's not a food we really need!) all came up in the discussion. We had about five responses, so I asked for one more when a girl raised her hand. "A sister!" she said. What a cool thought - it's answers like that which make JA so much fun to present.
Like the previous class, this one proceeded quite well - the students at this school are fantastic to work with. AS I was winding down, one of the boys in the class said, "Mr Wick, weren't you supposed to have someone with you today?". That really surprised me, it's unbelievable how much students that age take in and remember. The student was referring to one of my Baja mission partners who will be helping me teach JA at the school there this March. I had just asked the teachers at St Emily last week via email if she could join me in their classrooms to observe. But she was sick and could not come. I had never told the students about her joining me, so the teacher must have mentioned it to the class. It surprised me that a student would think to ask me about her. You just never know what is going through their minds!
The speaker at my church, Willow Creek, this past weekend was the CEO of Compassion International, Dr. Wess Stafford. His talk was about regularly giving people (especially children) just one minute of your time as that minute can make a huge impact in their lives. I am fortunate to be able to give these students many minutes of my time through Junior Achievement.
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