Reflections for 6/30-7/3
Today was CPH's first day of working with the GEAR UP kids at Chula Vista High School. The GEAR UP teacher was doing the first day of school usuals (i.e. getting to know your students, syllabus/course requirements, etc.). As a result, we didn't have time to present our lessons. However, we got an idea of how the big the class was, how many students there were, and what materials we had to work with. We had the opportunity to also sit down with the teacher to discuss what our plans were for the week and how we can all work together to implement it. After the school day was over, we returned to CPH to make additional photo copies, get supplies, and come up with a solid game plan and make the necessary adjustments before Tuesday based on the information from today's observations.
I feel confident that the teacher presentations will go well. All of us seem very prepared for this week's activities. I am concerned that students might not have enough time to complete their projects since it's a short week. We shall see!
July 1- Today we had the opportunity to present our lessons to our GEAR UP students. Angie Garcia went first explaining the basics between viruses and bacteria and how they are passed from each other. I really liked the acitivity she implemented with her students where they had to swap liquids in a beaker. Later they found out it was tainted with a virus and had to track back who was the original carrier. It was great student interaction activity. After Angie presented her lesson it was Daniel Crook's turn and he presented his math activity on probability. Dan tried to make the math fun for them and tied it nicely to the science curriculum. After our break, we changed so we can work in an actual science lab room and then Jerome Sandaval presented his lesson on how infectious disease relates to famous authors of the past, like Shakespeare. It was a great science connection as well and he even tied in some history into the material. After Jerome, we transitioned with telling the kids what their final project was and how they had to go about do it. I can tell that some of the kids were stressed that they had to turn something in in 2 days. After putting them in groups and allowing them to choose their disease, the kids immediately started researching their project. They completed some research but I hope they will get more accomplished tomorrow.
July 2- Today was my day to present. We started with an icebreaker again (yesterday we did "what do we have in common?", today we did "two truths and one lie") and I immediately started with my lesson. I felt it went well. If I had to change one thing it would be to shorten some of the wording on my powerpoint slides. I was also glad that students remembered how to do latitude and longitude from last year. After my presentation the kids went back into their groups to continue research for their project. After our break, Daniel Pearson conducted his presentation on how to work with iMovie. One really cool thing was tha after the lesson, Daniel Pearson worked with each group individually to teach them how to use the video camera. I think some of the kids became more excited about the project once they learned about the technology aspect. While Daniel worked with individual groups, the students continued to work on their projects. Some of the groups made good headway and found interesting things to put in their "time capsule". I was concerned about the "ebola" group because they seemed to make the least progress out of the others. I think they just need someone to take a leadership role. Tomorrow I will make sure that I hang around them to keep them on track.
July 3- It's our last day of Cyberbridge! Today was simply "project day". Students put the finishing touches on their time capsules and worked on their videos. We gave them a couple of deadlines. We wanted them to have everything for their time capsule to be complete before their break. Then after break, we focused entirely on their videos and editing. They had until noon to complete this task and get ready to present. I made sure that I hung around the ebola group today because of yesterday's concerns. I felt like I was able to guide them in a direction so they could complete their project. In the end, they completed everything that was asked of them. I really wished the kids had at least one more day to finish up their videos. When the kids presented them, there were some minor editing errors but I thought they were good overall (since they ony had 2 days to work on it!). One of the best presentations was the HIV video. Their video was very funny but informing. The Black Plague group surprised me as well. The students in that group were generally quiet but they added some funny parts to their videos. It would be nice if the students in class would have had the opportunity to critique the movies and give feedback on how to improve the videos. Then students could take this advice, edit/refilm, and present the final piece.I'm really looking forward to working on videos with my students next year. I think we can make some really great projects to make the students excited about learning the curriculum. We just need to get a hold of some video cameras since our school site only has broken cameras. :(