My sixth grade students just received ipads to use during the school day. At first, it was very exciting for them, they were distracted by the need to download every new game or app or this or that. When students calmed down a bit, and teachers got a handle on the guidelines for this, the ipad became just another tool to be used in the classroom. So- I took the opportunity to use the ipad as a way for my students to write and reflect on their experiences in my classes this quarter. I have stopped complaining now about how distracting the ipads are, because I am happy to say that students in sixth grade at York Middle School write more and share more when given the opportunity to write on ipads instead of with pencil and paper. They also write more when they know they are sending it to you or "sharing" it with you via google docs and they are encouraged by this process, which they are more familiar with than any other at this point.
It was a great experience for me, especially because I have been changing the way I do many things, and I have also been teaching a brand new class this quarter. My enrichment class is a creative drama class, and it is very different from any class I have taught in a long time, since the beginning of my career, so I was a tentative about it. Well, it turns out, students enjoyed it, they learned some new skills, and they worked together cooperatively.
So- I leave you with a few reflections from students about their first quarter in music and what they learned from their enrichment class this quarter. Hope you enjoy the reflections..I know I do!
This is what I liked about our first quarter of
Music
I liked that we got to do the operas it was fun being able to create a story on what we wanted to write about. Also about the operas it was fun creating pictures to go with your story . Next I liked being able to use the piano lab to play and write our songs. Also I liked when we got to draw a picture to go with what we were learning about. Everything was pretty good but, I didn't like to sing.
In my experience of enrichment was good. We got to play a lot of games. I liked how we had to write a poem and share it. I liked sharing the poems especially the scary story's. At first I thought it would not be fun but it is fun.
My favorite part of enrichment was the games. I liked all of the games that we played. My favorite game was
Telephone. I also liked the game where we had to talk for a minute about a question non-stop. I also liked the family dinner game not the thanksgiving one the Christmas one.
My favorite creative drama game I've played this quarter is definitely two headed monster or family diner or the game were you write down a sentence and fold the paper in half and pass it the next person so they can draw the picture of what they thing the sentence is about then pass it to the next person so they can write a sentence about what they thing the picture is and so on. I also loved doing all the voice exercises and it fun because you learn how to talk in front of a group of people.
But I was pretty upset at how people played family dinner because people wouldn't take the game seriously and people were trying to be funny when they were acting stupid.
My experience for this quarter in enrichment is I had a lot of fun in the activities we did, like the family dinner activity, or that fun mirror activity. I also enjoyed the times when Mrs Frank did those speaking activities, like when we had to say " Toy Boat" and stuff. I learned a lot during this quarter, and even though it was tough, I liked that Mrs Frank made us read poems or story's to the class, because I'm sure that it will help me in my future life to speak in front of groups. I've also gotten to know a lot of the people in my class here, so that was a great experience also. In shorter terms, I have learned a lot about people in my class, and how to speak in front of people, which is important in life.
One of my favorite activities during this quarter of enrichment, was definitely the family dinner activity. It was so funny to see how people reacted to their roles! I must say, however, I was kind of disappointed when people wouldn't take their roles seriously. Another great activity was " Two Headed Monster", because it was a great lesson to learn that what you wanted to say could be changed by another person saying something else, so it was a good lesson to learn that people think different. Also, I liked that the learning was in a way that was fun! My final favorite activity was probably the mirror activity, even though I didn't feel there was meant to have a lot of learning parts to it, but it was a fun activity all the same.
Well my experience in this enrichment was not the best I'd say. I didn't really want to be in it. But after a while it was sorta fun not too much though. But altogether it was a good experience. Even if I didn't like it too much.
My favorite activity was the family dinner game. It was loud we'll semi loud but it was a nice loud like most thanksgiving dinners my family have. It was also fun being the servers because everyone was ordering outrageous things. But I guessed that's how rich family's are. All in all I think that it was one of the better games.
Q:2 Even though it is the only enrichment I've ever had I bet it will be the best.
My favorite activity was the game were you had to switch chairs with the other person a you had to trust them because if they pretended to switch than you would be stuck in the middle a have no seat.it was very fun play that.my other favorite was the game when you had to try to mirror image what they were doing. It was better when you went slow so the other person coul tell what you were doing.
Q:1 My experience in this class was great.
Bye, bye Enrichment students, see you in music this quarter, but enjoy the other enrichment classes! Thank you for making my first experience with middle school creative drama class a good one! Remember to speak loud and convincingly and use all the techniques I taught you from now on!!
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