Today at school I was eagerly approached about the Science Fair project my students were preparing for. Little did I know the fair was TOMORROW! haha. So much for planning, its not important around here.
I was assisting my counterpart teacher with gathering the data and printing off the papers for the tri-fold board (that I made from scratch). Each class has to present the project they completed at the islands Science Fair extravaganza, which takes place tomorrow morning at Boca Secondary School.
Grade one's fair project was growing a cucumber two different ways: one with water/sunlight/good soil, one with sunlight and good soil.
Grade two's project involved the tongue and its different areas of expertise, as in the bitter, sweet, sour, etc sections.
After some confusion, we completed the tri-fold presentation when I came to a realization....we hadn't included the children in any of this and it was THEIR project. Why? Sometimes we get so caught up in getting things done the correct way that we forget that every moment can be a learning experience for the kids. Perfection is something this culture is strict about and its wearing off on me.I get so flustered trying to please teachers, principals,etc. I should of let those kids help cut, paste and assemble that board instead of doing it myself as they watched from a distance. I was disappointed in myself after completing the project.
Thankfully, Ms. Mitchell picked three students to present the science project they completed at the fair tomorrow. We had them act like they were on stage presenting and it was adorable! Here is some dialogue:
"This is our cucumber experiment. This one is dead because we killed it." --student
"Well how did it die?"--me
"Well duhhhhh Miss, everyone knows you have to have water, sunlight AND good soil"--student
I was so proud to see their confidence show through while they presented on "their" cucumber experiment. We quizzed them on what the process involved and they were beaming with excitement.
No comments:
Post a Comment