learn to teach, teach to learn.

One of the most important things you can take away from field work is what the students teach you. Although the position of the teacher is to teach, we often times are also the learners. Personally, I learned a lot for this group of students during field work. I will definitely take into consideration their comments, and suggestions.
One thing I learned is kids do not like voki's. Voki's are interactive cartoon characters that you can create using a variety of different characters, backgrounds, voices, and have them speak whatever words you choose. Maybe younger students will think they are funny and engaging, but at the fifth grade level, they are seen as annoying, weird, and dumb. As every group did, upon request, we used a voki in our lesson plan. Our voki was "mother nature". This character expressed her concern for fracking on our environment, and asked the class for help. We presented our voki as the "problem" in our inquiry part of the lesson. "Mother Nature Voki"

Aside from voki, the students seemed to like using QR codes and kahoot. Teachers can use both as a form of assessment, as my group did.

QR codes can be useful as an activity that asked students to get up and move, research pre chosen websites, and complete independent practice. These codes can also be used as a form of assessment. We handed each student a QR code and an iPad to scan it with. Each student was either given a question or an answer. Their job was to find the student that matched there question or answer. The pair that match would then be partners for a cooperative lesson plan activity.

Kahoot is a fun, competitive way for students to participate in an informal assessment. Teachers can create their own questions and answers. Students are required to answer the questions in the allotted time. After the students answers are submitted,  correct answer is revealed to allow for immediate feedback which is key to learning.

Anyone, big or small, can make a difference

Overall, "Every day is Earth day" was a successful after school program at Bishop Dunn. I feel as though all Mount St. Mary's participants helped guide a passionate group of students to become more educated about their environment, and engaged in making a difference. My heart was warmed as the students thanked us for teaching them about environmental issues and controversies that they are normally sheltered from. For example, hydraulic fracturing. I am proud to have contributed to sharing my knowledge on this particular subject. It is an issue that many people are unfamiliar with. This topic was brand new to the students when we introduced it's environmental impacts during field work. I was glad the students were grateful to listen to fracking's affects and stand up against the practice.

 My favorite moment in field work was witnessing the students engage in a debate about plastic bags vs. re-useable bags. I really wanted to have the students participate in a debate for the cooperative learning section of my lesson plan. Since that was not the ideal activity for our lesson, I was still excited to watch it play out in another lesson. The class actively and passionately participated. They were professional and knowledgeable. I was highly impressed with their statements. Both sides of the argument had valid, strong arguments that force the opponents to think hard before responding. The students discussed health issues, animal issues, environmental issues, cost issues, and impacts. I am very impressed with how this group of students grew and concord this after school program.