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FINAL BLOG POST - OUR "DAILY TRIPLE" (DUE 12/1).
This week I would like you to use your imagination. You have just won the lottery and will leave your teaching post immediately to travel around the world. As you leave your keys you meet your replacement. You are asked to give this new teacher just ONE piece of advice. What would that be, and why? Enjoy your world expedition!

Blog Post - Week 7
This past week in my own teaching I felt a little disconnected which prompts my question to you, "What was the moment (or moments) when I felt most disconnected or disengaged as a teacher - the moment(s) I said to myself, I'm just going through the motions here?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 6
For the past couple of weeks you have experienced asynchronous online learning (doing modules by yourself). Previously this semester you have experienced synchronous online learning (all together in the Collaborate room). Which do you think is more effective and why do you think that? Which do you like better, and why?

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 5
This week we have what we call "open mic." You can write a post about anything related to your teaching that you would like responses from your classmates.

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 4
Here is this week's question: "What was the event that most took me surprise this week - and event that shook me up, caught me off guard, gave me a jolt, or made me unexpectedly happy?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 3
Please write a post about the following question, "In thinking about my past week teaching what is one thing I would do differently, and why?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 2
Please write a post about the following question, " In thinking about my teaching activities this past week, of what do I feel most proud? Why?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 1
Describe something you used in your program in the first weeks of school that you learned in the summer NTI program. How did it work? Did it get you off to a stronger start than last year?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Class Activity

Early this year I tried a lab activity and chose the group leaders myself. I then allowed the group leaders to chose their own groups. Surprise! three out of five groups excelled while two failed. This was a major lesson to me and is supported by our fall class. Since this failure I have taken the lessons learned in this semesters class very seriously. While three groups did well, the two that did not was not acceptable, the activity was scraped, time was lost, and I needed a replacement activity. The replacement activity was not as good as the first, but worked out well.

3 comments:

andrea strommen said...

I have also had troubles with putting students in to groups. If you let the students pick their groups, they are all friends, and no one does any work. But, if you pick the groups, and no one is friends, they don't seem to know how to work together. Something I tried last week was having my Shop Foreman walk around with a note pad. I told the class that I was putting the class into four groups. I asked the shop foreman to take a chart around and had the students put down their "ideal" group with the students that they wanted to work with. I took this list, and I broke it down to where each group will have one or two friends in it. I have also started doing what we did this summer in groups: time keeper, team leader, writer, and made them write down their title next to their name. What I assigned each student a specific duty the groups seemed to do better. I ended up with only one group that just didn't do very well, verses two or three.

Anonymous said...

Ken, You seemed to have had a successful first try at this activity. I bet the next time you attempt this activity you will have more of a success. Maybe next time do what Andrea suggested and you choose the entire group. I have been in similar situation where some don't get it but don't look at it as time lost maybe its just a lesson learned. I even try to find something positive to say about the group who may not have excelled. Try it again.

Vincent said...

Group activity can be hard at times especially if you miss when it comes to the chemistry of the people working in the groups. I normally just do waht we did this summer count off numbers in the class and allow for the groups to choose the Leader, Speaker, time keeper and the person who keeps everyone on track. That what normally makes everything work for me.