I finished helping teach the Up, Up, and Away camp last week. It was a fun camp and I enjoyed all of the kids. If I had to complain about something, it would be that some of the activities were geared towards making crafts without a lot of substance to go along with it. So while the campers were making a lot of cool aircrafts, they weren't learning much at the same time. I tried to make them think while they were crafting as much as possible, but it was an uphill battle. Even still, the campers did a good job grasping the basics, which is still positive; especially for a summer camp for 2nd graders.
Today I stepped in to help teach the 2nd grade campers in the Florida Wetlands camp. The intern who was supposed to teach could not be there. The campers lacked energy and seemed to count down the moments for lunch the entire time. I think it was because it was a lot of introductory information that was not interactive. From my experiences this summer with the young campers, I found that they listen and learn a lot more when they are engaged by doing something interactive with their hands. Trying to lecture doesn't work because they just won't listen, but if you sneak that lecture into the middle of an activity in which they are building something or creating something, it has a much better chance to stick. I shared this with the teacher after the day ended, because she was concerned about their energy and their level of participation.
Tomorrow I am stepping in for someone who cannot make it to the Photo Field camp. I'm not really sure what this will entail, but I am excited to be outside doing exciting things tomorrow. Wednesday I should finally be able to slow down and work on my project a little. My supervisor looked at my plan and said it was headed in the right direction, so that is a good sign. I'm also on Supply Duty this week and weekend, so I am busy! But busy is good. With a few naps sprinkled in between.
Cool, it sounds like you have definitely learned a lot about working with young kids...if you ever teach that age level in the future, at least you will have some idea of how to go about it... good luck with stepping in for the other camp tomorrow! I'm sure you will have no problem figuring out what to do =)
ReplyDeleteMy supervisor Dr. Ellis has the same complaints about elementary science being too arts and crafts based! It's a good point though, if the kids are just doing art they may just be focusing on their project and not on the science aspect. Seems like you've had a challenging week, hopefully today goes much better for you!
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean about the arts and crafts stuff. I feel like we are so focused on teaching the science of activities while a lot of other teachers (especially with younger kids) don't try as much to get the science content into the lesson. I had a great teacher this week for camp though for Inventions, who's been doing a lot of engineering based activities so I definitely think that it can be done.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand the arts & crafts thing, BUT if you can make it educational at the same time, I don't see a problem with it. At the end of the day, it is a summer camp and it's supposed to be fun and we are talking about elementary-aged kids. We all know from working with them this summer that their attention span is short, to say the least.
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