First Day of Fieldwork!

Today we had our first day of fieldwork for our Social Studies Methods class.  We got to meet the students that we are going to be teaching and play some fun icebreaker games with them.  Playing these games gave us the teachers an idea of what the students are like and also if they had any prior knowledge on what we are going to be teaching them.

The class was very energetic and engaged when we were playing our icebreaker games.  They were all really excited for my groups' icebreaker which involved a beach ball that had the globe on it.  The students would toss the ball around to each other.  We asked the students a variety of questions about themselves and also about the different topics that we are going to be teaching in our groups.  From playing this activity we learned about the students and where they have been in the world.  Most of the students have been out of the country, which really surprised us!

Some of the students were very knowledgeable about the different places on the globe.  One student was telling us all these different facts about Antarctica.  At the end of the class, we asked the students what they thought about all the different activities and which ones they found easy and which ones were a little challenging for them.  They liked all of the activities that all the groups had done but they found some of the social studies questions a little difficult to answer.

Overall, it was a great first day of fieldwork and getting to meet the students.  Seeing how the students were during our icebreakers gave us an idea of how they might be during our lesson and how we need to make sure that all students are participating and are engaged and focused on the lesson that we are teaching.