Standard Six: Communication Skills - The teacher uses a variety of communication techniques including verbal, nonverbal, and media to foster inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in and beyond the classroom.
Standard six, communication skills, is not only important to implement with your students, but also with the faculty, parents, and community members. Being able to clearly communicate within the school, and your students will make not only the lessons run smoothly, but also will enhance your student's communications with you and their classmates.
Finger Print Art
Finger Print Art
- The first artifact that I wanted to included, was an art project that helped me get to know my fourth grade students. In small groups I gave them a piece of paper with their name written on it. They passed it around to everyone in their group would write one good thing about that person. They wrote what they thought he or she is on the inside or other things that they notice that are very positive. Once this was done, I had the students read what the other students had read, then gave them an opportunity to write about themselves. For example they wrote what are their likes and dislikes, who they want to be when they grow up, what they want to accomplish. For the art project, we talked about how everyone is unique and we can show this by our fingerprints because everyone's finger prints are different from another. They then had a chance to look at their fingerprint by stamping it on a piece of paper. Then they drew their own finger print using lines to create their writing template. Once their lines were drawn, those lines where used as their writing template. They would write about themselves using their fingerprint outline. Everyone's was different, but it gave me a chance to communicate with the students about who they are and what they liked so I could tailor lessons to my classroom needs and likes. This was a fantastic art lesson.
Bowling Math
- The second artifact is a lesson that I created for my fourth grade math class. I had to not only communicate with my students and my lead teacher, but I had to coordinate with the physical education teacher to find a time that I could use the gym and her equipment. I not only had to plan this lesson, but extended my communication skills to other staff members. This lesson was a bowling math activity. They were in the middle of MAP testing and our class had about an hour before they would go into their testing time. I wanted to plan something that was educational, but also something that the students would get the student moving before going to test. There was different groups and only one person could go at a time. Each group had a set of cards with only the answers on them, and a flip book where they could only see one question at a time. The person who was going was the only one who could read the question to the group. Everyone in the group all had to answer the question on their white board, then find the answer in the stack of cards to find the correct bowling area that would be shown by letters on the back of the cards. The letters represented a specific bowling lane that that group of students would have to go to in order to bowl at the proper lane. They would first go through an group of hula hoops, then found the bowling to bowl at three pins until they knocked the pins over. The students were so engaged, and so excited my lead teacher went to go grab the principle of our school. He decided to join the students in all the fun, but also communicated with me later that they are going to use that activity for the Success Assembly at the end of the year for those who grew on their testing scores. This helped my communication skills with not only my students but other staff members who wanted to do this activity as well.
Class vs.Class Competition
- In my fourth grade team, we had another student teacher named Mallory. Mallory and I decided to collaborate on multiple lesson activities including reading intervention and other lessons throughout the day. We have noticed that when our students line up to come in from the outside door, they were very loud. We decided, since we are right next door to each other, we would do an activity or competition for five weeks (how long Mallory was going to be there). We wanted to create a competition, that no matter where our line goes they have to be at a zero. Mallory and I would decide when the points would be given to the class. For example going down the hall for lunch, who ever was the quietest would receive the point for the day. Which ever class would have the most points by the end of the week, they would get the overall point for the week. Who ever has the most overall points after five weeks, that class would get to decide the subject for a surprise activity. We decided to make the activity an obstacle course. We then mixed the two classes together and created teams. Each team would race through the obstacle courses and answer questions throughout the course. Once the whole team finished they would sit down as quick as they could for the win.