The third and final day of the unit had us take a walking field trip to Cleveland's local public park, Eldon Park. At the park, there are tennis courts, two baseball diamonds, a playground, a mini water park and a surrounding forested area. Lots of places for careless folk to leave their trash and recyclables on the ground! Before getting started on the "Great Eldon Clean" (as I affectionately called it with the class), we paired the students up and split the class in half so that I could be responsible for one group on the field and the classroom teacher could be responsible for the other in the forested area. Each partnership got a plastic bag each, a pair of tongs to pick up the garbage with and some plastic gloves. Their job was to pick up every piece of garbage they spotted. The teacher and I had our own bag, tongs and gloves as well, as the best way to teach students is to model the behaviour you want from them! The two of us also had a separate bag, which was for our group's recyclables. Whenever a pair found something that should be recycled, they were to bring it over to myself or their teacher (depending on whose group they were in) and put it in the recycling bag.
Another component to the clean was that, prior to starting, we accepted estimates from the class as to how many pieces of garbage they thought we would find. We wrote everyone's estimate on a piece of paper so we could see which student would be the closest. Then, we instructed them to, every time they picked up a piece of garbage for their bag, count each and every piece. And off they went! Simply counting the garbage they were finding was enough to keep them entertained and interested for the duration of the time we were there (about 50 minutes) ... if a task is turned into a game, suddenly it becomes a lot more fun! I was glad that I'd thought of the counting idea, rather than just having them tediously pick up piece after piece of trash; I'm sure that would've gotten a little old after 10 or so minutes.
At around 2:30pm, we reconvened to tally up the class total, as well as to discuss the process of what we'd done, how we felt about it, etc. Every one of us was astonished when we learned that collectively, we'd collected 2,311 pieces of garbage and recyclables! How proud those students looked. Beaming smiles all around. During our discussion, one of the students said it best: "I feel really good about what we did, but I'm kind of mad at the people whose garbage we picked up. I mean, it's not our job to pick up after them!" She'd hit the nail right on the head. "That's right," I said to the class, "if only everyone acted responsibly and put their garbage in the garbage can where it belongs, we'd have a lot nicer of a park to enjoy". "How about the plants and animals?" I asked them, "why do you think they'd be happy with what we've done?" One of the quieter boys in the class raised his hand and said, "Garbage hurts their homes. Also, sometimes little snails and things think a piece of garbage is some food and might eat it and it could hurt them". Smart little group! A few of the major points I wanted to address and they were getting all the right answers.
We ended the day by each depositing our garbage bags into the park's dumpster, which I thought was a perfect way to end the unit. Overall, it was a very successful experience - I know the students learned a lot, the classroom teacher said she was going to use the lessons to future classes and I, of course, will too.
One of the main things I liked about the unit is that it incorporated many subjects into one easy-to-teach 9 period unit. A little bit of everything was offered - Language Arts with the speaking/listening of the discussions and the reading/writing of the homework assignment, Computer Skills with the online interactive games, Art with the Recycle Art lesson, Math with the estimating and counting of the park clean, PE with the walking, running, picking up garbage aspect of the walking field trip and Health & Career/Social Responsibility of the whole unit itself, teaching students how important it is to do these things to keep our city, country and world as clean and healthy as we possibly can.
Next year and the years to follow of my teaching career, I will definitely teach this unit to my classes of students. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to create it for the purpose of this course, Education 493. I enjoyed making it and I very much enjoyed teaching it!
Tara Parkinson
96110-1652
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
The second day of my unit started with going over the homework, the worksheet from the previous class. We had a brief discussion about how easy or difficult it was to remember to recycle, what was recycled the most in each family, as well as if the class had had chats with their families about the number in the triangle, what it meant, etc. For the worksheet, I noted two things that I will change the next time I teach this unit. The first question read, "Was remembering to recycle easy or difficult?" In hindsight, I should have included the word, "Why?" at the end of this question, as every single student just answered in one word, "easy", which didn't allow for much thought or reflection. The other question I would have students expand on next time is the one that read, "When you recycled something, how did it make you feel?" Again, I should have said something to the effect of, "Please answer in detail", as most students again only gave one word answers, either "fine" or "good" or something to that effect. More thought needed to go into their answers. Definitely two questions to change for next time.
After collecting the homework, I showed the class the 45 minute DVD, "Schoolhouse Rock: Earth". In this, there are twelve 3-4 minute cartoons that teach children about different facets of the environment. This is done through song. A few examples of song titles are, "The Trash Can Band", "Save the Ocean", "You Oughta Be Savin' Water" and "Solar Power to the People". Each song is catchy, meant to help the viewer remember the important environmental issues that are depicted in the DVD. The students enjoyed watching it; smiling, laughing and even in some parts, singing to the repetitive choruses. It was cute! After, we discussed the cartoons. I had each person say which cartoon they liked best and why, as well as what they learned or didn't know before watching.
The next lesson that day was an art lesson. Prior to the class (for weeks, actually), I had cut up pieces of recycled "stuff" from my recyclables at home. Things like cereal boxes cut into little rectangles or circles, yogurt lids cut into triangles, bread tags, newspaper, etc. I had enough for every student to have dozens of choice. I told them that the idea was to be completely creative, that there were no real "rules". They could create a collage or make the bits into some form of picture; the choice was theirs. I also told them that they weren't stuck to the shapes I had given them, if they wanted to cut them into other shapes (stars, diamonds, etc), then they could. Each student just had a pile of "bits" on their desk. If they wanted to get up and trade with a piece that another student had, they could. One student said they were eager to start because most art projects they were used to had some sort of rule or teaching technique to follow. The ability to be 100% creative with no real rules was appealing to them. The class was focused and worked hard during the period; they really seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. The results, the "finished products" were very nice. The classroom teacher stapled them to her bulletin board and they made for a very nice - and educational in the environmental sense! - art display. One change I would make for the next time though would be to have the students bring in their own recycled material. That way, they have ownership and a sense of entitlement to the pieces, as they came from their own recyclables! Just handing them the pieces didn't offer that, and that is one thing I would change for next time.
Before leaving for the day, I explained to the class what we would be doing the next class - going on an "Eldon Park Clean"! I told them to be sure to dress for the weather, whatever the weather would be that day, as we would be out for the majority of the afternoon. Again, I had a great time in the class and felt the students enjoyed themselves and learned a lot, as well!
After collecting the homework, I showed the class the 45 minute DVD, "Schoolhouse Rock: Earth". In this, there are twelve 3-4 minute cartoons that teach children about different facets of the environment. This is done through song. A few examples of song titles are, "The Trash Can Band", "Save the Ocean", "You Oughta Be Savin' Water" and "Solar Power to the People". Each song is catchy, meant to help the viewer remember the important environmental issues that are depicted in the DVD. The students enjoyed watching it; smiling, laughing and even in some parts, singing to the repetitive choruses. It was cute! After, we discussed the cartoons. I had each person say which cartoon they liked best and why, as well as what they learned or didn't know before watching.
The next lesson that day was an art lesson. Prior to the class (for weeks, actually), I had cut up pieces of recycled "stuff" from my recyclables at home. Things like cereal boxes cut into little rectangles or circles, yogurt lids cut into triangles, bread tags, newspaper, etc. I had enough for every student to have dozens of choice. I told them that the idea was to be completely creative, that there were no real "rules". They could create a collage or make the bits into some form of picture; the choice was theirs. I also told them that they weren't stuck to the shapes I had given them, if they wanted to cut them into other shapes (stars, diamonds, etc), then they could. Each student just had a pile of "bits" on their desk. If they wanted to get up and trade with a piece that another student had, they could. One student said they were eager to start because most art projects they were used to had some sort of rule or teaching technique to follow. The ability to be 100% creative with no real rules was appealing to them. The class was focused and worked hard during the period; they really seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. The results, the "finished products" were very nice. The classroom teacher stapled them to her bulletin board and they made for a very nice - and educational in the environmental sense! - art display. One change I would make for the next time though would be to have the students bring in their own recycled material. That way, they have ownership and a sense of entitlement to the pieces, as they came from their own recyclables! Just handing them the pieces didn't offer that, and that is one thing I would change for next time.
Before leaving for the day, I explained to the class what we would be doing the next class - going on an "Eldon Park Clean"! I told them to be sure to dress for the weather, whatever the weather would be that day, as we would be out for the majority of the afternoon. Again, I had a great time in the class and felt the students enjoyed themselves and learned a lot, as well!
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