Celebration of Learning

The day has finally come..it was my last day of integrated fieldwork! Instead of teaching a lesson, me and the rest of my classmates had a 'Celebration of Learning' for the 5th grade class we taught. We took this time to celebrate them and all that they have achieved within the 18 hours of us teaching them. To prepare, us teachers worked together to create a post-test for the students to take. This was to test their knowledge and have us be able to assess what they do or do not know. We aren't grading this test, but it was for them to independently work on it and think back to the previous lessons that were taught. Each group added in four questions from our lesson plans and they could be multiple choice or short answer. For example, my group added questions like, "What year did Christopher Columbus go on his first voyage? Was Columbus of Spanish decent?" After creating the post-test, we decided as a class that the students would enjoy a Kahoot! game since they get so excited whenever we incorporate those into the lesson. We came up with all new questions for them and we thought that this was another great way to test their knowledge, but in a fun way.

We started the Celebration of Learning off with a quick powerpoint. This powerpoint showed pictures of us working with the students and teaching our lessons. We asked them what they learned about, what they enjoyed, and then we gave them their post-tests. I thought that they did a fantastic job with taking the post-test. When the students heard us say 'test' they were obviously not excited, but they kept quiet and finished up the test pretty quickly. After we collected their papers, we all passed out iPads for the students. We instructed them to keep them locked until every student was finished with their post-test. After all the papers were collected, we introduced our Kahoot! game. The students were so excited, as usual. This was the perfect way to keep them engaged but also review information that all of us teachers have taught them within the past few weeks. At times, the class got extremely loud but it was only because they were so excited which is understandable. We had to quiet them down at times but overall, I think it was a great idea on our end to incorporate this game into the Celebration of Learning. After they completed the Kahoot!, Miss Marie spoke to the students on behalf of all of us and thanked them for being so cooperative and helpful during our lessons. In order to celebrate and congratulate them, we had certificates made for each student. We called out their names one by one and handed the student their certificate. This was a great way to celebrate our students. We all gave them a round of applause and gave them a special gift. We provided the class with two informational textbook sets about Christoper Columbus. We thought that this was the perfect way to sum up our lessons and have the students get an opportunity to learn even more on their own time!