Breast Cancer Mohawks and White Board Fights!
Friday, October 8th, 2010posted by: krueff
Two of Mrs. Fletcher’s students show off their impressive hair designs. J on the right has “Get Big” and “Jow” with zigzags shaved into his head. When I asked why, he answered smiling, “It’s just my style”.
M on the left, has a very obvious bright PINK Mohawk, which he gladly proclaimed was for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
I was impressed by both of these students’ image changes being so personal. Where J can be a quiet student a lot of the time, he always knows what’s going on, and his “hair-billboard” definitely speaks to others that he’s not afraid to show his flare and fun personality.
M is always engaged in class and is very sweet and hardworking. I was unexpectedly surprised by his hair modification and purpose when I came into class, and proud to see that while he works hard, he enjoys life and likes to have fun, especially fun that helps him show his support for an issue he energetically cares about.
This is Mrs. Fletcher’s class doing the Review Game for their Rock Test which is Friday & Monday.
The students break off into whatever groups they like, have white boards and markers, and have to answer Mrs. Fletcher’s questions (which are directly from the test most of the time), and they compete for points against the other groups. The group that gets the most points gets extra credit, which I have learned is incredibly important to the students. They work so hard to get extra credit, even the students that have A+’s in the class, that they rarely realize they are learning the “tough stuff” in the process.
The groups are so paranoid of the other groups looking at their answers that they will write the answer as quickly as possible, and then cover it with something immediately.
Other groups are even more paranoid that they asked to sit in the very back of the lab tables in the room so that all the rest of the groups can’t look over and see what they are writing!
(BELOW you can see the GROUP IN THE VERY BACK RIGHT LAB TABLE… making sure no other groups can cheat off them…)
It’s vicious! But, it is one of the most effective ways to review for an exam that is engaging, interactive, and that brings the answers to some of the tougher questions out for discussion amongst the students, which then fosters communication and a better foundation for the material.
If I ever teach h.s., or maybe even in some other place where I have to give exams, I would love to use this technique for review.
Mrs. Fletcher’s really doing it right when it comes to teaching. She has her methods down so well and they are so streamline for the students that the students are already anticipating and hypothesizing what the next chapter will be! Impressive teaching skills…
