Day at Sea

BC Standards # 3: Understand and apply knowledge of students growth and development
Program Values # 1: Pedagogical Sensitivity

Day at Sea Stations

The day we spent at sea:

BC Standard # 3 states that teachers need to understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development and Program Value # 1 reinforces pedagogical sensitivity, especially around a student-centered classroom based on constructivist theories.

For my social studies unit, I planned a hands-on lesson with various stations to simulate a day on the Matthew (John Cabot’s ship). I had a food station with pickles, crackers and pepperoni, a navigation tool station with compass, sextant and telescope, a drawing station with fancy markers and a play station with Playmobil® and toy ship.

While it was a lot of planning because of the nature of the activities (space for stations, song for rotation, materials, helpers, etc.), it was an amazing learning opportunity for my students. They were so engaged in the stations that I had minimal classroom management issues (mostly group dynamic control) and that I could feel the postivie energy and vibes in the classroom. Reading their journals afterwards and marking their quizzes brought great satisfaction as a teacher because lots of wonderful learning happened that day.

I know that constructivism supports the learning of diverse students and that children develop as learners and social being through play and hand-on activities. I believe that the stations for my Day-at-Sea lesson reached all the individual learners in my classroom and supported the diverse needs of my students. While textbook readings and math drills are part of learning, I believe that my students’ experiences can be enhanced by creative activities such as games, bingo, jeopardy, word hunt, songs, etc… I purposefully planned for these engaging activities throughout my lesson to reach all my learners and maintain interest and motivation.

My goal as a teacher is to seek all opportunities to learn more about constructivism through readings and research and to explore students-centered classroom and activities through professional development. I have at heart to explore various learning styles and multiple intelligences in my future practice.