Job Training: How Teachers Support Students' Growth

Here is an introduction to lessons at CGK Afterschool.

CGK's eight-week-long project works will be based on the main “Driving Question”.

Here are the Driving Questions for this "Job Training" lesson.

How can teachers help their students grow?

We followed this question with fun lessons each week that drew the student's interest.

Here are the comments of Mr. Bobby, the teacher who was in charge of the lessons.

Week 1

Students were introduced to the topic and as a class we created an anchor chart. On the anchor chart we asked questions then groups researched the answers and at presentation time shared the answers they found online with the class.

Week 2

Students learned about how people learn and the different learning styles. The students watched a few different videos about learning styles and what each one means.

Week 3

Students took a quiz to see what they learning style is. After the quiz the students were interested in the life of Helen Keller and how she learned being blind and deaf. Watching a video the students learned about Helen Keller and how she communicated.

Week 4

Students were introduced to the final project and broken into their groups. In groups students began to brainstorm their final project and what they will be teaching, One group picked a science theme teaching about cactuses, one group picked  a music theme lesson teaching about garage band and the last group went with a PE theme teaching how to play badminton.

Week 5

Students were introduced to how a lesson plan is formed by teachers and the different phases of a lesson. First being Focus, which is just an introduction of the subject they are teaching and gaining interest. Second Presentation, teaching the information they want the students to learn. Third Activity, a work sheet or some type of activity to help reinforce what the students learned and finally Check. A way to see if the students have learned the material, normally some kind of small quiz.

Week 6

Students groups worked on their final projects building each aspect of a lesson plan. One person per group was responsible for each section of a lesson plan. Student group worked on their quiz and their lessons.

Week 7

Students groups finalized their presentation and practiced their speeches and finalized their presentations.

Week 8

Students presented their final project. Following the lesson plan structure the students did a very good job of presenting their work. The most difficult aspect of being a teacher and creating a lesson plan and teaching something was creating the quiz and the presentation part. The students worked hard on creating their Kahoot Quizzes and having the class participate.

Although the profession of "teacher" is familiar to elementary school students, they must have seen some of the difficulties involved in becoming a teacher themselves.

The elementary students worked hard with their friends to come up with a lesson plan to express what they wanted to say and how they wanted to teach.

I hope that the experience of this lesson has been another learning opportunity for them.