One of the sessions that I attended at Geofest was about a program called World Savvy. The program focuses on project-based/inquiry learning with an emphasis on creating global competency within students. I thought the program sounded really interesting and it would be something that I would incorporate within my own classroom. The website where you can learn more about the program and print out curriculum materials is: worldsavvy.org
Also during this session, they shared some ideas for different anticipatory sets you can use with students. One that I wanted to share was a warm-up exercise entitled “Processing”. The activity challenged the way we typically process information. To begin, have the entire class sand up, then give the instructions. “When a command is said the students are to perform the corresponding OPPOSITE action.” For example one of the paired actions was WALK and STOP. When the leader said STOP the class WALKED. When the leader said WALK the class STOPPED. There was a whole list of actions that he recommended, but you could use any pairing.
Begin the activity with only a few set of commands. Continue to add more and more commands to test students’ memory and mental processing capability. After 5 minutes of playing have students sit down. Turn-and-talk with a partner about why you did the activity and what you learned/experienced. Discuss as a whole group.
I really liked this activity because it was challenging, fun, and got my brain working. Great way to wake up the kids!
Here are some of the pairing commands that our instructor used. (Remember when the leader says one word, the class performs the other action).
WALK (Stop walking)–STOP (Start walking)
CLAP (Say your first name)–NAME (Clap once)
JUMP (Put your hands on knees)–KNEES (Jump up once)
CROSS ARMS (Touch head)–TOUCH HEAD (Cross arms in front of chest)