Character

Today was my first day as a student teacher (!!!) and I am LOVING it! I am at HMS in a 6th grade GT classroom, and I am very impressed with my students. My coordinating teacher, Mrs. M, is the perfect match for me, and I couldn't be happier with my situation! Today, I taught the first half of each class. I introduced myself using a slideshow of pictures and my results from several quizzes showing what characters from The Hobbit, Harry Potter, and Hunger Games my personality most resembles. If I were a LOTR character, I would be a Hobbit. If I were in Harry Potter, I would be Dumbledore (?). Here are my Hunger Games results: 

 

I was pretty happy with my results :) I think they're pretty accurate... expect for Dumbledore. I am flattered, but I don't quite see the resemblance! After I finished introducing myself, I had the students take the Harry Potter quiz for themselves, an activity which they all really enjoyed. When they were finished, we shared different character profiles and talked about whether or not the students thought their results were accurate. To finish, I had the students use their student blogs to write about their quiz results. They included their character profiles on their posts and answered the following questions:

• Which character did you get as a result of the survey?
• Do you agree or disagree with the result? Be sure to explain why or why not. Give examples of how you are the same, or how you are different.
• What are the key character traits for the character that you most resembled?
• Name another character from a book that you've read who has opposite traits. Explain what a meeting between the two characters might be like.
• What is the difference between "Character" and "Character" (person in a novel/play vs. qualities distinct to an individual) as discussed in class? How do you define your own character?

The whole lesson plan went very well and I am amazed at how much I have learned already! I need to keep better track of time, I need to expect less validation, and I am simultaneously under- and overestimating these 6th graders. The best part of the lesson was the technology. Each student had access to a class set of ipads. To give them access to the quizzes, Mrs. M created a QR code, embedded it on my Powerpoint, and then the students scanned it from their ipads. SO COOL. Once the students had determined their character, I called on a handful of them to share their results by linking their iPad screen with the projector screen so the whole class could view and read along with them.

Then, the students used their personal edublogs to show their quiz results and respond to the prompts listed above. As an avid blogger, I am so in love! After I finished my lesson, Mrs. M had a class discussion based on a the weekly online class discussion through a website called Schoology that was due 1/17 (they just finished reading A Christmas Carol):

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." ~Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) 

 1. Please paraphrase King's statement; what does he mean?
 2. Knowing Martin Luther King, Jr., why did he make this statement?  
3. How does King's statement fit, or not fit, with the topic of ignorance in A Christmas Carol? Make a comparison.  
4. Knowing what you know about MLK, Jr. and what you know about why Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, do you think the two men would have something in common to talk about? Explain.

Last of all, the students continued an introduction to poetry that they started last week. They took notes on their ipads using the Evernote App, which looks pretty amazing, although I don't know much about it yet! Can't wait to see what other Apps and gizmos this class uses to enhance education in the classroom.  

Sources:
Character Quizzes // zimbio.com
Student Blogs // edublogs.org
QR Code Generator // qrstuff.com
Schoology // schoology.com
Evernote // evernote.com