7/11 Week 7: Catch Up Post and Project Planning

Helmeted Guineafowl at Bill Frederick Park
Given the 4th of July break, I'll condense the past two weeks into one blog post. Both of these past weeks had field trips, but I really just served as a chaperone for them. One field trip saw us go to Bill Frederick Park while another had the Florida Film Academy visit the History Center. Both of these field trips had educators from the park and the academy handle the lessons, so we simply watched the kids and made sure they behaved. 

Animal Bones (Bear and Cow Skull along with Deer Antler)

The class activities for these past two were somewhat similar to previous weeks if you have been reading the blogposts. Both weeks had the kids visit one of the galleries at the history center.  One week had them explore the pioneer gallery and another had them handling some animal bones as a part of an animal focused week. I spent the animal week helping the kids measure their punching power with a sparring tool and then escorting them to Frederick Park.

During the second week, the camp was a bit hectic, so I had to reschedule my main teaching opportunity from this week to the next. I still taught a class, but there really was not much to talk about given the last minute creation and focus on this lesson. The main thing I learned this week and the previous is how the class lessons are laid out. 

Unlike a more traditional academic environment, the lesson plans for a summer camp do not have complex learning objectives. Since the ages range from 6-11, the learning objectives need to be kept simple. Most of the activities are laid out with 4 sections. The learning objectives, background info, classroom facilitation, and supply list. In these sections, the lesson plan highlights another difference from a teacher's self made lesson plan. The teachers at the museum are not tied to one group and do not create the lesson plan, so part of designing the lesson plan here needs to be laid out and explained a bit to the teacher. Each week will feature about 9 or so activities depending on whether there is a field trip or not. These are some of the insights I will be taking into my final project for my internship course.

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