Ross Montgomery
May 5, 2017 BRAINY Blog 2 Experience Narrative: I arrived to the UCA about an hour early this time for BRAINY. I took this early time to speak to Courtney about some of the scavenger hunt items. It was very helpful going around and confirming where artifacts were located. We also talked about some cool stories to tell the kiddos for some of the scavenger hunt. I allowed my first group of students to name their team in order to keep them together and have some fun. They decided to call themselves “Team Savage” and ironically were pretty bad with wondering away from the group. My second group was great and a lot better behavior. I named my team “Team Ostrich”. This actually played out really nicely. I would put my hand in the air make my hand into an ostrich head. This gave the students something to follow. I had my team put there hands up with ostrich heads and follow me around. This technique worked really well in keeping them together and engaged. Interpretation/Content Meaning: The second group was much more attentive and engaged in the lesson/ scavenger hunt. I told them that I had never had a group finish the scavenger hunt before. This was a little white lie but got the kids to really try and complete and scavenger hunt in the time we had. Making something a bit more of a competition is good for increasing interest. Personal Significance: This was another great example of hands on experiences with kids in the Elementary age group. I think these benefit in building patience and keeping young ones engaged and interested. It was really similar to the week before in goals. I was able to make the scavenger hunt run much smoother and flow from artifact to artifact. I think giving the team a name like the “ostriches” was very beneficial. It was silly and the kiddos laughed. It allowed me to bring them together quickly and keep them lined up to follow the “ostrich head” hand as I walked through the museum.
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Ross Montgomery
April 28th, 2017 BRAINY Blog 1 Experience Narrative: I got to the UCA early to go over the content and discuss plan of attach with partners Roxanne and Nicole. I had a bit of nervousness over the unknown of how the day was going to go. We split up the presentation and negotiated who would go when. Going over the powerpoint before was a great refresher. The kiddos started entering at 11:50 very excited when they walked past the boat. We got started on the presentation right away. I spoke of the first section on “What is a museum?” I think for the first attempt it went pretty well. We flowed as a group very naturally. The second presentation I feel like we really had a grasp of the PowerPoint. The scavenger hunt with the kiddos was enjoyable. I had some students who wanted to wonder. We did have a teacher walking around with our group and kept the students in line for the most part. I think overall both groups were great and we had a fun time. Interpretation/Content Meaning: This was a great experience. I really enjoy working with kids of this age group. I think the one thing that I need to work on for next BRAINY is really understanding where the scavenger hunt items are, as well I would like to have some fun facts about the pieces in the galleries. Working with kids of this age group is definitely a unique experience. I thought that the kiddos would be a little more difficult to stay engaged in the art. Museums can be a difficult place for little and they loose interest quickly. I got an interesting feel for working with little kids in a museum environment. I felt that the students listened to me and followed directs for the most part. Personal Significance: This was a unique experience working with little kids. I have 6 nieces and nephews so I am use to working with little kiddos. I enjoyed talking with them and really employed the “questioning” technique with. I feel that some of the questions on the BRAINY packet were a little vague and uninteresting for the kids. It was nice to get some hands on experience. I feel that this had some underlying connections to the Service Learning. People with developmental issues can have the behavioral and social level of young children. I will take away from this experience keeping track of where the students are and making sure they stay close to the group. Future Actions: For the next BRAINY I want to try and employ some strategies in keeping the kiddos excited to be there and engaged in the scavenger hunt. I think I can achieve this by creating a unique and attractive team name and hand action we can do to gain attention. This could be naming my team the “High Fives” for example. I could use this to get students attention yelling “High Fives” and we all give each other high fives. |