Volunteer Hour #3 & 4

My third session was 4/6 and because we skipped the Easter Holiday, my session was two hours instead of one.

If you remember from my previous post, my presentation to the kids was on presentation skills. I was so excited to see if/how they applied thier "homework" to the weeks that had passed. At the beginning of the session, I had each student stand up, and read from thier journal about the introduction they had made. While there were a few who hadn't done an introduction, the majority of students did and had great things to say. I was suprised to see how many people used the introduction to talk to a boy/girl that they "like" as they were able to blame it on "An Assignment from Ms. McCray from our Health Explorers group". I laughed at the cleverness of them and for a minute remembered what it was like to be dealing with hormones and academics at that age lol.
I digress..
So after the journal readings, we are pumped and ready to move on to the next topic. For this session I decided to talk about Study Skills. My presentation covered good study habits, the need for exercise and nutrition to keep the brain happy and tips for taking breaks. I emphasized study groups and explained that being able to explain something to someone is the best way to know if you really understand a concept. Since we had extra time this session, I decided to do a group activity rather than give them homework. I split the students into groups of four for this activity. I asked the students to think of one thing that they are curently learning and teach it to the whole class. I allowed them to work on this for 15-20 minutes and then each group instructed the whole class on a concept. Some chose to give us a mini language lession and we learned how to say "Have a good day" in spanish (Ten un buen dia). While others "taught" us a math equation solution, and something from thier science class. All in all the participation was great and everyone seemed to be ok with the extended time of this session. Maybe the snacks helped...