PIGS FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today's class was very interesting and very interactive, which is my favorite kind of class! I really enjoyed our first activity of the vortex game. 

This was a great way to review and to assess our knowledge on the differences in unit plans and lesson plans. We played it like a game show which was very intriguing. I will definitely incorporate fun activities like this when I am a teacher!!! We were also introduced to cooperative learning lesson plans, and what they require. We  did a jigsaw activity to be able to expand our knowledge on what the acronym PIGS FACE means. These are the essential characteristics of cooperative learning.

"Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it" (Moodle-Smirnova 10/10/11). 

We each picked a piece of the acronym and had to conduct research with the other experts on the same topic from different groups. We then had to organize our data and findings and bring them back to our group to then teach our group members what we have learned. Each group member was responsible for one piece. 

Jen had to teach the whole class her topic and she did an AMAZING job!!!!!! I really enjoyed this activity because interactive learning makes it more fun and easier to understand concepts, yes--even at the graduate level! WE ALL NEED SOME FUN sometimes! 

We finished off our class with a micro teaching lesson that Meagan and I did on peer mediation. I think that went great except we were really pressed for time so we had to cut some parts out of it. 

However, the parts of the lesson that were taught got the main points across and overall I believe we were a success!