I’m in the middle of a two-week Faith Camp. This camp is different from VBS; my husband and I do VBS, too. Faith Camp is two weeks and designed for kids behind in their religious education. We meet Monday to Friday from 9-noon. It has be thinking about ways to improve instruction. Here are a few tips.
1. Plan more ideas than you think you can realistically accomplish. I planned about 50 projects for Faith Camp: games, little field trips, crafts, stories, video clips, skits, etc. I do the same thing when I teach. I have a list and supplies ready for about six activities for Co-op class. We seldom complete all six activities in one class.
2. Change things up a bit. When I home-schooled Paul and Lacie, I kept a stack of lessons ready each day. We did math first and read 20-30 minutes everyday. But, we changed up the order of lessons, too. Mondays, we did a week’s worth of Geography. We doubled up Theology to be ready for an online lesson with Father Josh on Thursdays. We did different English lessons each day: Vocabulary, Composition, Literature, Hand-writing, etc.
3. Enlist help! My husband and I tag team regularly. When we home-schooled Lacie and Paul, Rob taught Math. I organized lessons and taught Science. Most of the grading and reporting fell on me; however, Rob checked tests and grades work, too. When we teach, the teens pitch in all the time. The kids do their own clean up after labs. I assign stronger students to lead lab groups. This Fall, Rob and I are team-teaching both Biology and Algebra because there are several kids with learning differences. There are also several bright teens who’ll need a challenge. Two teachers will make it easier to differentiate instruction. I’ve had parent stay to help with Co-op classes, too. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s half the reason Rob and I teach Co-op.
No comments:
Post a Comment