In my designing for learning I prioritize conversational skills, literacy development, hands-on engagement, and the gamification of learning. I enjoy making games for my students, giving them the tools to talk about the concepts I am teaching them both to me and to each other, and giving them opportunities to try new things and look at the world in new ways.
The following lesson made use of exploration and discussion to facilitate a positive learning environment. For a grade 1 science class I used play-dough to give students the change to explore how we can use different actions to change objects without changing what they are made of. The students had a very positive experience with the lesson and got to use play-dough in a new and interesting way, and think about how they interact with the world with new vocabulary to describe it.
The below lesson also used exploration and group work to experiment with the concept of sorting by using various items to sort according to any rule the group wants to try using. This lesson went over very well and as they worked I was able to continue to pull students who I needed to conference with in order to complete assessing a previous project in math.
Morgan Hemmingson - Teaching Portfolio 