First Day of Teaching: The Battle That Changed History

Today was our first teaching day the battle that changed history. We began our lesson by having Dr. Smirnova introduce the class and tell them she has a special surprise for the class. Harman walked in first playing pretending to blow the trumpet as we had music playing that sounded like a trumpet sound from the medieval times. Then Amanda and Sarah walked in pretending they did not know where they were and were looking for the medieval classroom, then Kim and I walked in and gave the students crowns and feather pens that we previously made and told them they are now ready to be a part of the medieval classroom. We all walked in with crowns with our names on them. The students seemed to really enjoy this introduction and it started off with high, fun energy that was carried throughout the lesson. 

The first lesson we taught was the direct instruction lesson. Things could have gone differently, but in the end I thought it went well. The students were given a note sheet packet to fill out as we went through the slides teaching them about the battle of hastings. The students then got the opportunity to make their own Bayeux tapestry, which we taught them was the tapestry that told the story of the battle that changed history by having the events on it. This was an interactive activity, and each group got to come up to the smart board and create their own tapestry using the touch screen. This was a fun, interactive activity for the students that started to wrap up our lesson. 



Our group worked really hard and spent countless hours working on this lesson. We wanted the students to travel back in time to medieval times and get a feel for what it was like back then. The students also made banners on the very first day we were with them, and we attached them to string and hung it in the classroom during our lesson for decoration to add more to the theme. We also had mini castles, that was called the "pen dungeon", if the students were not respecting our pens and playing around with them. All of the students were also given crowns as their name tags, and they really enjoyed being kings and queens for the day. I am very proud of our fieldwork group for putting in so much effort and making the students enjoy learning about the battle of hastings.