One of the main competencies I was working with during this practicum was collaboration and teamwork. Even in grade 6/7 having the skill set to work together and share ideas with each other is something that needed a lot of work. From the beginning, I noticed a lot of students not being able to listen to each other’s ideas and only focused on their own.
As a class, I organized some activities that required students to work together and collaborate. In our Ancient Egypt unit, I decided to have students work together in groups to plan and create 3D pyramids using only mini marshmallows and toothpicks. In groups of 3-4, students planned out how they would build the largest and sturdiest pyramid. Once they had finished planning, their task was to create these pyramids. As the teacher, I was able to observe the students working together and solving any problems they faced without any guidance from me.