One of the
struggles that I have in my current position is my third-period class. Every day
during third period I have difficulty connecting with our 6th-grade team in the
same way I do with 7th and 8th grade because I teach during their prep time. I
teach one section of 6th grade applied digital studies which often takes me
away from being able to coach during these time slots. My principal, Mr.
Schwarz has done an amazing job at covering my class when I need to work with
these teachers, and without him, I don’t believe the following project would
have developed.
Despite this
restriction, however, I was super excited to work with Ms. Wynne this year. Ms.
Wynne is our amazing 6th-grade social studies teacher. In the past, she hasn’t
had access to Chromebooks as many of the other teachers have. But this year,
she now has her own Chromebook cart in her classroom and she has begun to think
of new ways to integrate technology into her lessons. She also reached out to
me to come up with new ideas to engage her students in debate.
Ms. Wynne was
beginning her unit on the House and the Senate and was looking for a way to
freshen up her instruction. We were able to have students explore different
pending bills, form committees, engage in committee debate, and even bring
their bills before the entire “House,” then forwarding legislation on to the
“Senate.” Our time together on this project ended abruptly with the
announcement of school closures, and I am certain that as their project
expanded it would have developed into something special. This project not only
brought the teacher out of her comfort zone but also brought students out of
their comfort zone. It was amazing to see them select sides and develop
research-based arguments, something I don’t think they had done before. The
structure we developed from this project I believe will feed other types of
debates in the future. The close connection Ms. Wynne has with our science
teacher will prove to be valuable as well, as together they will be able to
develop debate norms for their classes making them both successful.
Lastly, Ms.
Wynne has a son working in Washington DC for Senator Grassley. We were able to
set up a Skype chat with her son so that students could get to see first hand
the political landscape of DC from here in rural Warren County Illinois. It was
simply amazing.
Classroom debates can nurture listening skills, rational thinking, organization of thoughts, communication skills, and public speaking. Anyone who want to develop excellent communication skills can find debate clubs or Debate Class near Me, which can be a place to learn and acquire these skills. Thank you for sharing this educational post.
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