For our In-Situ class, EKTEP went to a local elementary school in Cranbrook and helped grade 3’s create a stop motion video in mini groups! My group consisted of three teacher candidates and four students, so we were able to help the students a lot! Our stop motion video was about the students’ desk pets rescuing their friend (other desk pet) from the pot (plants) and flying away with them, which leads to them saving the day. Student’s participated by holding the strings that were attached to their desk pets and moving them around as two teacher candidates and a student directed, by holding the iPad. The other teacher candidate supported the students by telling them how much we need to move the pets for each frame and helped with any questions they had.

I think this is a great way to have students wrap up a project they have been working on in a unit, such as learning how to plan a story. The students even filled out a story planning sheet before we filmed our stop motion video and even though they needed a bit of guidance, they had a lot of great ideas but needed some help putting it into words.

Reflecting on this in-situ class, one student was super eager to take the lead and had many ideas but sometimes he overshadowed other group members because they were more quiet. We tried our best to try and have him help direct and use the iPad, which worked for a bit. I feel that we did a lot of management rather than assisting the students when needed. Though, I also understand that they are younger and may need more guidance. It felt like we were in a small space as well, as we were in a corner and didn’t have much room. We are also a big class, which makes it crowded too. Maybe next time, we could combine classes and then there are two classrooms that could be used for space. I had a lot of fun, and it was great being able to help students in the classroom!