My First Mini-Lesson

What is a hemisphere?

This was the first question I asked of my students as a teacher. Yes it was only a mini-lesson and yes it was only review, but it was my mini-lesson and my review. It was my turn to be in front of the class. And, I couldn't have asked for it to go better.

My audience was my 7th grade Eastern World class, and they were great! They were responsive and engaged. They stayed in tune to my lesson, and I fed off their energy as much as they fed off of mine (which is really saying something for 8:00am).

We discussed the ancient Greek translation of hemisphere as 'half a sphere' and broke down the word on the board. We brainstormed spheres we were familiar with and talked about what half of that sphere would look like. I reviewed with them the latitudes and longitudes that divide the hemispheres on the globe and drew them on the board. We discussed where the hemispheres are, and four volunteers colored them in on diagrams on the whiteboard in front of class. Then we played a game. They tossed a globe beach ball around the room and when a person caught it I would call out a hemisphere, the equator, or the prime meridian, and they had to put their hand on it. They passed the ball between them until every student had a chance to play. I would have kept going, because their participation was great, but it was a mini-lesson after all.

Ten minutes later, my moment in the spotlight was over. I had fun, but more importantly, the kids did and they were able to learn at the same time.



Hightlight of the Day:

Watching my kids play having fun with a globe.