My Kagan journey began in the fall of 2009 when I began working at my current school. Our entire staff was trained in Kagan's cooperative learning and throughout the past 3 years we have completed Days 1, 2, and 3. Today we were trained on Day 4. I love having the days so spread out because it gives us time to implement new structures and ideas one semester at a time. I feel like Kagan has made my teaching so much better and I am very thankful for the opportunity my district has given me. Today, during Day 4 training, I learned even more.
Have you ever played 2 truths and a lie? It is a common game played when getting to know people at church camp, holiday parties, etc. Loads of fun! Well, today I learned how to apply it in my classroom. For example, you can have 3 math problems solved, and the students decide which two are correct and which one is incorrect. Genius. I am super excited to use this structure in my classroom this fall.
We also learned about Match Mine, talking chips, and numbered heads together. I think talking chips will work great when we begin to work on our group projects. Basically everyone gets two chips and you put your chip in the middle when you want to talk. This gives everyone an equal opportunity to talk, and limits the conversation to the important stuff. Some ideas I thought of were coming up with a team name, deciding on the theme of your project, or deciding the best presentation method. Talking chips is similar to Spend a Buck, so I will need to look back in my notes to see which one fits best in each situation.
Time flew by today, and I had a lot of fun. Days like today make me excited about teaching :)
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