On Tuesdays, my mentor gave me the responsibility of teaching the students how to draw an image. This activity was meant to get the students excited to draw, so they can continue to pursue other non-academic activities, but instead skill and value building activities such as, perseverance. In honour of Halloween, I wanted to do something special and Halloween themed, so I settled with teaching students how to draw a "Pumpkin Surprise". Step-by-step, I instructed students on how to make and draw the pumpkin and at the end of the activity, only a few students were able to successfully create the Pumpkin Surprise

Before doing this activity, I felt excited. We'd never done anything like it before. Usually, our activities are strictly 2D, but this time I wanted to do something new. Right off the bat, I felt nervous. I noticed a couple of students were unable to fold their paper the way I had instructed. I think the students felt frustrated because they were unable to correctly fold the paper, and it showed when they stopped trying. My mentor even had to step in to rectify the situation, but we didn't have time to focus on just a couple of students, so I just continued on. At the end, I felt quite dejected because not all the students were unable to get their pumpkin surprise the way I had mine.

What went well is that a couple of students were able to finish their pumpkin surprise. What did not go well is that not everybody completed their pumpkin surprise. When I asked students to show their drawing, no two pumpkins were the same. I think the main problem in this activity was that students were unclear on how to fold the paper. What I should have done is that I should have made sure everyone was on the same page. Instead of blindly asking students to fold, I should have made sure I was looking at each student and the way they had folded.

One thing that I learned during this activity is that, no matter how much preparation you do, it's useless if the delivery of it is not well done. In order for lessons to be successful, you need to make sure you master the preparation and delivery. This is definitely where practice comes into play, which was something I did not do for this activity. In order for this activity to have worked, I should have practiced teaching how to do the activity. I also needed to have think back to a previous time we did a crafting activity. It wasn't until after the activity that I remembered that students still had a problem understanding how to fold papers as instructed without a teacher physically present. I should have kept that in mind when I selected this activity.

Looking forward, when selecting an activity, I need to be sure that it is within a students's ability. Not just for some students, but for the entire class. I also need to make sure I'm paying attention to the students' activities; that way I can catch them before they make any mistakes. I definitely think this is why TAs come in handy in the classroom. I also need to make sure I'm clearly explaining myself; I need to include multiple ways of demonstration.