Planting The Seed: How a job interview turned into a new favourite class activity
Recently I met Ruth, who was interviewing for a tutoring position. During this process we ask for a demonstration to show their presentation skills. Ruth bought some soil, seed and water. This immediately sparked my interests as I love indoor plants.
Ruth demonstrated the process of planting a seed and talked about its growth stages and how this represented the growth of your life, study and your career. This got the cogs turning in my brain and I wondered “how could I use this as an activity for the classroom”, especially for a new class.
Our new February students who have joined us for their Certificate in Travel and Tourism Level 3, were the perfect opportunity to try this new activity with.
We first talked about what ‘planting the seed’ meant. In a group discussion, we decided it meant when you hear something new or learn something new and it sparks an interest. We then continued the conversation about what sparked our interest in travel and tourism or what ‘planted the seed’ for us in travel and tourism. Everyone had a different reason, but lots of us had similar reasons- during high school tourism class, attending an ITC short course or we love to travel!
First was the soil. Most plants and seeds need soil to grow and depending on the plant, it will depend on the soil type you need to plant a seed. We talked about the soil being the foundation of our learning journey. Everyone’s foundation was going to look a little different, we all had different work experiences, different learning or educational experiences and we all had different life experiences. However, we were going to share some experiences together in this course, and we all shared some common goals. Monday was everyone’s first day at ITC. We all wanted to achieve our National Certificate in Travel and Tourism Level 3. Most of us were also enrolled for the Level 4 Certificate too. Lost of us shared the desire to work as a flight attendant or work at the airport or in adventure tourism.
The next step was planting the seed. We planted different seeds- thyme, basil and parsley. As we held the seeds, we looked at how different the three varieties were. Some of the seeds were so tiny. We talked about the seeds being the desire to achieve our goals. We then planted our seeds. Some students choose to push the seed into the soil, and some choose to leave it sitting on the top of the soil.
We then talked about how the seed is going to grow and what it needs. It needs water/rain and sunshine. This represented what we were going to put into our studies. Our attitudes, attendance and participation are the sun and the rain. We all watered our plants gently and spoke about who was going to water them tomorrow. We must look after them for them to grow. Without water, sunshine or light and warmth, our seeds are not going to sprout.
The plant growing represents us growing and achieving our goals. The plant starts by sprouting and growing a little bit each day, just like us. We are learning every day and as we move into our studies, we are going to start passing assessments which are going to help us work towards our main goal of achieving our NZ Certificate.
We took a group photo of our pots, with their soil and seeds in them. In 20 weeks, we hope we are going to have nice big plants. But more importantly the class has achieved their goals of achieving their NZ certificate in travel and tourism Level 3.
