Experiencing Group

Experiencing group was an interesting project. There are always pros and cons to group work. As a class we were all introduced to google documents. I had never heard of google docs so I found it to be very fascinating. The part that I liked the most about google docs is that two of us can be working on the document at the same time which really helps people with busy schedules and is not able to meet in groups all the time. The second part of the project our groups all had to take our paper and put it into a presentation to share with the class.

There are many ways in which group work can be a help to students. Overall it can help with students willingness to open up to other students and to use social skills that they may need in future jobs. However, in order for these groups to be successful there are some essential key components that need to be present. The group needs to be able to communicate with each other effectively using tools and involving each member. Secondly the group has to learn to trust each other and use a effective group process. Group members must collaborate with each other and be able to resolve conflict within the group. If these key factors are present it makes for a positive group work experience. Here is a video on team work

As most people know though, group work can also be a very negative experience. In many groups participation can be seriously lacking from all group members. Even if one group member does not properly participate it has a dramatic effect on the project. This is what my group experienced although some of the group members put in a lot of work. The project turned out to look like not much effort was put into the project because of lack of participation which showed when each member was not confident and even one didn't even know how to work the project. To the students that do put the effort forth it can prove to be very frustrating when other members don't participate making group work a con.

For our presentation we used a online format called PREZI and our project can be found below. Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Blast From the Past: Progression of the Education Classroom on Prezi

PowerPoint (Ehhh + Sweet!)

PowerPoint (Ungh + Sweet!) was a recent project assigned to us in my technology class. I know that many of my fellow students were not completely clear on the assignment requirements until maybe the last class before it was due. What was requested of us was that we create an interactive power point that would be able to be used as a part of a lesson that would help the students to practice or review the lesson. I think the part where most of us got confused is that we weren't actually teaching a lesson first, but only creating the interactive part of the lesson where the students could actually click on the power point themselves. Then the power point could be used in conjunction as a game or with a review sheet.
Although the power point project had a rough start to it I ended up really enjoying being able to be creative with my project and ended up learning a lot about power point in the process. I liked that the project made me think critically about how to approach the classroom that I chose appropriately and interestingly. I think that once there was a detailed narrative given to us it was a lot easier to narrow down a subject that you could teach. I chose to teach middle school math reviewing the formula D = R X T. One source that helped me in this project was how provide the students interactive learning. You can read more about this site by clicking on the following URL http://tinyurl.com/8dp87v9.

In my narrative I said that I was teaching a small rural school in Montana and tried to find fun "farm or horse" examples to keep them entertained. The power point started off with a fun activity where the students bet on a race horse which then led them to a youtube video of a race in an effort to get them excited about the project at hand. I created my power point with the thought in mind that I would give a worksheet with the power point that let the students work on the examples presented. Then I provided the answers at the end of each problem so that if they had any questions I could assist them. How would I keep them from just writing down the answer, you may ask. Well in the worksheet instructions it would state that all work to find that answer must be shown to recieve credit. At the end of the worksheet examples I then provided a critical thinking bonus question that would spur the students to try to put together numerous learnings into one problem. In the question Buffalo Bill has to round up escaped cattle and at the end of each step the horse moves to the cow and the cow disapears. I really enjoyed this part of the project because I learned so many new things that power point can do.

For assessing our projects we had the opportunity to assess each other as peers. I really liked that we were able to do this because it gave us a chance to get other ideas from other students power points as well as think critically about how a student may look at a power point and how they would grade it. All of my fellow classmates did a great job in their blogs I thought that they were fun and interactive and properly fit to the age groups that they presented. If you would like to read about their blogs or how they felt about the power point project visit:Leah Stearns project or Katie Lybrook's project. To find more helpful tips on power point projects visit this url: http://tinyurl.com/5q2sdh.

So even though this project started out as a pain it turned out pretty sweet and I would encourage anyone who does not know much about power point to learn because it can provide a great teaching tool that is fun an interactive for the students.



Narrative for PowerPoint Project (1)



Teach Smith 183 (1)