Prezis 10/19

Last Wednesday I checked out the laptops from the library and made a project for the students. They were meant to work in pairs and each pair was given a country to research.
I went through the directions initially very quickly. I assumed that we could work out the details while we were working together, but I really need to get better at being clear at the very beginning about what we are supposed to be doing. The first day (Wednesday) that the students had laptops we did a tutorial about how to use the software. This seemed to go pretty well and I had an alright pace with the information.
When the students were told to start researching their countries, it became clear that they did not really knwo how to look for information. They had a very clear list of a few things that they needed to have in the presentation, however about half the groups were missing very simple key things that were on the rubric. Next time I do this I will go over the rubric very thoroughly so that the students understand exactly what we are doing.

The effort to work on the project outside of school was almost non existent. Students would only work during class, and the most successful group told me that they finished their in a class where they already had access to computers and some free time. I thought that for the first time doing a major project, this went pretty well. Very few of these students are good at presenting material in any form or fashion, and so the presentations themselves were not very good. However, they did do a good job for the most part of following the specific directions that I had given them.
Key note- everything that I discussed at great length got done. I was under the impression that they would read the directions on the guide that they were given, but I need to get better about being more specific.

Mike has encouraged me to try something once and accept that it is going to be below average. However, the second time that a class tries something it will probably work out a lot better. When we get to China or the Middle East I think that I might try something like this again.

Make your own maps

Next year I would really like to use some type of make your own map activity at the beginning of the year.
Pictures such as "The Earth according to Americans"
and "The World as Seen from Ninth Street" are really funny and a good introduction to satire.
Not only could I gain insight into what kids already know about, but it was also be a fun artistic activity that many of them would probably enjoy.