The Joys of Creating a Presentation

The technology I have tackled in the last few weeks has been asking the students to create a Powerpoint presentation about a Colorado Life Zone. I did this project last year so I was excited to tweak a few things to make it more powerful and meaningful for my students. We began the lesson by spending some time on research, how to do it, what it looks like, and identifying useful sources. We then also discussed giving credit to sites and authors so that it didn't look like our work. The students did well with this and I think it will make for more productive research throughout the rest of the year. I used BrainPop videos to support this learning and that was very successful in engaging the students and putting it on their level.

We then discussed the power of using multiple sources. The students had to take notes on their Life Zone using the text book and an internet resource. This way they really got exposure to why multiple sources are effective to help them to solidify their information gathered. This also allowed us to discuss Primary and Secondary sources, which was a meaningful conversation as well.

The students then gathered their notes using a Tree Map for organizational purposes. Once the notes were done,  they had to put together a Powerpoint presentation on Google Docs. I created a template for them that they could alter and change. We discussed not writing full sentences on our slides and having it be more of a note catcher that we could expand on during our actual presentations. They really took my basic instructions and ran with them. I was impressed to see their dedication and excitement. They worked for three days on them and I never had one complaint that they didn't have enough to do. One thing I added this year was a sources cited slide. This way the students had to cite the web links for their embedded pictures and resources used. We haven't graduated to Easy Bib yet, but I felt like this was a good seg-way to getting them to understand the process of citing.

Today they will be sharing their presentations with other students and seeing what everyone came up with. They will then be providing each other with feedback on their final products. I am so excited to see what they have come up with!

Powerful Understandings

     I can honestly say that I truly saw the power of technology in my classroom recently. We are currently reading a book called Out of My Mind about a girl named Melody who has Cerebral Palsy. The students have been generating some great comments/answers to questions posted on our class Google Group for the book. It is helping to increase their understanding of empathy and what life might be like for people with disabilities, like Melody. In the story Melody's life is changed when she receives a "Medi-Talker," a device which allows her to communicate her thoughts, feelings, and learnings for the first time in her 12 years of life. The students were so excited for Melody and how she was finally able to show the world how much she was capable of mentally. I have a student this year in my classroom who has many of the same struggles as Melody. Her diagnosis is not CP, but similar to it in many ways. I purposely chose this read aloud because of our classroom connection to the story and so that my students could have a more meaningful relationship with their classmate. She does have a talker that allows her to communicate her thoughts and learnings as well. We were given the amazing opportunity to have this student and our speech pathologist come in and demonstrate how a real talker works and how she is able to communicate with it. The students were  now able to see how much their classmate is capable of and were able to learn more about her in the process. She made a joke, told us about her family, hobbies, and school, and was able to answer student questions using her talker. We were all blown away at how easy it was for us to underestimate her. These talkers really do show us how technology has the ability to change lives, it is a powerful tool that allows so many to share themselves with the world. I know that this changed my view of things as it did for my students as well. It will be something that I never forget.
     Another powerful moment came when my students were filmed doing group presentations on Colorado Regions. I used our fantastic camera from the Cohort to film them. These videos allowed us to go back and reflect on their work much like athletes do after a big game. We talked about what a quality presentation looks like/sounds like before watching and then sat back and observed what they did. It was so powerful because they were able to say "Wow, I had no idea I was pacing around while my group members were talking," or "You could hardly hear me because I was too quiet," or "I didn't look at the audience once, I just read from my poster." Watching themselves in action, allowed them to reflect personally and as a class like I have never seen before. I could have given them this feedback on a rubric, but watching it first hand was so much more powerful because they couldn't hide from what was right in front of their eyes. They are now really thinking about what to do next time they present to increase their success and their audiences engagement. I think it also made them more aware of their effort overall and that some of them could have put more into it.
     The power of technology truly is something to be marveled at in circumstances like these. This experience has allowed me to absorb more of that understanding, but still understand that it is a tool to enhance the learnings that are already taking place in life and in the classroom. My student is an incredible person without her talker, her ability to express herself is just enhanced. My students can be powerful speakers/presenters on their own with guidance, but being able to reflect on what they are doing via video recordings allows them to identify areas where they can improve. It has been a powerful few weeks, I can't wait to see what is up next.