My presentation didn't take as much work to plan as I anticipated. It took our group about two hours, plus practice time. I enjoyed using Scribble Link in class and suggested to my group that we utilize that tool in our discussion. This tool appealed to me because I am more of a visual learner. So far, the class discussions have all been verbal. Instead, students who don't usually speak up, will be more willing an less intimidated to share their ideas. Unfortunately, the links did not work in the classroom five mintues before class started. We created the pages on Monday, then re-tested them Wednesday, so we could not figure out why the links didn't work on Thursday. But, luckily we discussed a back up plan on Wednesday just in case, since this was a new tool for us. So, instead we conducted verbal group discussions like previous groups. I think our lesson would have been more creative if the links would have worked, but the back up plan still helped our classmates get the main ideas from the chapter.
This set back will not hold me back from testing new technology in my future classroom. I will still experiment with new tools and now I understand the importance of a back up plan in case technology fails me.
Since we were not the first group to present, it was less pressure, espeically since the students' discussions make up the majority of the lesson. The same can be applied in my elementary classroom. Giving them enough time to discover their own information will allow me to do less prep work and help them more. They will be in charge of designing their own learning. I must be prepared to guide the discussions, but not totally lead them. Also, after my first couple of lessons on the first day of teaching, it will get easier to design lessons, just as it was easier because my peers went before I did.
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