Book Chapter Project

On Thursday, Cassie, Cari and I facilitated the class discussion on Chapter 5 to the class.  Before our group met, I read the chapter so I knew what the material was and could start getting some ideas on how we wanted to facilitate this.  We met as a group to prepare.  We used Prezi as our main presentation tool and then used the Elmo.  Prezi was very easy to use and prepare our material.  None of us had used it before, but once we started using it, it didn’t take very long to create a presentation.  We all worked well together and it didn’t take us very long to come up with how we wanted to facilitate the discussion.  We wanted to group our peers differently than what others had used to discuss, so we grouped them into colors.  I think this worked very well.  The time constraint was an issue, but we just had to go with it and were not able to have a lot of large group discussion after the small groups discussed.  After our group prepared for the discussion, we met together the day of to make sure we knew how to use all the technology and make sure we knew who was doing what.  I think we all did a very good job of getting our material ready so on the day of we weren’t trying to get last minute things ready. 

By facilitating this discussion, we were able to experiment and see what works well with facilitating.  This also helped me personally feel more comfortable presenting in front of my peers.  Also, by doing this, as the facilitators, we had to know the material well so that if questions were asked we could answer them or if a group was on the wrong track, we could reguide them. 

As teachers, we will have to teach with administrators in our classroom observing.  I personally find it a lot more difficult to teach or present when a peer or administrator is in the room.  I was a substitute teacher for a year and had no problem going into a classroom and teaching, but when I had to start peer teaching, I found it very difficult to do.  So by teaching our peers this helps us get ready for not only teaching students, but also for having observers in our classroom.  Also, by discussing course content with peers, I think this helps you understand the material better.  If you can teach the material to someone else, that means you have a pretty good understanding of the topic and can actually help you learn the material even better.