New Thinking from Class

This week from the class facilitation it was emphasized again that we need to use our teacher voice.  The group did a great job of circulating and checking in.  They asked great questions to make us think of other things within our group.  The group was well prepared, knowledgable and did a good of grouping the students.  The timer was a great way.  This helped the groups know how long we had but also allowed the facilitators to not have to be watching the clock. 

To consider: ways to share out the information, not just verbally but visually to help all student learners.  One way to do this would be jigsaw grouping.  One person from each group would form the second groups so that there is one expert from each initial group in the second groups. 
Provide a summary frame to summarize your discussion.  This makes everyone focus on a clear summary which makes the group summaries go very quickly. 

During class it was helpful to go over the SMART Board tips and tricks.  Make sure to check that objects are locked in place if you don’t want them to be moved.  Also be sure to group objects so they are one object and not individual objects to move.  If you want a bunch of one object so that if they drag one away, there is another, you can use the infinate cloner.  Be careful and sensitive to color choices.  On your monitor the colors may be fine together, but when projected the colors may be totally different and make it hard to read.  Smallest size text you want to do is 24, but 36 plus is ideal.  Rule of thumb for number of words on one slide or page is 6 lines with 6 words per line so a total of 36 words.  Also take into consideration the grade level.