Skype mini lesson

(1) What topics did you present?  How did you go about making in "stick" with your audience?

My group presented on punctuation at the skype reading on Thursday. We presented four forms of punctuation, periods, commas, exclamation points, and question marks. We presented using driving as a visual for the different punctuations. I think that it stuck with the kids because they connected different aspects of driving to punctuation. The red light represented a period, stopping the sentence. The yellow light represented a comma, slowing down and pacing a sentence. The green light represented an exclamation point, something abrupt. The question mark was represented by a pot hole, swerving around it and wondering why it is there. I think overall people were receptive to the simplicity that we brought as well as being metaphorical about punctuation. 

(2) How do you feel your mini lesson went? Strengths? Weaknesses?

I think that our mini lesson went off better than we thought it would. Overall I think that it wasn't fantastic but for sure was better than we thought it would be. I think our strengths were the amount of visuals we had, and the interactive aspects we added by allowing the kids to answer the questions that we asked. I think our weakness was just being unprepared, and having to finish our visuals before the skype call instead of having them done earlier. I think we were slightly disorganized in terms of who has what role, but played it off well in the actual lesson. 

(3) What did you learn about the process of teaching and learning?

I think that I learned and understood how much prep goes into making a lesson that sticks with the listener, that makes sense to a different age group than myself, and doing so in a creative and unique way. It's hard to relate to people in different age groups than yourself, and it is difficult to think of an effective way to convey your message when you forget who you are teaching. That was a big take away point for me, learning how to relate to an audience who may have a different understanding than yourself. I remember my first presentation to a group of elementary school kids, and how rough it went because I didn't talk as though I was talking to kids 10 years younger than me, I was speaking as though they had a similar understanding that I would've had... Obviously that would not be one of my best presentations. I think this was a good take away point for me, especially having presentations to younger kids in the future, to remember your audience. 

(4) What should we do next?

I think that it would be a good idea to do a pen pal type thing where we send the kids in Thompson actual letters. As much as I love using technology as a form of quick communication, I still find it more personal to hand write letters to people. It would be fun to do a pen pal assignment where we write to them, and they write back to us. That's really the best idea I have got.