Experiencing Group

When first being told that we would have to write a paper and create a presentation in groups, I was not thrilled. Usually I am the type of person who would rather work on things like that by myself, and when I need help, I ask my own sources. However, when choosing our group members, and beginning to talk about our plan of action, I started to feel a little better. During the essay part, we all contributed equally, completing the assignment in a timely manner. It seemed to be easier for us because we had a set plan and we were all following it through. It made it easier for us because we all knew what section of the body paragraph we had to work on. Usually I do not like working in groups and I deal with it when we are forced. However, this group made me realize that not all group projects are terrible. It is nice every once in a while to get a group that cares, has the same work ethic, and is willing to put the time in to get the product completed.When figuring out the presentation part, we all slacked, slightly. It was very hard for us to figure out when, where, and how to complete this presentation. We decided to use Prezi.com as our chosen media for the presentation after creating a presentation through google docs. It was difficult to use at first becasue it was a new website for us, but after spending some time together as a group working on it, we have gotten it completed and it looks great.

Here is the wordle image I have made from my last post!

PowerPoint (Terrific)

When first getting assigned this project, I was not very thrilled. I was not a huge fan of PowerPoint and did not know how to use many of the features. However, after having the objective to create an interesting lesson through the use of PowerPoint, I have realized it is not as hard as it may seem. When going through the requirements, I was very overwhelmed and did not think I would be able to create a lesson through PowerPoint on the material that I have chosen to "teach." I put that in quotations because I really wasn't teaching...yet. When getting this assignment, I racked my brain on what I wanted to present. It hit me after a while; teaching how to draw letters. Learning how to read and write is a very important skill so I constructed a PowerPoint with the first four letters to jump start the "children" that would be viewing this presentation. Some of the things that I have included in the presentation were many pictures being matched up with the letters, two videos (one being a video that allows the children to hear how the letters are said) and pictures of a diagram that shows the children how to draw the letters. The video that is embedded into the PowerPoint is called Phonics song 2 and I think it is a great way for young children to hear the real pronunciation of a letter. As the presentation continues through, I included slides with the diagram of how to draw the letter and a space for a child to be able to practice writing it. Of course, this feature would only be useful if there is a smart board.

After working long and hard on the product, it turned out to allow me to actively involve all the children and still be educating them without many words. After everything was said and done, it would be a great feeling to be able to present to a peer and they can give me feed back, however, I missed class due to illness and I sorely regret not being there. Other than that, I have learned that PowerPoint is not as bad as what I thought it was. Another thing that helped me out with embedding a video into my PowerPoint was the use of a program called iskysoft. I was getting very frustrated with trying to embed the video from youtube, so I downloaded this. Not only did this help me fill in my requirements, but I also now can use it to download videos to my computer from youtube!