Takeaways from the class
- J's class presence - He has a manner of directing a conversation that I want to steal. Even though this is a large classroom, he is constantly moving about the classroom, talking to individuals but including the whole class in the conversation. He has a tendency to walk right up to individuals to get them to ask questions, but to sit/kneel down to hear their answer so the answer seems to go to the whole room, and not just him. I think it both keeps the class attentive, since he can move anywhere at any time, but also can help encourage those who might be disinclined to large group participation to be more willing to speak up since they can be speaking just to him, but the whole group at the same time.
- We have a WIDE range of reasons to want to be teachers and to get to hear everyone's reasons was something that was just good, good for the cohort to be able to understand each other better, good for a chance to verbalize them and good that instructors were actually interested in that reason and would be incorporating that into our classroom discussions.
What we talked about
- Dewey and his philosophy of education
- social hygiene videos
- starting the dreamy Dick York
- what our worries and hopes and memories of technology
- the class will do anything for post-it notes and sticker
- MEL research resources with Kristen
Favorite class highlights -
- MathBlaster
- overhead projectors
- the dread of using PowerPoint presentations poorly.
- Others have labored on this, but as someone who used to create GOOD PowerPoint presentations for a living, I would like to reassure people that it CAN be done, and with little more effort than making the crappy ones.
- Ask three before me is my new favorite teacher trick
- The premise being that a student has a questions should ask three people around him before asking the teacher, the idea being that out of those three, at least one should be able to answer the question, and if not, that probably means the rest of the class needs to hear the answer again too!
I am glad that you are able to create effective PowerPoint presentations. The classes of mine that used PowerPoint were always my least favorite because it never seemed the teacher did a good job of using this technology. There would be random words on slides that didn't seem to connect to each other, or a term that wasn't explained. Hopefully you'll be able to give the class some pointers on how to make them effective!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that Jeff's teaching style was great. I also enjoyed how he moved around the room and was so quick to know our names. His physical movements, like kneeling and coming over to us, showed that he was interested in what we were saying.
ReplyDeleteI am also very glad to hear that you have had success with PowerPoint, and you do believe it can be used effectively as I had only negative experiences with it in the classroom. Your idea of students asking 3 other students questions first, before asking the teacher is also a very clever idea. Nice job!
I agree that good powerpoints can be made, but they seem to be so rare! It would have been useful if teachers had asked for some feedback about their powerpoints. I wonder what the distinguishing factors are between good-powerpoint-users and not-so-good ones.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jeff has an amazing classroom presence. I learn so much from him each week!
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