10/26 Blog

One thing that I have recently done in my classroom is to have the kids create a PowerPoint presentation on a career of their choice. I gave them specific guidelines as to what should be included in the PowerPoint and also required students to present the PowerPoint as a test grade. I gave students four full class periods of 54 minutes to gather information for their PowerPoint's and gave them a specific website to use to pull the information. This was an independent assignment and each student had access to a lap top computer to conduct research.

Students worked fairly well independently. Most stayed on track and were able to finish the assignment within the time allotted. However, the thing that I found the most challenging about students completing this task was the fact that many students within my classes work at various paces. I informed them that if they could not finish the task during class time, then they would have to finish it on their own. I repeated this everyday while encouraging students to use their time wisely. Of course, on presentation day, I had students coming up to me saying, "I'm not ready," or "Mines not finished." I ended up allowing those students to present on a later date for points off.

I felt like I explained the expectations of the assignment well, allotted enough time for assignment completion, gave students a clear rubric of how they would be graded, and provided them with adequate resources to complete the task. But, in the end, there were still those that did not complete it. The most surprising thing about this assignment was that some students actually turned in nothing! I questioned myself on this part because I thought I did a good job of monitoring students while they were working, however, it was evident that I could have done better by the fact that I had students that turned in absolutely nothing! What did they do for the four hours I gave them to work on this? I am sure they were playing games or visiting websites that they were not instructed to be on.

Although I am a fan of technology and do think that this assignment worked out mostly well (I would do it again), it reminds me of how careful one must be when allowing students access to the Internet. There are just too many possibilities out there for their active little minds to explore!