Prezi presentation reflection!!

1.  What were some of the best things you saw during the presentations?  Why did you like them?  What were the most effective teaching strategies you witnessed?

I must say, I was really pleased with everyone’s presentations.   Passion ran deep on everyone’s subjects.  I felt I was more inclined to pay attention when the presenters were overflowing with enthusiasm.  I couldn’t stop smiling and became highly interested in tornados/weather during Marc’s presentation.  I also really enjoyed everyone’s layouts/templates, color choices, and fonts.  Ryan’s was by far my favorite layout and color – I love dark lime green.  I also liked all the fun facts that were brought up during the presentations.   Tim Allen made me laugh multiple times with his witty jokes.  Cassandra had some of the best effective teaching strategies – she always keeps me engaged and is so calm in front of the class.  As a whole, I’m extremely proud of everyone who took on a new technology program (Prezi) and made awesome engaging presentations.

2.  What were the least engaging/helpful things you saw during the presentations? Why were they not effective?  What could any specific student do to improve?  [Please be honest here without being mean.  This is for critical feedback to help others improve.]

I think it’s very important for us as future teachers to see how others would approach an assignment.  As I was putting together my Prezi presentation and chatting with peers about the struggles they were having too, it created a comfort that we’re all in this together!  With a new technology program, it’s nice to see examples and then start to build what we would imagine to best an ideal presentation.  I think one of the biggest struggles we had, as a class, is that our videos were loading really slow.  Most of froze because we had no idea how to fix it, but I really like how Sara improvised by acting out her video with grace and excellence.

3.  After viewing everyone else's presentations, how would you improve your own (both how you presented and the project you made) the next time you were to give this presentation?

Practice makes perfect.  I want to try new templates and experiment with them!  I didn’t use a template and since the different templates were one of the things I highly enjoyed, this would be nice to play around with and experiment too.  I also liked how Cassandra integrated her unit plan into the presentation (“this is what we did today.  This is what we’ll work on all week.  This is what we’ll work on all quarter.”), and would love to do this myself.  

4.  Do you like using PowerPoint/Prezi/SmartBoard as a lesson presenter?  What are the pros/cons of using it?  How might you use it with students?  Could you go back to Friday, would you have tried a different one than what you chose?

It’s definitely fun to try new programs and experiement with different techniques to deliver a lesson.  I feel pretty comfortable with PowerPoint so I wanted to push myself into something new which is why I did a Prezi presentation.  I found that it’s very aesthetically pleasing but when it comes to “creating the path” and other formatting issues (such as moving pictures when I didn’t want to) created some concerns and problems.  Multiple times I threw my hands up and even went to the extent in which I began creating a PowerPoint presentation!  I really like how the SmartBoard can be used in class.  They have a lot of interactive tools that would be great for a math class – and its nice for students who miss class because the notes on the “board” are saved!

If I could go back to Friday, I would want more time in our classroom to experiment with the SmartBoard.  It would have been nice to experience a full tutorial on Prezi because I know the struggles I was having are probably the same as multiple people.  It would’ve been nice to have an ‘expert’ show us the ideal ways of creating a captivating presentation via Prezi.

5.  After this project, what do you believe is the best way to deliver lecture material (no electronics is an option)?  How often do you think you will utilize an electronic presentation method to deliver your content and what might you use instead/in addition to?  Why do you think you will present material that way?

As a future science teacher, I really want my lectures to be hands-on and engaging.  When I use electronic presentation methods I would prefer them to be interactive so that they enhance the learning experience.  Also, using multiple presentations methods will help ensure that students with multiple learning styles are being reached.  Like I said before, practice makes perfect.  The more we practice these presentation methods the stronger our lessons will be and the more the students will learn.