This week I have been very impressed with the eighth grade students in all of the computer concepts classes. We have started a new lesson on Microsoft PowerPoint. After doing the exercises in the text book, I had them complete other PowerPoint assignments. I realize that they have been working with PowerPoint since elementary school, but as I moved around the room and started looking at what they were creating I became very impressed with their knowledge, creativity, and skills. I am planning a project which the students will be placed in groups and will research a specific topic. The group will then have to create and present this topic on PowerPoint. I can hardly wait to see what they are going to come up with.
The end of the marking period was this past Thursday and all the grades must be in by this coming Tuesday. On Friday, besides trying to get everything done before leaving for FBLA, I had to get all the make-up work graded and recorded. This has been a new experience for me with all the classes that I have been teaching, but I got it all finished.
The one thing that if I could start the week over would be was when I had demonstrated a specific concept I would now have done it differently. The students had difficulty and it had taken longer then I had planned. The end result though, was that they did learned how to do it.
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Bettie, like you, I am always amazed at how much students know, because they are exposed to things at younger and younger ages. In my Web Design 2 class, there are some kids that do amazing work with Flash and animation. It takes trial and error thought to see what kids know and do not know. We can't expect everyone to know everything so sometimes it is best to start with the basics. Hope you've had a great week and I look forward to seeing you at FBLA!!
ReplyDeleteI completely understand your excitement about the results of the upcoming PowerPoint group projects. I get such a kick out of seeing the kids learning and then succeeding at a project, especially group projects. I love to walk around the room when they are working together and listen to them collaborating, negotiating, and even arguing. And then when the final project is put together, it is so much fun to see whose ideas won out and question them as to why they have that concept or illustration in their project. It sounds like you're having as much fun as I am! See you tomorrow...
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