Final Thoughts

Through this assignment, I learned quite a few different things that will help me in my own classroom someday. As an artist, I was able to really dig deep into different topics and I learned to stretch myself in a broad sense, so I could visually understand how different subjects could weave in and out of one another. I loved researching the topic of “new ideas.” My group and I loved learning how there was no true answer to our subject. In some ways it is absolutely true, there are no new ground-breaking ideas, but even tweaking things in the slightest way can spark something new and different (in an old version kind of way…). From an educator’s perspective, I discovered quite a few things about myself. I learned that I have about zero patience when it comes to projects with technology, and that I need to start understanding and learning more about it because that is where classrooms are headed. When a teacher uses technology in the classroom, students are so much more engaged and have a true desire to learn. They use all sorts of technology, all the time, so why not let them use it to create new and exciting things? I also believe that allowing students to use and create their own projects, or turn in assignments that require technology, allows the students to learn and retain more information because it does two things. For one, it allows them to learn new ways of working or a new skill, and second, it is more hands on, helping all different kinds of learners in their own unique way. I also learned that students need more time to figure things out when using technology, so in all aspects of my future teaching, I need to make sure that I am well prepared beforehand. I need to plan out my lessons and be honest and reasonable with myself when asking my students to accomplish a task that they have never used or tried out before. I know for me personally, I struggled with the technology on many different levels. If it was not for others in the group that knew what they were doing at times, I would have failed miserably and drowned in my own technology tears.

            Each member of my group did a fabulous job of putting in their best effort and getting their own parts of the assignment completed on time. I contributed by bringing in my own interview on music, and coming prepared to class the next day with certain quotes and information that I felt was very important to bring to the table. I also came up with the different slides for the music section, researched different lyrics that had to do with the word ‘sorry,’ and helped think of different ways that we could remain on stage and use the space to our advantage.  I also came up with the idea to have each member of the group say what our interviewee’s final thoughts that were on the topic of new ideas, once they had had some questions and time to fully wrap their brain around the concept. I even showed my group different videos of whiteboard/notebook animation videos so we could make sure that we were all on the same page with the vision that we had in store.

            In the beginning stages, especially when trying to figure out how to incorporate acting into this project, I was not fully understanding how English was being used in what seemed to be a more theatre based assignment; however, by the final product, I was able to see how I could incorporate this into my own classroom in the future. I would want to give my groups the freedom and space that we were given to really dive into heavy topics and find something that could be researched for clearer understanding. (I also think that having teenagers interview others, especially those much older than them, would be great practice for job interviews and real world situations of gaining better social skills.) I would base this project around a novel that we just read, or even have each group read a different novel and then build off it from there. I loved how each of us was held accountable for both the technology and the acting portions of this project because I was forced to learn new things and stretch myself to new ideas. I feel that group projects can be very simple if everyone just explains what their talents are, makes assignments to what is easiest for each person to do, and then just combine it all at the end. But this project really made me step out of my comfort zone and try a mix of different things which all and all made me smarter and more confident in my abilities.