Presentation Time!

            

Upon walking into the classroom it was the same as the previous times before. Once I get there, there are still some kids trickling on in into their classrooms and one of the workers there saying, “What’s up?” to me as I walk up the stairs. I walk in and sit down like I normally do. And start to watch what the kids are doing, and also what Mr. Day is doing as well. It’s presentation day in the class because all the kids are in groups, and getting prepared for their time to go. Two confident groups started asking, and volunteering to go first, one group was still working little kinks into their presentation. Another group were doing last minute printing of papers. And of course there is that one group where none of the group members show up. They had over a week in advance about this assignment and they didn’t show.

            The first group started reading directly from the slides, there was not much preparation in their presentation, not that engaging at all. You can tell who actually worked on it, and not just saw the final product, and read what was on the PowerPoint. The second group started out a little better because they introduced themselves to us. You could tell that they were trying so hard not to read directly from the screen, but doing that lead to them getting all nervous, there were a lot of “Um’s” and “like’s”.  Very basic presentation, it was broad, and not filled with enough detail that had to be in the presentation. The third group passed out a handout before they started their presentation, and started of their presentation with a video, and that was pretty good, because it gave us a different look at it, and they changed it up a little. When they did those two things I thought their presentation was going to be different, and they were going to be good, but it was literally just reading from the screen once again, except instead of reading from the screen, it was reading from the paper they gave us. Mr. Day said,” Handouts should be used as a tool for you. Don’t use it as your presentation.” That was the last group that was able to go during this class period, and then it was time for the next class to come in.

            Mr. Day had a different concept of how he wanted this class to present. One of the groups were using their “prep” time to talk about and watch a fight that was on one of their phones, and it really showed in their presentation because it wasn’t too good. I got excited because I saw one of the groups on a laptop, looking over their presentation to see how it looks. I feel like two groups will be volunteering to go first. Already knew which ones wouldn’t even present today. The first group to go was very passive, and didn’t give much facts about the topic. There was less presenting, and more socializing. Better preparation could of lead to a better presentation. He was all over the place with his presentation. Tried to end the groups’ presentation with a video, but couldn’t remember where the time stamp was. The second and last group that went today did everything that was asked. The background, the issue, verdict, and conclusion. Sounds all great and dandy, but it was so boring. There was no creativity. Just felt like a copy and paste type of presentation.

            I still was waiting for that one group where everyone talked in the presentation. It doesn’t even have to be good. I just wanted to hear everyone speak. These kids haven’t really been taught how to give a presentation. The lack of an attention grabber, creativity, emotion, and participation. Not good for 11^th grade students. Or maybe I’m just holding them to a higher standard because of what I’m used to doing in college.