I was completely in charge of class today because Dr. Gurung had meetings all day. I arrived to the classroom 45 minutes early to get everything set up. First, I had the students come up and grab a tee shirt for the Walk To School Day; an organization in conjunction with ‘LIVE 54218’. There were some problems that arose, some included students never receiving emails, shirts that were the wrong size, and some confusion on the time and school they were suppose to report to. However, we were able to resolve these problems.
After settling the Walk to School Day questions and concerns, I pulled up the list of assigned groups on the projector for the students to see their group-mates. The class worked in their small groups on their presentations for the remainder of the class period. Though they were allowed to use the computer labs around campus, every group decided to stay in the classroom to work on their presentations. At first, there were so many questions that I felt like I, myself, needed a TA. I was busy running around trying to answer all of the students’ questions. At the beginning, when I did not know an answer, I would immediately email Dr. Gurung and hope for a quick response. As class progressed, and as I became more comfortable in my role, I gave solid and definitive answers.
The students were given a worksheet to help them organize their ideas and plan for their presentation. I felt the worksheet was a key player in keeping the students on task. Though I do give a lot of credit to the students, I’m not sure they would have taken the time to sort out when specific aspects of the presentation should be done, or who would be responsible for certain aspects of the presentation. I’m sure that eventually they would have come to these conclusions, but the worksheet helped speed up that process and really aid in the students’ organization of the presentation. There is another in-class group work day on October 11th, and I would really like students to refer back to this worksheet on that day to double check that deadlines have been met.
Leading up to today, I was very nervous about answering students’ questions and being able to keep students on task. However, students stayed on task the entire class period, and I was very impressed. It was also fun and exciting to feel myself becoming more confident in answering questions and helping students. I am sure I made some mistakes, but nothing too grave and irreversible.
I am glad to see that the worksheet seemed to help in the classroom. The key now is what else can be done to help students. What do you think the biggest problems to students doing group work are? What more can be done to help? I can think of not setting deadlines are the most important one as it is so easy to let things slide and forget. Not being able to meet face to face is no longer a real excuse as so much can be done on line. Perhaps google circles (hangout) can be used for students to meet virtually and this may be something to look into —(what web technology can be used to facilitate student group meetings?)