Turning a Bust Into a Boom

                Had an interesting experience in my class that did not go as well as I would have liked. I gave an opportunity for my students to earn a little extra credit before the end of the grading period. However, I only really planned on several students wanting to volunteer to present these small posters that the students had as an assignment. As it turned out, many of the students wanted to present, and I was pretty worried about timing for the rest of the class. It took me a moment to figure something out, but I could tell that some damage was already done since I said that not everyone would get a chance to present. Some students said that it wouldn’t be fair if some couldn’t present if they wanted to.  What I came up with was to have some people present their posters at the front of the class, while students could support them by adding details from their own posters.

                Now I know that part of the process of teaching is to figure out what works between classes, especially if what you tried the first time fails. Thankfully I had a full day between that class during one period and then the other class during a different period. I was able to reflect on what did and didn’t work. I saw that it would be better to use random picking, where the students could present, while having their peers support them with extra information. This made things run a lot smoother during the second class, and I am glad that I am developing that set of skills.