Crash and Burn

After the success of my first lesson and using Ms. B's advice, I was really excited to present my next lesson, which I felt was a really fun and interesting lesson.  Students had come up to me during the day and told me that they really enjoyed the lesson from yesterday and were excited for class.  I was happy to hear this but also nervous that I would be letting them down the first time class wasn't fun.  

I did not teach till fourth period and I spent most of the day fine-tuning my slideshow.  Again my slideshow was going to be interactive and included check-ins where the students answer questions or perform an activity. I entered the class and handed each of the students a word search I had made on the Great Depression to keep them busy while I setup the projector.  However, somehow I had deleted my slideshow.  I am so happy I had given them that word search because it gave me time to both freak out and then to relax.  When they were done their word search I went over their Exit Cards from the day before and addressed some of the issues they had brought up.  One of the students had asked to know more about “buying on margin” so I created an example for them and had students come and help me on the board.  After the example was finished I gave the students time to work on their 1920s skits, which are being presented tomorrow.

            

Having something go wrong, especially with technology has taught me some valuable lessons.   I had a similar problem during my microteaching and because of that, this time I was ready for it.  I can’t say I handled it perfectly, as I definitely stumbled a bit.  However, in the end I feel that I managed to review something from the day before to solidify the concept.