Storyboard Two (B Posting)

A few weeks ago, we were assigned a project called our 2nd Storyboard. The project initially involved making a story and putting it together on Power Point. The story needed to reflect one of our five stories from our very first assignment and mine was based on my student teaching experience. It was called A Tiny Dancer and was about a littler girl who finds confidence in herself with the help of her teacher and fellow classmates. I found this project to be interesting because I love getting creative and putting my imagination into my work. Along with making up a story, we needed to have more than one character because we had to express different voices as we recorded the sound. Pictures were required and they needed to be our own pictures, whether hand-drawn or from a digital camera. Following our story was an interactive quiz. The quiz consisted of ten questions related to the storyline. It seemed easy at first, but nothing is as easy as it may seem.

This project has helped me to learn more about technology and the ways to incorporate it into the classroom. I never really thought about using Power Point beyond what I normally use it for. It was something that was always there, but I never knew how to use it in a different way. I have learned that there are many ways to use Power Point creatively and effectively in a classroom.

There were a few challenges I came across in putting my story together. At first, I didn't have any digital pictures to use for the story, so I had to hand-draw all of them. It was difficult for me because I'm a perfectionist and my drawings are not perfect. However, I did the best I could with them and the results were not that bad after all. Another challenge that I had to overcome was learning how to transition from slide to slide because there needed to be a specific amount of time for each slide. Not every slide needed the same amount of time. A third challenge was the interactive quiz. I found this to be the most difficult because there were so many steps that needed to be followed precisely in order for the quiz to work.

I overcame every one of my challenges in this project. Although I wasn't very fond of my own pictures, I used them anyway. After mintues of playing around with Power Point, I finally found out how to transition the slides and make sure that there was enough time on each of them. The last challenge was the most difficult one. the interactive quiz seemed so in depth that I was extremely confused. However, when Dr. Baylen went step-by-step in class, it became more understandable. In order to overcome challenges successfully, one must experience them and them try to solve them on their own. I think it is the only way someone can truely learn something from it.

This project has helped me to learn a few things about myself. As a learner, I have learned that I need to expand my horizons and go beyond enemy lines to fulfill my goals of using technology in the classroom. There are so many ways to bring technology in the classroom and with each new project I experience, there is always a new door of opportunity that opens up. I plan on using Power Point in my future career because it is such a great teaching tool.