We are in education because we love the kids, at least thats the concept I have always thought to be the truth. If its not the truth maybe one should pick a different profession, since kids are the very essence of our business.
I will be making a presentation at the USA convention in Wichita, Kansas, on web tools of education. I have no creative ability whatsoever, and wanted to have a nice audio visual show for the audience. I turned to our Advanced Technology Class, a couple of weeks ago, at the high school in which I am Superintendent. Here was the assignment: Create a presentation for me using either Prezi or SlideRocket. I then provided them the content for the presentation. Ten of the twelve students in the class volunteered to help with the presentation
I have made Prezi's before but once again, not being creative, I didn't take advantage of all it has to offer, the students chose to use SlideRocket, which was fine with me. Their teacher said they worked in groups with each taking a different area of the presentation. After about a week they asked me over to view what they had done, we made some additions and changed some things and back to work they went. About a week ago, I viewed the final product and was very impressed with what they had put together for me, now I have a quality presentation.
Then it smacked me in the face, not only do we love the kids but they love us, too. When we give them the opportunity to help us or do tasks for us they jump at the chance because they love us, too. They are a great resource that we, as adults, need to take advantage of not even to mention that we can learn from them, and they love to teach us. I now have a resource that I didn't previously have and they are so comfortable using tools that anytime I have a question or need help I know where I'm heading.
By the way they also taught me how to use SlideRocket, since I never had before. We have a PD coming up the first of February, and the students are going to present to our faculty how to use SlideRocket, and all I'm out is some pizza for them. My real motivation is to show the staff that they need to use the resource we got in the business for in the first place.
