Last Friday, Meg and I had the pleasure of teaching an 8th grade computer class at the MUMS. It was a great experience and I think Meg and I did a great job. The title of our lesson was “Communication and Collaboration: How to Use Facebook and Twitter…Educationally.” We talked about how Facebook and Twitter can be used to collaborate with classmates outside of the classroom. Specifically, we taught them how to create groups, ask questions, and share information on Facebook. We taught them about following informative accounts on Twitter and using a class hashtag.

Our lesson plan was pretty simple. Our hook was a cool online pool, exactly like the one we had in DML, in which we asked about their Facebook and Twitter use. Jan, the teacher or the class, told us that most of the kids used Facebook and Twitter but our poll proved otherwise. Only a few kids used each. Jan told she thought they weren’t being honest in the poll. The majority of our teaching was done with a powerpoint. Once Meg and I introduced a new topic, we would have the kids discuss with a neighbor if they have used any of these before or what they could use them for in the future. This happened two or three times. At the end of the powerpoint we had the kids get in small groups and talk about a recent group project they were assigned and how these new tools could be used to collaborate outside the class room.

That took us about 22 minutes so we had eight minutes left for our activity. The day before teaching Meg bought a beach ball and wrote all of these scenarios on it with a sharpie. We had the kids throw the ball to each other and read the scenario closest to them out loud and then tell the class how they would use Facebook and Twitter to solve their situation. It was actually a lot of fun and it took the perfect amount of time.

I took a few things away from this experience. The first of which is that you should never underestimate the power of a beach ball in classroom. It is both an amazing tool and potentially dangerous tool as well. As soon as we brought out the ball, all of the students faces lit up. It kept their attention for the whole activity as well. Having said that, one kid did hit a light fixture pretty hard and two girls were hit in the face, but nothing was broken and no one left unhappy.

To add to the silly things that I learned: don’t stand in front of the projector. Duh.

I also learned to be on my toes. Being able to adjust a lesson plan or even the frame of the lesson is a key skill for a teacher to have. Its hard to know how well your students will be prepared for the lesson of the day so its good to have back up plans and the ability to adjust. I’ve thought about becoming a teacher, teaching is something I’m good at as long as I know what I’m talking about. I learned that if I was to teach, I would want to teach middle school. The kids are a lot of fun and are at an age where they are beginning to appreciate the education they are getting. Overall it was a great experience and I hope the kids got as much out of it as Meg and I did.