A Whole New Mind

I was already introduced to this book in another one of the courses I'm taking at UMF this semester with Professor Evans. We have been completing various tasks from the book, a couple different assignments for each principle that is discussed throughout the book. In fewer words, I was excited to hear what you guys to say after reading the book. The video was an excellent way to start the presentation; I was definitely focused on watching the trailer of that video. You did a nice job implementing technology into your lesson by creating a wiki page; it demonstrated a well organized flow for the lesson. To go along with your hook, you guys did a nice job getting students engaged by having them move around the room for your opening activity. Overall I enjoyed the various activities you had us participate in for each principle presented in the book, but I especially enjoyed the activity where we tried to identify the facial expressions during the "empathy" section of the lesson. A couple of the suggestions that came to mind while I was involved in your lesson were that you could have possibly had us design something creative as a group during the "design" portion of the lesson. Also, I would have liked to have had a couple handouts that outlined the essential ideas from the text, or maybe have even read specific sections from the book.

Student Oriented Curriculum

First off, you three did a great job with this assignment and presentation. I really liked the way you opened up your lesson by having us get up and move around the classroom. Also, you guys did a nice job getting all students involved by asking each of us questions at one time or another. The jig saw activity was very engaging, and I feel proved to be a very effective way of presenting the important ideas of the book to us. I know in our "mini-group" there were some very useful and informative resources given to us which were helpful, but I would have maybe liked to read a little more of the actual text from the book. The only suggestion I could think would maybe make this lesson a little stronger would be to have us do a couple team building activities. In order to create a working collaborative team, all people involved must be able to work together. Lastly, I thought you guys couldn't have ended the lesson any better. By having us pick one bullet point and then explain why and how we would implement this in our own classroom was a terrific way to bring the lesson to a close. It left me thinking about how I could actually use what I learned from your lesson and use it in a real life situation.