Reflection from last class

With last week being spring break for San Jose State remembering and commenting on the last class has left me a bit confused. I completed my lesson that Incorporated more technology into my curriculum. The lesson was a smashing success (if I do say so myself). Once I gave the students the idea behind the assignment and got them started, they took off running. All of the students participated and are learning how to work together. The assignment required the student to reflect on what they learned during a unit on the Civil War. The group developed ideas using a spider chart, with each student required to contribute. Once the spider chart was complete and everyone felt that it accurately represented what we had covered during the unit we went to the second phase of the assignment, which involved transferring our ideas to a power point presentation. Students took turns typing in what was written on the spider chart to different slides while the other students looked on. I was very impressed with how they helped each other. Other students when on line and attached images to the slides. The whole group needed to agree if they wanted to include an image.
My role in the lesson started out as teacher- setting them up with the spider chart and the power point- but later became facilitator. Whenever I felt that one student was zoning out or not being included I would say, "ask___(name)______ about what they think about_________" or "__(name)_______, what do you think about______________", which would get the student involved in the project again. The final step was to print out all of the slides (there were over 30!) and arrange them on a huge piece of butcher paper. The students came up with how they wanted to display their slides and worked together to put them on the paper. The finished project looks fantastic. I am still trying to figure out where to put it up in my room because it is HUGE!
I think the more I incorporate technology in to my teaching, the easier it will become. I openly admit I was daunted by this assignment, but was very impressed with my student's motivation and involvement- and with the projects outcome. I took pictures of the students working- I will try to remember to bring them to class.