Article
Experience with Carolina Navigators
ID # 3722
My experience with Carolina Navigators this semester has been amazing! I have only visited one K-12 classroom to give two presentations, one for a seventh grade and another for an eighth grade Spanish class. It was at Smith Middle School. Other than the fact that I had to be at the school by 8:30, I had a lot of fun doing the presentations. At first I felt anxiety and nervousness, but once I got into the classroom and the kids were joking around and asking me questions before I even started, I felt at ease and enjoyed talking to them. They really loved the Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes episode, and were very enthusiastic when acting out the bullfight. I loved how everyone was paying attention to me, asking questions and holding interest.
I enjoyed seeing the facial expressions of some kids after viewing an image of a bull being stabbed. Considering I had only practiced the presentation once in front of my roommates, I thought the presentation went very well. It actually went better than I had been expecting; I was worried that I would run out of things to talk about or the kids would not discuss when I asked them to. In fact, the kids asking me questions and talking about the topic with people around them was the best indication that I was holding their interest and doing a good job. I think that the students enjoy when I come in because it is a break from their typical school day and teaches them about something new and exciting.
One problem I had was having less time to talk about vantage points than I had originally intended. Right when I wanted to talk about vantage points, there were only a couple of minutes left and the class interest started to fade (as usually happens near the end of class). I could consider showing less of the Bugs Bunny episode (the entire duration is about seven minutes), or talk less about some of the images. It was my first presentation, so problems like this are expected. Now I know what to do to make it better for next time.
I enjoyed how all of the boys in the class asked me about two of the girls next to me in pictures. I assured them that we were just friends, but they had a hard time believing me. It would be interesting to see what high schoolers would think of my presentation, as well. Hopefully Ill get more requests soon!