Senior Exhibit Presentations (Uploaded after written) (Practice and Final)

April 29, 2009

I finally gave my Senior Exhibit Presentation this week, and I think it went well. While there are many significant things about the presentation to talk about, such as the preparation, anticipation, and the presentation itself, what is most significant to me is the fact that it is actually completed and out of the way. As soon as it was over, I felt as an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

I first gave my practice rehearsal several days before Spring Break. I presented it to Mr. Eckerson, Ms. Blashford, and Ms. Garcia. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't practiced before, and I think that this presentation was what I was most nervous about. I hadn't presented it in any way before. I knew where I was going and was organized only in the construction of my powerpoint. First: What my topic was, why I chose it; Second: The Process, what I did for my learning activity, what I took from that; Third: The teaching (as well as what I feel went wrong and what could have been done to improve things). I actually got cut off in the middle of the third. I spent a long time talking about some of the pointless things, and this was my feedback from the teachers, merely as I recall:

1) I was kind of disorganized. Yes, this goes along with my manner of speech, but I could have re-worked it in a better way. At the same time, I hadn't prepared too much so I didn't think it would show up in the final and was pretty sure I could fix it.
2) What would have worked best was talking more about the teaching and my work with Japanese in the club/classroom. I had a lot to say about that, and didn't get the chance. I knew this had to be changed.
3) I should make things less dry and talk less about Japanese and try to get people more involved with what they can do. I had an activity, but it was a little bit complicated. I should make it easier to understand and clearly explain everything. (Ironically, I never managed to do this yet in the classroom.
4) I should probably show some auditory Japanese. That's something all people would like to hear so they could get a feel for the language. I didn't have anything in the presentation yet, and I knew from the advice I got that this would help.
5) My confidence, however, was great. And I spoke well. Thank goodness I didn't have to practice a thousand times to get that right. I just had to prepare a little bit better.

Ultimately, during spring break I made a few changes to my presentation outside of the powerpoint and I planned to change that before I actually presented. My presentation was three days after break. Unfortunately, one bad thing occurred. The day after my practice presentation, I had to wipe the hard drive of my computer and re-start with a new installation of windows. I had a lot of my data backed up (I thought my powerpoint, the bulk of my presentation, was included)

So... the day before my Senior Exhibit (luckily you would not have known if you were in the audience, I re-did my entire powerpoint. I actually re-ordered everything. This did ONE good thing for me and ONE good thing only. It forced me to re-organize from scratch, which was helpful. It caused way too much worrying though. Luckily, in just two hours, I was able to make a presentation I was completely satisified with. I was half-asleep, and put on a terribly formal-looking suit before I walked out the door and had to change into something more appropriate. I was now prepared, but was completely nervous anyway because of all the work I just had to do.

I set up for my presentation early though that day. Everything went well. My audience members, students and teachers, entered the room and I gave everyone a copy of a worksheet I had made just to show what some of learning Japanese is like. I passed around all of my books that I had used and notes I had taken at Japanese Language Academy which included my half-page-or-so essay in Japanese. I had all my learning materials with me and a computer now for the first time presenting without spyware projecting what I wanted projected on the screen. I added a trailer in Japanese from the (I think it is 2003) movie ピンポン (Ping Pong). That was entertaining I think. I had to keep the audience interested too. I don't think I made too many mistakes except for the fact that I wanted to show that earlier in the presentation. I also showed the website I worked on to help teach the class (fajapanese.ning.com) which never really got off the ground that well for many reasons I talked about in the previous blog. Although I had challenges I think my presentation was successful because I analyzed them completely and talked about what I would have done with more resources including time, and what I took from this experience. I didn't have too many questions I hope because I explained everything so well in the first place (I hope I hope!). All in all, it was kind of enjoyable to present everything now that I had done it too. It made me very happy. And Andrew was the only person to actually form sentences correctly via the teaching worksheet I made (go Andrew! He has proved his intelligence for sure-- which was really just following directions, I thought, but no one else could do it. So again, he gets my props here). That's all I have to say. That afternoon I took off my jacket and relaxed realizing that my presentation was done. It was a good day.