It was silly, but I first tried it out in my first ever presentation in front of teachers at the YRDSB QUEST conference. Looking back at it now, I was quite a beginner and it wasn't the greatest place to try and fail at it as you can see the audience was made up of many big-wigs in the board and around the world. Oh well, you live and you learn.
It looks like I've a wide variety of people from around the world for my presentation here! #YRDSBquest pic.twitter.com/VZYni4YZVK— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) November 20, 2015
I learnt my lesson, and practiced Pear Deck more in the classroom where the audience was a little more forgiving. It also modeled for my students the importance of trying something new. Not being afraid to fail. After a few lessons, I got the basics down. As with anything new, a teacher has to let them play with the technology first before getting to the real learning that can come with the technology:Wow, lots of middle school teachers during my session. I'm glad they stayed! =) #YRDSBquest pic.twitter.com/TvCjaeIGHt— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) November 20, 2015
The students nowadays seem to be interested in the illuminati, it seems.
After a few trials with my students, I had the confidence to try it again during my 3rd presentation of the year at OAME (Ontario Association for Mathematics Education).
Hey, how come no one is here from northern Ontario? #OAME2016 #smallsamplesize pic.twitter.com/8KIe4o61pB— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016
/script>Looks like I have some parents in my workshop and a few elementary school teachers, eh? #OAME2016 pic.twitter.com/vo64U2WIDd— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016
Given the feedback I got from this workshop session I ran, it looks like my Pear Deck experiment was a success 8 months later. There will be more on my OAME session later in a different post.Looks like ppl r enjoying #OAME2016 thus far. I hope those dots didn't shift to the right after my presentation! pic.twitter.com/2Yt8BMfUR8— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016
Moving forward, to make use of this technology properly, I have to get my pedagogy up to par. Asking great questions is an extremely important skill as a teacher. This technology can amplify the effect of a good question or bad question. I saw that when I made deep, interesting questions, the Pear deck amalgamated all of the students' answers and we could have a discussion based off it. It allowed my introverted students to participate without having to speak aloud in class. However, if I made too simple of a question, the students would either not bother to answer or start to graffiti the slide.
When I ask a question, I have to be able to identify if we want to discuss it verbally or if it's a deeper question, I can let Pear Deck do its thing.
When trying to guide, discuss, push, prod - it's important to step away from the projector and to discuss with the class.
When it's time to let the students think - Pear Deck gives the students the space and time to think and illustrate their answer.
I'd like to practice using it next year, but I think I'd have to ask the administration for it, as it is super expensive. Perhaps I'll try a similar software in Nearpod, next year.
In the end, however, I had fun trying something new and the experience has made me a better teacher - which is all I can ask for.
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