First Class Presentation

Collin's first presentation in front of his class was to research and report about an invention.  He selected the Donut.  Not too surprised with that choice because that's his favorite thing to eat...besides cheese burgers or strawberries.
Wednesday of the week the presentation was due, he came home with a poster board.  I asked him what it was for and he said that he was to draw on it but it was not due the next day.  I did not think this was the entire story so I emailed his teacher that night.  We then headed to a 7:45pm basketball game.  Later that night, I found out that this was part of a large project he had know about from the week before that was due Friday and included:

• Visual Aid - hence the poster board but the students could use what they wanted and to be creative
• Research and Report - he was to write four paragraphs about the invention he selected
• Class Presentation

Wow!  Learning about this a week after he first heard about it was not fun for us....and for him.  I had him think about what he wanted to include on the poster after we got home from a late night basketball game.  Thursday, he had another basketball game so he got to work on the list above before and after the game. 
He had plenty of time over the weekend but chose not to work on this project.  He either misunderstood what was required, did not pay attention or did not care to ask questions about what he was supposed to do.  The teacher did tell us at the beginning of the year that it's up to the students to learn time management, organization and scheduling their work.  I really wanted to help him with this project but knew this would not help him in the long run.  I did at least tell him how I tackle projects at work by breaking down the requirements into different steps.  He then did the same thing for this project.  He started with the poster before the game and then worked on the report when he got back home.  I did help him focus on a few important facts about the donut that he could include in the presentation and then I asked him to tell me those points as if he was telling a story.  He practiced this at least 5 times and was really smooth when he did it. I then held the poster up for him to stand in front of and present to Dad and Burke a few times for practice.  He was not nervous and did really well.
Before going to bed, I encouraged him to raise his hand Friday if the teacher asked for volunteers to present first.  I explained that all of this information would be fresh tomorrow and would be better for him if he got to be one of the first students to present. 


Here is the poster board that includes a donut in the right bottom corner and a donut as the "O" in the word Donut (creative).

Some of the facts he learned about the donut...

 

....and more facts.

 I am really interested to find out how he did on this.