This year, the sixth grade class of the Stikine Middle School in Wrangell, Alaska presented at ASTE. ASTE is a technology conference that happens every year in February where people come from all over Alaska, and sometimes from all over the U.S., to watch presentations and present to others. ASTE stands for the “Alaska Society for Technology in Education.”
Our class split into groups. One topic was on connecting with others online. The other topic was on our Alaska-themed house system. We brainstormed ideas and voted on topics we wanted to present on.
We started preparing after we entered our proposals for ASTE. After we chose two topics to present on, we divided the class into two groups. Then we started brainstorming.
We got together in our groups and brainstormed off of some questions that Mrs. Laura Davies, our teacher, gave us. After that, we started making slides to present. After we finished the slides, Mrs. Davies helped us edit. Then we were ready to present.
The Alaska-themed house system group presented on Monday, February 15, 2021, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. The group that presented about connecting with others online presented on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The presentation on the Alaska-themed House System was about 45 minutes long. The presentation on connecting with others online was a full hour. We had an hour to present.
There were about thirty people watching the Alaska-themed House System presentation live and around twenty people watching the Connecting with Others Online presentation live. One presentation talked about our Alaska-themed house system, how we used it, and how our leadership worked. The other presentation talked about Mystery Skype, Flipgrid, and other tech. tools we’ve used in 5th and 6th grade.
It was really fun to talk about our experiences with our topics. It was great to receive feedback from viewers, as we looked at it as an opportunity to improve. All of us can agree that we enjoyed the experience of presenting and speaking to so many people and learning from them. However, it was a bit challenging.
The hardest part of presenting was coming up with more stories to pass some time on the spot. The house group presentation ended about ten minutes early, even with our input to increase our presentation’s length. It was also quite nerve-racking because we rehearsed so much to get it “perfect,” but it was fun in the end.
During this process we learned how amazing it is to present to other people and help them learn. It is cool to teach adults after being taught by adults our whole lives. Adults taught us most of the things we know. To teach them anything back is pretty cool I think.
We all agreed that presenting on ASTE was an amazing experience and definitely recommend others to do so as well. We would definitely present again.
Our favorite parts of presenting were getting feedback, interacting with and teaching so many people, and being able to learn about so many different schools and towns all around Alaska. It was fun and exciting, and overall a great experience.