Recently, our Innovation Lab class was put to the task of making a Memorial/model on a certain time period in Germany. We presented these Memorials on Thursday night, November 14th. The night started off under the warm lights of the school Media Center where our class had displayed projects on different tables. Parents had filled the room eager to see their children’s (and other’s) Memorial designs. I had a group with Kiera Martin and Frankie Pugliese. We were presenting our model on the Reunification period of Germany, from 1990 to today. We prepared for exhibition in advance to explain our Memorials and the symbolism.
During the showcase, there were multiple times where communication was very important. For example, if one of the group members were stuck on a sentence or couldn’t figure out what to say, we would ‘lean’ on a teammate. It probably sounded something like ‘(name), would you like to elaborate?’. And immediately the other new that was a subtle call for help. Without this type of communication I don’t know if our exhibition would’ve been all that interesting. Personally, I probably would’ve stuttered the whole time- and maybe I wouldn’t have even said anything. Communicating effectively was very important to all of the groups, and it helped us plan ahead when speaking to peers. Even before the showcase, communication was one of the most important aspects during our project.
Our Memorial on Halloween day- there were only a couple touch ups left to do!
To conclude, the exhibition helped me to grow as a learner in many ways. My friends helped me to be more confident while speaking and they always gave me smiles to help me know I was doing well. I also knew what to talk about- which is obviously very important. I could have gone on about our model for hours. The whole thing seemed almost extemporaneous- I could answer almost any question that a parent/teacher etc. asked. I felt really smart and that too played a key role in my confidence.
I loved the way that Innovation Lab had us present our project as well. For once it wasn’t some silly 20 slide presentation that bored everyone to death with monotone voices. It was really cool when our audience made an effort to actually tell us that they liked our Memorial as well.
The complete Memorial on Exhibition night (artists commentary included!)
Olivia L's Blog 