Success
As a senior in highschool, my friend and I were assigned a project in Civics. We had to pick a country out of a list and research it and then eventually present it to the class. At first I was not so thrilled about the project because there are times when I don’t enjoy presenting. I don’t have a problem with it and I speak fine in front of crowds but I would just rather not do it unless I have to. It was a partner project and my friend and I knew that we were going to be partners from the beginning. Dalton and I showed up to class together and got ready for class. We saw up on the board that there was a project. Class started and our teacher gave us the instructions. Our teacher, Mr. Bruhl, was a bald, rather tall man in his mid 50’s that had a very distinctive limp. Mr Bruhl allowed us to choose our own partners. He walked around with a list of about 50 countries as the groups got together to pick. We ended up picking the Democratic Republic of Congo. The goal of the project was to research a country that is poor and find out why it is in trouble. Dalton and I were not happy to have to do this project that required a lot of work, however we were surprised to find out that it was actually interesting. We quickly found out that it is actually somewhat interesting to become more aware of the problems that are happening around the world and in different countries. This was not what we were expecting whatsoever. It ended up being a rather interesting project that I didn’t dread like most of them.
Mr. Bruhl was a good teacher who tried really hard to teach us so that we would maintain the knowledge. His class was really interesting and I actually enjoyed it compared to the others. His class was heavily based on current events and what was happening in the world. Every day of the week if you watched the news or were updated on a certain current event in the world then you would be able to tell him and get points towards your next quiz. After that he started telling us the guidelines for the project. He told us that the presentation was going to be graded half on your research and then half based on how well you present. He gave us one day in class to do as much research as we could then we had to finish it at home. So we got busy and did a lot of work at home to ensure that we do well on this project. We both got a lot of research done and told each other what we were going to put on the slides so that there wasn’t any repetitive facts or slides in it. It took a decent amount of time to finish it but we eventually got it done a couple of nights before it was due.
Dalton and I divvied up the work and started doing our parts. He got half of the slides and I got the other half. We made a google docs and shared it with each other so that way we could see what it is that we were putting on it. That way there would be no repetitive facts and it would be a good presentation. When we finished our powerpoint we made note cards on each of our slides so that we would know what to say and what to go over. When we did our work we went over to each other’s house and worked on it. This proved to be a good way to do this because we both lived a street away from each other.
When the due date for the presentation came, Dalton and I were more than ready. Everyone got to class that day and Mr. Bruhl had the order of the groups that were gonna go from first to class. Dalton and I ended up being second. We liked that so that we could at least see one group go and that way we could see a little bit of how they presented and use something that they did well in their presentation. My other friends that were in the class tried to make me laugh during my presentation like usual. Every Time i’m ever presenting or talking in front of the class my friends try their hardest to make me mess up. They do things like make signs and other expressive gestures that make me laugh. It is just something that we have always done to each other. It has always been a mutual thing to try and make each other look stupid in front of everyone. However this proved to be unsuccessful, for the most part. Mr. Bruhl turned out to be very impressed with our powerpoint and we got a 95 on the presentation.
In conclusion this turned out to be a very interesting project that we were both very skeptical of in the beginning. We both learned that it is actually somewhat interesting to research other countries. Of course I would rather not have done the project but out of all the others that was my favorite one by far. This helps me today because now I am more informed about current events and things happening around the world. This sparked an interest in me that I didn’t know I had. It made me go outside of my comfort zone and learn things that are very important in our world today. If it wasn’t for that project, I still would have much less interest in current events around the world.
