Peyton Hiatt

ED199
Meaning Making Reflection:

Dr. Adam Henze

Planning:
My group was in a unique situation. Most of the group went home for the weekend, had jobs,
other schoolwork, or commuted to Butler. Because of this, we could not find a time to all meet
to plan our presentation. We created a group text in order to solve this problem. This entire
presentation was planning over text message and a 20-minute meeting the morning before
presenting. We shared a Canva presentation amongst the group and everyone worked together
to pitch in what they gained from Dr. Henze’s presentation. Everything went smooth,
everyone’s ideas were accepted, and we successfully managed to put together a meaning
making presentation.

Interactive, Participatory, Unique Features:

To start the presentation, we had a song guessing game. We aimed to play about 15 seconds of
the song, but generally we got about 3 seconds in before somebody guessed the correct song
and artist. This activity was included to get everyone woken up. It was fun, fast, competitive
and inclusive. Next, we added questions throughout the presentation. Both small group and
large group discussions were included. This was intended to get people talking and make sure
everyone’s voice was heard. Another way we got the class involved was by including them in a
personalized meaning making gift. Our gift was a playlist and album cover designed by the class.
This included art skills and music selection. Most people are passionate about, or at least like to
listen to music. By creating a playlist, each student got to share one song they love. Lastly, we
had a unique piece added to the end of our presentation. We were able to include a video of
Dr. Henze preforming his poem we reviewed as a class. This helped wrap it all up.

How it fit together:

Dr. Henze came and presented about himself to the class. He shared his love of music, poems,
and education. As a group, we needed to incorporate all these things. First, we recapped what
he shared with us. Dr. Henze made sure to speak to each student. He was passionate about
inclusion. He was passionate about equity. One way our meaning making activity fit together
and worked to show his values was by including everyone. Everyone had a voice and way of
interacting to make a cool gift for him. We used his love for music to build an album cover he
can hang on his wall to reflect on how he impacted students at Butler University. We used
practices he shared with us to present to the class. We modeled his values, as mentioned
above, to stress the importance. Lastly, it fit because we made sure everyone took away a
valuable piece from this experience with Dr. Henze.
How it connected:
Dr. Adam Henze’s impact word was “literature”. Within his professional identity, we found out
he was inclusive, understanding, creative, and loved poems and music among many other
things. I want to highlight these few things because this is what we found to be the most
important. Using all of these ideas, we created a presentation and artifact that displayed his
values. We created an album cover to represent his love for music. But the unique part about it
is we had each student draw something on the album cover to represent themselves.
Additionally, they picked a song they loved to put on the playlist. The song represented all the
different cultures we need to appreciate as Dr. Henze says. This connected to Dr. Henze’s
professional identify by displaying community, inclusion, and creativity. Along with this, our
presentation was very interactive. Dr. Henze showed his love of interacting with his students by
making sure he spoke and learned about each one of us. We wanted to make sure we modeled
his values to connect everything together.

Connection to text:
The connection our group made from Dr. Henze to a classing mentor reading was in relation to
Cornelius Minor. Dr. Henze was all about the acceptance of everyone. He wanted us to
embrace culture and differing backgrounds. He stressed the importance of literacy and how we
cannot teach it, but only practice it. Page 11 of Cornelius Minor, it states, “We need tools to
build a bridge between the discourage of our profession and the children that populate the
communities we serve.” This relates to previous points, but also to the point Dr. Henze made
about getting to know what your students love. His example, Fortnite in the classroom.
Whether you like it or not, it will be there. Embrace that, learn that, connect with your kids…be
that bridge!

How it supported learning using technological tools:

I personally came into this assignment knowing lots about technology. I have never used Canva
though. This is what my group preferred using. Because of this, I had to learn a new form of
technology which excited me, because I love technological resources. I learned how to create,
edit, design, and make a really cool presentation and artifact using free technology. Though, if
that was not enough already, I learned how to learn through music. Dr. Henze played music
rhyme videos that I was completely lost when watching. I realized everyone learns differently
and that connected a lot of students. I love music, but never realized the complexity. We took
this into account and played musical games. In the future I can use this as an educational
technological tool to engage and connect with my students which I find so cool!
Overall reflection:
Overall, this was a very smooth process. I believe our group was very prepared and each one of
us had valuable information to share with the class. We overcome circumstances of not being
able to meet and plan and still put on a meaningful reflection. Throughout the presentation, I
noticed classmates seemed engaged and were not bored. I personally think I did a good job of
using technology to engage the students. I also think I did a poor job of planning that
technology because I did not know the system Butler uses to present which made small
hiccups. The use of music and Dr. Henze reading his own poem were to highlights I think we
vital in making this a success. Having lots of change throughout the course of the presentation
kept the students on their feet and they never knew what was coming next. In terms of our
collaboration, I saw no problems. Nobody got upset, everyone did their part, and we
successfully lead the class. If I were to do it again, it would be nice to have some in class work
time to prepare. Also, it would be nice to have a more in-depth background of the speaker
beforehand. I would give this process a solid 8/10.

Presentation:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFOTQrdAQ4/oyCDJJrNcVtQgx5sniro2w/edit?
utm_content=DAFOTQrdAQ4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=
sharebutton

Artifact:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66hOxgkTU1flPc99otbeJK?si=uGeMd-MDROSi-EerE5vv6w

Our artifact is an album cover (designed by the class) and a playlist which has a song picked
from each person in the class representing them.