Project Description: For The All-Time Greatest Panel project my class started by watching President Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech multiple times. We took notes and touched on different topics he covered. From there we paired up and found an important historical figure we could represent. We spent hours researching and learning all about our character. We had to learn what they did, when they did it and how they did it. My class prepared and presented opening statements to our audience of 5th graders, high schoolers and staff. After reading our statements, dressed and talking like our character, we opened up the panel to a 14 person discussion where we then answered questions and debated about different topics brought up in Obama's speech.
Project Reflection: This project had a great turn out. To be honest I was really worried about how everything would play out but I was really impressed with myself and my whole class. Everyone stayed in character throughout the panel representing their historical persons beliefs and not their own. We all really worked hard to know and understand who our person was which was the hardest part. At times it was easy to forget that Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 and didn't have a great education. My partner and I worked our best to portray that. I was particularly excited when Carolina and I were getting many compliments on our bonnets and how much we coordinated our outfits. Overall I learned a lot of interesting facts about figures I would have never really bothered to know or research and I learned it in a way that is hard to forget.