PowerPoint
It is kind of sad that despite being a teacher I've never become very good at putting together PowerPoint presentations. The reality is that in almost any group activity that I've ever been involved in that needed a PowerPoint show there's always been some other teacher in the group with more experience at doing such things than me and ends up being the one doing it. Even last year, though I collected student photos all year, it was my student teacher who ended up taking all those photos and putting them together into a presentation for parents.
Now next week I'm heading up north to stay at the cottage of a teacher friend and of the 5-6 of us who will be there several of us have taken interesting trips away in July (naturally, being teachers and all, July is the time to do such things). Our hostess was away in Australia, another teacher was in Spain, another was honeymooning in Italy and I was hiking in Banff, so one of the activities we have planned is to hook a laptop up to a TV and have people show us their vacation photos.
So I've decided it's time to brush up my Powerpoint skills again and try to put together a slideshow presentation of our trip to Banff. Now I've done single photo slide shows in the past, but I thought it would be worth some of my spare time to work on titles and photo collages and frames, etc. to see what I can come up with. At the same time I'm trying to keep an eye on what is sleek and easy to watch and not distracting, as I know too many tricks and bells and whistles can be the downfall of the amateur slideshow maker.
And so far, so good. Looks like I'll have something decent to show at the cottage. And I can hold onto it to show my family and maybe show my new class in September to introduce the summer poster project I have them do each year.
I'm always impressed by teachers and especially student teachers who use this kind of technology in their lessons all the time. Hook up their laptops to a projector and use pre-made slideshows or resources off the Internet or interactive boards in their lessons. I've always wanted to do that more, but I find it's difficult to manage the learning curve without having a projector full-time in your classroom. We have a couple in the school, but time always gets too busy to run around and find it, take the time after school to learn about it and explore it and then give it back again and then start the procedure again next time you think it might fit into a lesson.
For the last year or so I've been keeping an eye on the cost of projectors at places like Best Buy and The Future Shop, but even the very cheapest of them is above $500. I'm still watching, though, in the hopes that they'll eventually hit a range where I'll buy one of my own. Then I figure I will really have a chance of learning how to integrate it into my classroom lessons.
Now next week I'm heading up north to stay at the cottage of a teacher friend and of the 5-6 of us who will be there several of us have taken interesting trips away in July (naturally, being teachers and all, July is the time to do such things). Our hostess was away in Australia, another teacher was in Spain, another was honeymooning in Italy and I was hiking in Banff, so one of the activities we have planned is to hook a laptop up to a TV and have people show us their vacation photos.
So I've decided it's time to brush up my Powerpoint skills again and try to put together a slideshow presentation of our trip to Banff. Now I've done single photo slide shows in the past, but I thought it would be worth some of my spare time to work on titles and photo collages and frames, etc. to see what I can come up with. At the same time I'm trying to keep an eye on what is sleek and easy to watch and not distracting, as I know too many tricks and bells and whistles can be the downfall of the amateur slideshow maker.
And so far, so good. Looks like I'll have something decent to show at the cottage. And I can hold onto it to show my family and maybe show my new class in September to introduce the summer poster project I have them do each year.
I'm always impressed by teachers and especially student teachers who use this kind of technology in their lessons all the time. Hook up their laptops to a projector and use pre-made slideshows or resources off the Internet or interactive boards in their lessons. I've always wanted to do that more, but I find it's difficult to manage the learning curve without having a projector full-time in your classroom. We have a couple in the school, but time always gets too busy to run around and find it, take the time after school to learn about it and explore it and then give it back again and then start the procedure again next time you think it might fit into a lesson.
For the last year or so I've been keeping an eye on the cost of projectors at places like Best Buy and The Future Shop, but even the very cheapest of them is above $500. I'm still watching, though, in the hopes that they'll eventually hit a range where I'll buy one of my own. Then I figure I will really have a chance of learning how to integrate it into my classroom lessons.