My Spring Presentation
I've not written in here in a while, mainly because I've been trying to figure out how to deal with the myriad issues that seem to come at me. Today was a big one though; the day I was to make yet another, somewhat dreaded, powerpoint presentation.
I actually did a decent job creating the PPT document, only I thought that all the slides needed to be resized to 12-point font. Well I wasn't sure about this exactly, but since JAWS kept saying "There are exactly 5 too many lines based on the current font size of 28", I thought the change was necessary. I passed it to the woman who had been my classmate, and she gave me tips on how to make it look right. She told me that there was actually plenty of space on the slides, and that the font size had to be big in order for people to read it on the projector. This makes sense to me. I at least think I know how to do it now.
Another incredibly fortunate thing happened also. My Pac Mate decided it would rumble to life, and not a moment too soon. I learned how to export the text on my Powerpoint slides as a word document, and I then loaded that document into my Pac Mate to use as a guidance system.
Doing my whole psychological thing, I dressed in nice clothes and ran to the library at 8 AM to have a final look at the slides. I needed to ensure that I knew where everything was, and how my document would match up with what they saw. I also made a quick read through some of the research studies that were a little dense, and tried to pair things up in my memory.
I wanted to sit outside and get some fresh air before heading to class, but it was surprisingly cold out! So I just went ahead and scampered down there 20 minutes early. Most of the other students who would be presenting also had their laptops out, making last-minute corrections and such.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to go first, so I ended up just sitting tight for most of it. We were to present on specific disabilities and how they affect development throughout the lifespan. Some did bipolar, Intelectual Disability, Spinal Cord Injury, and Schizophrenia, to name a few. They basically ran the gamut. I did visual impairment, an easy choice for me obviously.
I ended up going last. We attempted to let the professor hold my flash drive, but she insisted on opening the file from Blackboard saying it would be faster to access it that way. As I got into position, I guess out of nerves, I banged the Pac Mate pretty hard into the corner of the podium thingy. This caused quite a few keys to be pressed, placing random letters throughout my presentation and initially bringing up menus that I had to get back out of. Ah, what's life without fun, huh? This didn't cause a major problem, though.
Things actually went pretty well. I defined visual impairment, listed common causes, then outlined its effect on development from infancy through the older years using research studies. I wrapped up by giving implications for rehabilitation at each stage. I don't really know who would want to, but you could actually download my powerpoint here if so inclined:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4sklir
The main issue is I spoke too quickly, because there just wasn't much time! I suppose I should've shortened things a bit. She had a timer that she'd set to go off at 15 and 20 minutes respectively, and I could clearly hear it. I'm not so sure anything I said after that first buzzer could be understood. She said "good job," though, and this is a professor I know for certain would be honest. She questioned a couple folk in detail to see if they'd gotten at the content she wanted in the presentation, so I'm hopeful that her not doing so after mine is a good sign. That remains to be seen.
And that was pretty much the only thing to happen today. I slept a lot; I guess the craziness of the past couple weeks finally caught up with me. I also just finished reading House Rules, by Jodi Picoult. It was a good story about a teen-ager with Asperger's syndrome who is tried for murder. Of course I don't know how accurate her character was to someone who has this disorder, and of course people with the disorder would present differently based on numerous circumstances. Still it provided an interesting look into the head of such an individual. The ending wasn't as disturbing as some of her other more recent ones have been, but it was... odd. I would still say that the book was her best, though.
Off to ingest my chocolate and listen to NPR. I'm anxious to see what tomorrow holds. In these parts, one never knows.
I actually did a decent job creating the PPT document, only I thought that all the slides needed to be resized to 12-point font. Well I wasn't sure about this exactly, but since JAWS kept saying "There are exactly 5 too many lines based on the current font size of 28", I thought the change was necessary. I passed it to the woman who had been my classmate, and she gave me tips on how to make it look right. She told me that there was actually plenty of space on the slides, and that the font size had to be big in order for people to read it on the projector. This makes sense to me. I at least think I know how to do it now.
Another incredibly fortunate thing happened also. My Pac Mate decided it would rumble to life, and not a moment too soon. I learned how to export the text on my Powerpoint slides as a word document, and I then loaded that document into my Pac Mate to use as a guidance system.
Doing my whole psychological thing, I dressed in nice clothes and ran to the library at 8 AM to have a final look at the slides. I needed to ensure that I knew where everything was, and how my document would match up with what they saw. I also made a quick read through some of the research studies that were a little dense, and tried to pair things up in my memory.
I wanted to sit outside and get some fresh air before heading to class, but it was surprisingly cold out! So I just went ahead and scampered down there 20 minutes early. Most of the other students who would be presenting also had their laptops out, making last-minute corrections and such.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to go first, so I ended up just sitting tight for most of it. We were to present on specific disabilities and how they affect development throughout the lifespan. Some did bipolar, Intelectual Disability, Spinal Cord Injury, and Schizophrenia, to name a few. They basically ran the gamut. I did visual impairment, an easy choice for me obviously.
I ended up going last. We attempted to let the professor hold my flash drive, but she insisted on opening the file from Blackboard saying it would be faster to access it that way. As I got into position, I guess out of nerves, I banged the Pac Mate pretty hard into the corner of the podium thingy. This caused quite a few keys to be pressed, placing random letters throughout my presentation and initially bringing up menus that I had to get back out of. Ah, what's life without fun, huh? This didn't cause a major problem, though.
Things actually went pretty well. I defined visual impairment, listed common causes, then outlined its effect on development from infancy through the older years using research studies. I wrapped up by giving implications for rehabilitation at each stage. I don't really know who would want to, but you could actually download my powerpoint here if so inclined:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4sklir
The main issue is I spoke too quickly, because there just wasn't much time! I suppose I should've shortened things a bit. She had a timer that she'd set to go off at 15 and 20 minutes respectively, and I could clearly hear it. I'm not so sure anything I said after that first buzzer could be understood. She said "good job," though, and this is a professor I know for certain would be honest. She questioned a couple folk in detail to see if they'd gotten at the content she wanted in the presentation, so I'm hopeful that her not doing so after mine is a good sign. That remains to be seen.
And that was pretty much the only thing to happen today. I slept a lot; I guess the craziness of the past couple weeks finally caught up with me. I also just finished reading House Rules, by Jodi Picoult. It was a good story about a teen-ager with Asperger's syndrome who is tried for murder. Of course I don't know how accurate her character was to someone who has this disorder, and of course people with the disorder would present differently based on numerous circumstances. Still it provided an interesting look into the head of such an individual. The ending wasn't as disturbing as some of her other more recent ones have been, but it was... odd. I would still say that the book was her best, though.
Off to ingest my chocolate and listen to NPR. I'm anxious to see what tomorrow holds. In these parts, one never knows.