Week 8: Power Point

What?
This week we are using our book, 50 Quick & Easy PowerPoint Activities (2nd ed), to learn about different ways to use PowerPoint in our classrooms. This booklet gives cool PowerPoint tips, Publishing ideas, and Slide Show ideas. The two activities my group chose to do are "Paper Chain of Events" for Biology (mitosis) and "Who Am I?" for American Sign Language (history).

So What?
It is very beneficial for teachers to be able to know the numerous ways that PowerPoint can be used in their lessons and assignments. It can add diversity in instruction and homework, which can help catch and hold students' interest. They will be more likely to be excited and involved when they are not bored of the same kind of work and instruction. In addition to keeping things interesting, having a variety of PowerPoint ideas and activities can help teachers pinpoint the best instructional methods and activities for the specific content being taught. Some activities would be very helpful for some certain topics, while other activities would be perfect for others. It can really help teachers specialize with and emphasize the information they need the students to learn and understand.

Now What?
Now my group will be diving into learning specifically about "Paper Chain of Events" and "Who Am I?" activities! I'm excited to experiment with how I can use these activities in my classroom. Up to this point, I have only had experience with using PowerPoint for basic slide shows, so I look forward to learning how to better utilize the program and take advantage of everything that it has to offer. I'm already looking forward to using the "Who Am I" activity for when I teach about famous/influential people in Deaf history. History was never very interesting for me when I was in High School, so I'd like to find as many different fun ideas to teach this content as I can. This activity is definitely a winner because it uses technology to mix things up, and it also engages students by trying to solve a mystery.

No video this week :)