Lesson 4: Using PowerPoint in the Classroom

My PowerPoint presentation on the First Thanksgiving is a very cheerful one.  I feel as though it will do the job in teaching the first thanksgiving story to a young student.  I think one of the many problems that people make in PowerPoint presentations is to overload each slide with too much information.  I didn’t want to make my PowerPoint like a text book.  Each slide consisted of a picture and a caption.  When a student has to read a slide that has a paragraph, it is very easy for them to lose interest. So in my presentation on the First Thanksgiving, I made the caption text large and clear so that it would be easily read and understood in a classroom environment.  A class could go through this as a group or individually to learn this story.  I am most proud of this organization in my PowerPoint.  With the small text and captions with pictures, I know that students will stay engaged when I use this later. 

                Since I am not yet teaching and do not know a lot of 1^st and 2^nd graders, I had to present my PowerPoint to my friend’s little girl.  She is actually 4 years old and in her first year of preschool.  This PowerPoint presentation is definitely one that could be used in numerous elementary grades.  She already knew a little bit about Thanksgiving, mainly that it has something to do with Indians.  She loved the colors that I used.  She can’t read yet, so I went through each slide and read the text.  She would talk about the pictures that were on the slides and we would discuss what was happening in each slide.  By the end of it all she was telling her mom about how the Indians helped the Pilgrims find and cook food.  She got the gist of it all. She also wanted me to tell her the story again as if I were reading her a book before bed.  It was really quite funny.  As a whole, I think that my PowerPoint presentation was pretty successful for even a 4 year old, which will make me use it in the future when I have my own students.   If I were to do anything differently on my PowerPoint presentation, I think I would try to include some animation or music.  I think the presentation as a whole was very good, but making it a little more interactive could have made it more stimulating for a different kind of learner. 

                The readings in this lesson taught me a few things.  I have always been very familiar using PowerPoint, however some of the ideas for teaching really intrigued me and taught me something.  The main thing that I learned in this lesson was the “pack and go” feature that teachers can use with PowerPoint.  Being able to send a PowerPoint presentation on Classroom rules and guidelines home to parents could be crucial in having a successful classroom environment.  Most homes today have some sort of computer, but not always the correct software.  With the “pack and go” feature, parents wouldn’t have any trouble opening it. 

                The sample presentation I made today will be one of many PowerPoint presentations that I will use in my future classroom.  I am looking forward to introducing subjects with interactive presentations, making students familiar with PowerPoint, which will help them as they get older.