My Powerpoint Creation

Technology is becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life as well as in schools. So, when Mr. Smith told us that we would be creating a "new" way to use Powerpoint in the classroom, I was ready for the task. Like all future teachers, I know that Powerpoint is a great way to outline class notes and format lectures, but the lesson of this project was to avoid creating a lecture. Instead, our task was to find a new way to use Powerpoint to teach student's an objective.

We first used PennDot to locate the topic that we would revolve our presentation around. I chose to teach students the difference between fact and opinion, the importance of multiple perspectives, and the cause and effect relationship in the realm of history. Although it would be easy to lecture on such topics, I chose to use videos, pictures, workbook exercises, and group projects to convey my message. For my fact vs. opinion section, I used videos on youtube that the kids could relate to, in order to get my point across. Topics such as the War in Iraq and "Alex Reads Twilight" (a popular Youtube video making fun of twilight) were chosen to help the kids find interest in this subject. I then reinforced this idea by using a workbook, from one of my own classes, to give the kids examples of facts and opinions. They would be encouraged to decipher which passages from the text included fact, opinion, and even both. I also used pictures of their favorite TV shows and famous individuals to help establish the idea that people have "perspectives" and they don't always see the same things in the same way. In the history sense, this is also true. So, in a sense, these pictures helped them grasp the "big picture". For cause and effect, I embedded a video about the causes of WWII and then set up slides, that the students could fill out using a smart board, to help them understand this concept in terms of previous wars. All these tools helped my lesson become more entertaining as well as a good way to reinforce ideas.

I really enjoyed creating this Powerpoint because it allowed me to step outside of the box and decide how I would like to incorporate this technology into my own classroom. It gave me the freedom to create my own lesson to satisfy many different learning styles. And it also helped me become more familiar with the software; I discovered ways to use Powerpoint that I had never thought of before.

Continuity and Change - THE POWERPOINT