Making presentations is a part of a teacher's job. Although many of the technologies have changed to be more interactive than PowerPoint, it can still be an effective tool for presenting, providing you do not read straight from the slides. I constructed the PowerPoint below to introduce my students to the scientific method in preparation for the upcoming science fair. The item that I am most proud of in this PowerPoint is the slide focused on hypothesis. Although you cannot see it by just looking at the handout, there is a link to a clip from the preschool show "Dinosaur Train" where Buddy explains what a hypothesis is in very simple terms. It is a catchy presentation of the definition and it is one that will stick with the students. The design of the presentation is consistent, with easy to read font sizes and types. I even like the fact the design is science themed. I also really like the chart I found at http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_scientific_method.shtml. It really shows the process visually, and even how you should circle back to your hypothesis in the end. There are not too many words on each page, and the graphics go along with the content for the most part. There are spots built in for practice and discussion, allowing for students to be interactive, which highly desirable. As the school year is out, I had to present it to my three and seven year old sons. The content is aimed at 5th grade students, so my children lost interest pretty quickly. The "Dinosaur Train" clip caught their interest again and they were even able to answer what a hypothesis is. If I were to reconstruct this presentation for my children, I would "dumb" down the information as they are not yet ready for the level of information I expect of my 5th graders. In some ways the presentation was too long, and I may want to consider how I can condense the information a little more. In all reality, I plan to cover this PowerPoint over the course of two days, allowing time for activities that correspond with the slides. For example, to demonstrate the importance of specific procedures, I want students to instruct me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Following their directions exactly always opens up their eyes to the importance of being specific and going in order. Try it with your students! You will find it to be an eye opening and humorous experience.
Other than creating PowerPoints this week, I spent a great deal of time exploring various websites, most of which are labeled below. One of my favorites is Comic Life. You, or students, can upload your personal pictures and create a comic book. I took two very simple pictures from my family vacation last week and put them together. No, the frog leg I ate was not actually Senor Frog. Senor Frog was returned to the puddle near out house that very night. I actually didn’t have frog legs until several nights afterwards. It was a neat little program that is easy to use. I could definitely see students creating comic book scenes from novels they read or events from history. My other favorite was Storybird. Storybird is a storybook creator similar to Tikatok, but with less control over placement. However, the image selections are better in my opinion. The goal seems to inspire children to write through art. I just did a quick off the cuff story, but as you can see, the pictures are nice and it even comes with a cover page and summary. It is very quick for students to use and can be published to a classroom library. Teachers can even assign topics for stories and have them all collected in one easy to find location. I highly recommend both products.
My PowerPoint:
My Examples of some of the Technology Explorations:
Goofing off with Comic Life
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13575548/historical-figurez-movie- a short 26 second animated movie
http://storybird.com/books/a-lonely-forest/ - See my StoryBird book.
Websites:
http://comiclife.com/ - take your photos and turn them into a comic
http://www.ispeech.org - Provides the text to speech audio for this Blog.
http://voicethread.com/#q.b913891.i4865967 - A Voice Thread Book Report on The Lightning Thief, a wonderful example of how it can be used in the classroom.
http://storybird.com/ - another way students can create stories
http://nlvm.usu.edu/ - great website for online manipulatives
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