PowerPoint....Yeah Baby!!

There was a lot of great information that was presented today through PowerPoint. There was obviously a lot of time that was put into it. The graphics and maps were awesome. A lot of old pictures and information that proved people did the research. What I liked the best was the video that was shown during the math PowerPoint about proportions, it was awesome. I am excited to teach math and hopefully be able to use some of this stuff that will engage students differently than they are used to.

The least engaging parts of the PowerPoint’s were when technology got the best of us. I know these are just little things but it is still a bit of a nuisance when stuff like that happens. We are all still new with PowerPoint so it catches us off guard and are forced to reroute our presentations. Once we have more experience with it, we will be okay. But it is hard to stay engaged when there was a huge emphasis on it with build up from the presenter. Just something we have to deal with!

I definitely don’t know all about PowerPoint. There are a lot of information and cool graphics/functions that I can learn from my cohort mates. They can do much more fascinating things with it than I can. I do like the interactive nature that a lot of people brought into their PowerPoint. I need to learn when to animate and when not to. I need help with all of the different layers that are involved because I feel if they were together, it would have appeared better!

While I don’t like to use PowerPoint, it fun to have a reference point when you teach. But it is very subject specific and with some subject, PowerPoint just doesn’t make sense. I have a hard time thinking about using this in math, but I know it can be done; thank you Noelle. It can be a great source of note taking for the students as well. However, I do fear that many teachers can lean on the PowerPoint as a crutch to lead the class. It is only a guide for the students and teacher; the teacher still needs to elaborate on the information. It is very nice to point to things on the board and not have to worry about changing transparencies.