PowerPoint us in the right direction

As I have mentioned before, PowerPoint is one of my favorite programs on the computer. The reason for that is probably because I know its potential. I took a class on Microsoft PowerPoint as a sophmore in high school. Each week we created a PowerPoint presentation and then presented it every Friday on the various topics that were assigned to us. It was then that I learned how to: use animation, use little wording and not read off the slides, make slides visually appealing…basically all of the things that we discussed in class that teach you how to present a PowerPoint, not utilize PowerPoint for your teaching. It wasn’t until junior year of college that I learned there were other ways to use PowerPoint rather than just putting info on slides and standing up to discuss your findings/information. That is why, for the past 3 or 4 years, PowerPoint has been my favorite program, because I learned how to use it in a way that was helpful to teachers, not business-folk. It is a great way to show your students that PowerPoint is not just “presenting,” since that is the idea that most students have come to believe. I absolutely love using PowerPoint for Jeopardy, it is such a creative idea. Especially if you have the blank template, that makes things easier. I am excited to see what other fun and useful things I can do with PowerPoint in the years to come.

technology and its usefulness

I work at Rush Henrietta as the general education representative at CSE meetings. At these meetings, I have been able to learn about how technology is used from a special education standpoint. Students that can barely talk will attend these meetings and present a Power Point project to us describing their lives/likes/dislikes/and goals for the future. It is great that technology can help students with special needs do things that they normally would struggle with. These students are such visual learners and technology expands their learning spectrum. The program we learned about earlier in the semester where it will read back your writing was just an afterthought to me. I knew it existed but I had never seen it used. Going to these schools/meetings and actually seeing technology used for a beneficial purpose, to help these children succeed in life, as opposed to its normal purpose of making life easier for people like me, was very touching.

Microsoft Word

As much as I love using the computer, Microsoft Word is not really my thing.  I use it for writing papers or other simple tasks, but that’s pretty much it.  This week’s class was kind of a refresher for me.  I have not used those features of Word in a very long time.  Anytime I need a worksheet or flyer created, I use Power Point.  Microsoft Power Point is my go-to program.  I find it easier to use for those kinds of things because everything is by itself; the text boxes, the graphics, etc.  There is no confusion like in Word where you have to change the picture to wrap around the text, or you get frustrated because you inserted something and all of a sudden your Word document looks completely different than it did two seconds ago.  I have a feeling if I took the time to understand Word more, I would begin to use it for brochures and ditto sheets more often, but for right now, I’ll stick to Power Point.