BLOG 4: PowerPoint Presentations

Comprehensive Assignment

For your comprehensive assignment, create a new blog entry in which you reflect on your learning for this lesson. This posting should be 400 and 500 words in length.

Create a PowerPoint presentation either in your subject area or at your particular grade level, and use it with your students. If you do not have students, try the presentation with any school-age child, and then answer the following questions on your blog:

1. What was the presentation about and to whom did you present it?

My PowerPoint presentation was about three-dimensional objects. I had to teach at least one math lesson during a formal observation, and the PowerPoint presentation was carefully designed with the appropriate learning objectives firmly in mind. I presented it before a class of third graders (two of which were my own EBD students which were fully-mainstreamed in a regular education environment with minimal pull-out.) The school principal was there to view the presentation, and he was very pleased.

2. Of which item in your presentation are you the most proud?

My presentation was about three-dimensional objects (3D figures.) My presentation showed the objects in different ways, and for that, I am the most pleased, because I was able to clearly communicate the math content while simultaneously demonstrating its real world application. For instance, I might show a circle...Then a sphere...Then a globe and a basketball. The students' own brains were thoroughly stimulated, and they were able to brainstorm about other spheres they encounter during a normal day.

3. What might you do differently if you could create the presentation again?

Unfortunately, I believe that PowerPoint presentations will always bring out the worst in some people--most specifically, people like myself: perfectionists. There will always be something you could have / should have done to make your PowerPoint more interesting, imaginative, creative, or just plain mesmerizing. At some point, you just have to realize that, as long as the students have a high level of comprehension from the presentation itself, then you can certainly consider it a job well done. As soon as I presented my PowerPoint presentation, I had to do a post-observation conference with the school's principal, Mr. David Pate. Mr. Pate thought it was a great slide show, and it was obvious that the students were completely focused on it and perfectly on-task. Students paid attention. Students did not engage in meaningless side conversations. Students were not doodling, or playing with toys, or staring out the window, or even trying to build the three dimensional origami shapes that I had my assistant distribute while the students' eyes were on myself. Mr. Pate did comment, however, that the background on my PowerPoint presentation was too dark, or else the font was too dark. I had to admit, with some regret, that the font throughout my presentation was either dark (navy) blue or dark (blood) red. The background was solid black, so the font did tend to get just a bit washed-out in the black background. I should have noticed that in advance, but when I edited the presentation on a standard flat-screen computer monitor, it looked just fine. Once projected onto the Prometheon board, it left a little to be desired. I'll probably stick with a white font for future reference.

4. How did your students respond to the presentation?

The students with whom I dealt in 3rd grade were very badly behaved and off-task constantly. The homeroom teacher for that class was once an EBD Special Education Teacher, and she had honed her skills as a Special Educator by perfecting her ability to scream angrily at students and, whenever possible, to use Safe Crisis Management techniques to restrain students on the carpet until they were basically crying out in pain and begging to be released (I'm not joking--she should probably have lost her job or else be in prison right about now.) Because of her lack of real-world experience, behavior management and classroom management were sorely lacking (and by that I mean virtually nonexistent.) The students were just plain bad, all the time, and no matter how many negative consequences they experienced, they just didn't care any more. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, these students were the model students throughout the extent of my presentation. They paid attention, remaining quiet and focused on my presentation. They did not move around, get out of their seats, engage in meaningless side dialogue, talk to themselves, play with toys, sharpen their pencils endlessly, touch their papers on their desks, ask to use the bathroom repeatedly, throw papers or other objects, or fall out of their chairs "accidentally" (all typical classroom behaviors for this little group of angels.) Both the homeroom teacher and my instructional assistant were present in the classroom, along with the Principal (whom the students do not intrinsically respect nor fear), and I was the lead lecturer and moderator of the presentation. The students responded extremely well to my teaching via the PowerPoint presentation, and for 45-60 whole minutes, they actually did exactly what they were supposed to do. Either the PowerPoint presentation was miracle-working, or else I just presented the material well in my own way. Any objective observer would have noted that all students were fully engaged in the lesson. The students watched, listened, participated, asked questions, gave examples, and answered questions. A couple of the EBD students began to engage in a very hushed side conversation while I was talking, but it was obvious that the nature of their conversation was directly related to the subject matter at immediate hand. The students are frequently given opportunities to work in teams of two or more during math time, and as long as they are talking about math only, a little talking at low levels is not deemed terribly intolerable (though never encouraged.)