Microsoft PowerPoint

What?
This week we learned about using PowerPoint in our classrooms. I've used PowerPoint countless times in my classes, but I've also been on the other end receiving a PowerPoint from a professor. I've found some to be really insightful and others to be pretty boring. Having these different experiences I often wondered if it was the teacher or the actual PowerPoint that made it good or bad. Now learning some techniques and strategies with PowerPoint I believe it was probably a little of both. Creating PowerPoint's can be rather easy, but creating one that is exciting and insightful for the students can be a difficult task. Keeping a page short but informational is a technique we learned this week. You want the students to stay engaged with the topic and not lose focus because it is too long or wordy. Another factor that could lose the students attention is the size of the font. You want to make sure the whole class can read what you are presenting, even the students on the back row. Another good strategy for keeping your students interested is making your pages fun with animation. But you must be careful here also, because you don't want to overdo the animation and lose the focus of the students from the topic. If you have too many animations and characters the students will begin to focus on these areas, being concerned with what comes next, instead of your information and focus. To create a PowerPoint that has life to it is knowing the tools. Some tools that can help you are the entrance and exit of your information on the page. You can also include sounds and speed of the entrance. A great thing I learned this week was being able to put a video or slide show in your PowerPoint. There are many basics like font style and size that can help to create your PowerPoint the way you want it to look. Then hopefully through these you will obtain your purpose with your PowerPoint presentation.
So What?
As a teacher we have a variety of purposes depending on the day and the topic. With PowerPoint it can help you to obtain your purpose. With the different tools provided on PowerPoint you can use images and different phrases or words to help build knowledge in your students. PowerPoint provides great visual learning. Here the students not only hear what the teacher is saying but also can see what is being taught. By providing two ways of presenting this can help you get across the information better to your whole class instead of a few. PowerPoint and you lecture will bring different areas of learning into the equation. Also with PowerPoint you can pinpoint the focus by what you put on your slides whether it is a picture, phrase, or sounds.
As a PE teacher PowerPoint can be helpful. Even though we are being physically active most the time a PowerPoint presentation can provide visual learning and help the growth of understanding for students. Sometimes is hard to see how your body really should be moving while performing a skill. With PowerPoint I can now provide a different avenue of learning. Before it was just put a ball out and let them play and learn on their own. Now we can give them step by step. I can provide images of phases of skills or actual videos in slow motion to help them gain the idea I am looking for.
Now What?
Because of my experience with PowerPoint I believe I know it pretty well, but I think there is still room to grow. One area I really need to focus on is how to present it well for my students. Understanding how it will be taken and what will keep them involved is some tactics I need to practice and learn. Practice for me is the key to success. I learn best from experience and plan on preparing slides for my class a giving them to my peers and friends to get their input. PowerPoint can be a good avenue for PE but there are others like Dartfish that focus primarily on the steps and whole skill in different segments for the students to learn from. Dartfish is more complex and probably more at a team level, where PowerPoint would be better understood in the classroom. I think PowerPoint can also be a good change from the regular PE class day and can help the students to stay excited about sports and games. With PE I think that PowerPoint activities can be used for the student's presentations and reports. They can be fun, imaginative, and informational in a Physical Education class.