Week – 6: "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." — Pablo Picasso

Hello My Dear Journal,

I am very excited about everything that has happened to me this week.

As usual we had to do a lot of reading. This time the topics were about Interactive PowerPoint and about Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes, Engaging Students and Technology Aids. We even had to create a short PowerPoint slide show with 1-3 interactive elements.

I will tell you everything step by step. Now my story begins.

Chapter 1 - “A Theoretical Expert”

After reading the material about PowerPoint Presentation I learned how to prepare and use it.

What are the tips that we have to consider?

First of all we have to keep in mind the audience we are going to present the material to; take into account the previous knowledge and experience of the audience; the expected outcome of the lecture; the venue and the conditions for delivering the presentation.

If we think about all the items mentioned above, we’ll be able to create a very useful presentation. As it has become very practical for me, I decided to create DO’s and DON’Ts list:

DO’s

·         Discuss with the students the goals for distributing handouts and their roles

·         Have contact with the students for 99% of the lecture time

·         Mind what to say and how to do say

·         Focus on the audience

·         Mind their learning styles (visual, auditory)

·         Bring up the new slide giving the students a chance to check it  before you speak

·         Use blank screen

·         Make your presentation interactive(e.g. using action buttons)

·         Hyperlink pages to WebPages

·         Use arrow keys to navigate slides

·         Spend time on sorting the slides

·         Practice your presentation

DON’Ts

·         Overwhelm the audience with too many slides

·         Use too many bullet points and text

·         Read the visual presentation to the class

If we remember all the points listed above we will create the interactive PowerPoint presentation for the class use.

 What can I do with my students? First of all I would create a multiple choice test or quiz using the information on creating interactive PowerPoint presentation. The students will have fun and at the same time will get closer to technology. Besides, I can involve my students in creating test questions. After learning a topical unit they will either give me the questions with the answers, email or bring their ready-slides to the classroom. We will compile them and then create the test. As a home task they can get a link to do the test online provided it is placed on their teacher’s blog or Web Quest.

There is also another option for the students to do the test: they can do the tasks in class using their net books. The teacher will copy all the files on their net books and the students will do the task first on their own, then with their partners and after that all the class will discuss the results with the teacher.

The teacher can also provide the links to different sites using which the students will do their tasks. For example, if your topic is about English-speaking countries, you can give a link to the students and they will get the answers and total score.

But when we are speaking about one-computer classroom, we can give the task on the handouts and check the result with the whole class after pair and small group discussions.

Think-Pair-Share

I would like to add some words about the strategy that has become very effective in the classrooms – Think-Pair-Share.  What are the benefits when we use it in the large classes? Can this strategy be effective in the classroom with small number of students? In my opinion, we can use it in both classrooms. The only thing we have to do is to organize the activity so that all the students could get positive learning environment created by the teacher.

Who benefits from Think-Pair-Share? The answer is obvious: We and our students.

 It keeps the students on the task, increases quality of the students’ responses as they have time to think over and do it aloud and then discuss; it improves analytical skills, and develops listening and critical thinking skills. Besides all the mentioned above, it is easy to use and it doesn’t make students feel shy or speak in front of the big audience, it can also bring more confidence to students’ interaction.

The role of a teacher is very important here. The teacher monitors the activity, listens, gives advice, supports shy students and prevents the most active ones from dominating in the discussions giving the others a chance to make their contributions.

If we use PowerPoint Presentation we can give the task or case study on the slide, and then ask the students to think on their own, write their thoughts on the paper, then share with the partner and only after that discuss with the group. It will also serve as a good training for memory.

This strategy appeals to me as in one-computer large classroom it will be a good solution to the problems that a teacher can face.

Chapter 2 - Time for Practice

 I can say that “theoretically I am an expert”. When it came to practice I tried very hard to do my best and apply everything I learned into creating the PowerPoint presentation.

Though my first steps were a failure I didn’t give up and tried again.

 Our tutor Robert (a real expert) anticipated the problems and gave us a very interesting link that I followed as I was sure it would help me. I found there very many attractive ideas. Actually the author put together the tips that we had read about in the materials provided by the course task.

Alexey Kapterev (the author) shared his attitude to boring PowerPoint presentations and “how to stop killing the audience” with these presentations and he pointed out four items:

Significance –

·          make the info meaningful;

·         mind what you do and why it matters;

·         don’t present, if you can’t find meaning

Structure –

·         “How you place the building blocks”;

·          should be convincing, memorable and scalable

·          must have ‘problem-solution-reason’ chain

Simplicity –

·         everything should be as simple as possible;

·         one point per slide;

·         use photos not clipart;

Rehearsal –

·         Practice before you present to the audience

The time for the second trial arrived. I revised all the techniques on creating a PowerPoint Slide presentation so I could try it again.  I watched the video, read the manual and still I had problems.  I must confess that for a long time it has been my dream to create an interactive quiz.

Creating interactive tests was challenging, but I managed it and made a short slide show where I included video, links, hyperlinks based on students’ responses and linked it out to my Zunal web quest. I cannot say that it was perfect as there were some points that needed improving.

I liked Robert’s idea about changing the colors for “Correct” and “Incorrect” answers which I will definitely use for the future presentations.

It was my first experience and I felt proud that I could create the PowerPoint Slide show (though a short one) and made “The Dreams Come True”. I am sure that “in theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they are not”. They just cannot exist without each other.  

Chapter 3 - Project Task 5 – Bringing Change

                                       “Change brings opportunity” (Nido Qubein). 

I can agree with the quotation as it vividly describes the present situation. We were aware of the change we had to bring into the classroom, and now it’s the time we expected the progress.

Does it take place? My answer is ‘Yes’. How did it happen? The students brought their fantastic stories about their last weekend. Some of the stories were descriptive, others were narrative.  

At the beginning of the lesson each student exchanged and read the partner’s story and then gave their comment on it (pair-work).  Then they shared the information within the group (4 people) and wrote a letter to the other group where they shared their Group’s Adventures. The students wrote using their net books. As there was a problem with internet connection at school, they promised to send the letters by email from their home computers.

 It was a real change that brought good opportunity for everybody to practice off- and online activities.

My Dear Journal,

I think I told you everything I have had this week. I did that which I couldn't do and learned how to do it.


Bye.

See you next week.

P.S.I will be away from the city for a long weekend.