The past few weeks have been really busy. After teaching middle school German for the last five years, I am moving on to the high school level. I will be teaching freshman US History, as well as junior/senior sociology. I am very excited to begin my new position, and I think that this digital storytelling class has come at the right time!
I used powerpoint in my German classes fairly effectively. But, I have concerns about my use of presentations in my social studies classes. I think that it would be very easy to load up powerpoints with words, and try to talk over what is up on the screen. The Presentation Zen book has really made me re-think how I want to present my new material.
My brother and I were both at our parents' house this weekend to attend the wedding of a family friend. I had Presentation Zen out, and my dad assumed that it was my brother's! Tom has a degree in industrial engineering, and works as a consultant. My dad assumed, without really thinking, that the book had to be my brother's. It never crossed his mind that I used presentations while teaching!
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First of all congratulations on the new assignment. I'm sure you'll find teaching high school fun and exciting. The technologies we've been learning about especially presentations I'm sure will be useful to you. I have always liked social studies and the way we used to use small group collaboration in many of our units.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how your dad looks at education. (not in a bad way) he is not alone. I was reading one of my text books while supervising one of the pools this summer and a life guard was surprised to learn that I was reading about presentation technologies. It just shows how fast and how much education is changing.