PowerPoint.....

Hi All,

After what seems like forever, I have finally finished my PowerPoint presentation. After a week of trying to fit some study in, between the interruptions of school holiday activities, I have managed to complete something.

It has been a long time since I last used PowerPoint, more than ten years. Much to my surprise, I found most of the exercise relatively painless as far as the technicalities. I think the first hurdle was to try and find a subject that I found to be difficult to engage with myself, therefore, making it difficult for me to "hook" the students. Having found out in the last few days of Term 1 that I was going to be having Grade 6 for my EPL, I wanted to attempt something that I may be able to use and trial in the classroom. So eventually I decided on civics with a focus on Australian Government structure, I am sure most grade 6 students would be far from enthused with such a topic.

I began searching the Internet for ideas on content as well as presentation. I spent many an hour reading and trying to succinctly notate the various government types and functions. I found this to be quite difficult as the subject matter is relatively complex. I still feel that it may be a bit wordy and I am sure that what I have here is just one of many drafts that will occur.

As far as presentation went I found a free download of Australian flags on http://www.indezine.com/ . Once I finally worked out where the templates saved to in PowerPoint and on my computer I was off and running. As I had made extensive notes throughout my research, and I was familiar with the formatting procedures I had little trouble with the basic content. However, I did want to extend my knowledge and challenge myself. So last night I decided I would like to embed a YouTube video into my presentation. I found a website that could help me out, http://www.wikihow.com/Embed-YouTube-Flash-Videos-in-Your-PowerPoint-Presentations , it had easy to follow instructions on where to go and what to do for PowerPoint 2003. What I thought was going to take me hours, was done in a very short amount of time. In doing this I manged to delete two very wordy slides and replace them with a 1 minute video. I am sure that the information in the video would be far more engaging than all the text that had been there previously.

I am hoping that through this presentation that I can at least make a first attempt at trying to engage year 6 students in the important but often dull topic of Australian Government. I do want to take this topic further and develop it. As I was undertaking the task I realised the shortcomings in my own education on this subject. I think PowerPoint is a great tool to get a message across in a succinct and visual manner that will engage the students. Once the topic has been broadly presented hopefully further discussion and in depth analysis will follow in a more enthusiastic manner. I am not sure if that will be the case in this instance, but hopefully it will be a springboard for future presentations.

Australian Governments

View more presentations from gupstones.

Please view and any feedback would be greatly appreciated, as I am not sure if the YouTube video is working or not. Just when you think you have a handle on things......

Kind Regards,

Kylie