I was going to do an intro on PowerPoint using one of those old Carousel projectors, just to familiarize computer-phobic people with the essence of PowerPoint: the slide.  Unfortunately, the person who I thought had one had already thrown hers out a while ago.  Perhaps I will still show an old picture slide for the intro.

My goal is to show them just the basics they need in order to produce their first PowerPoint shows.  Therefore, I will be skipping around some.  I am not going to be as thorough as a book on PowerPoint would be. I will be covering how to insert, move, copy, and delete slides, as well as how to use the Slide Sorter view.  Of course, I will end my first installment with how to Save a PowerPoint.  In my second video, I will be covering how to change the text layout.  In the third video, I will discuss how to change the background with fill effects and inserting pictures.  My final video will get into setting up the slide show with timings and slide transitions.

It is important that each installment be less than 4 minutes, so that the viewer can retain and try out what I’ve just shown.  Also, if a viewer wants to go back and watch something again, he or she will not want to watch through a very long video just to find the part he/she is looking for!

Progress on my Web Series project

Currently, I am working on a video series to show teachers how to use PowerPoint.  On Monday, Oct. 1st, our district had an inservice for all of the teachers at our district.  For the first time, a one-hour class was offered to teachers on PowerPoint.  Unfortunately, two teachers at my school said they were very disappointed.  They did not learn much about PowerPoint.  One said they were taught about some kind of Jeopardy game.

That’s when I decided to change my web series project to show them how to use PowerPoint.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Today, I have finally gotten out of my creativity freeze.  I have decided that my DVD is going to be about rules of English for parents of first graders.  The specific focus group will be parents who don’t speak English. I will be working with a first grade teacher who speaks Spanish.  One segment will be on letter sounds; another on the silent “e”.  The reading information that is covered in first grade will be featured in this DVD so that parents can better work with their children at home.

For my web series, I will do short teacher trainings on how to do basic things in Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and using the district’s e-mail.  That is, unless I can think of something better! I will videotape a teacher asking a question, such as “How do I create tables in Word?”  Since it is so hard to get teachers together for training after school–and because all of our prep time is used up, teachers can go to my website or blog to learn about how to do things. Of course, they have to be able to get that far before being able to do anything more.

Hi Mr. Temple et al.  This is the first time I’ve used this blog in a loooong time.  I had to remember how to use it!

Hello world!

This is my very first blog.    What do people say in blogs? I am looking forward to learning about technology.