Using PowerPoint in the Classroom

Recycled Presentations
Presentations for Parents
Presentations for Instruction
Creative Presentation Ideas

This tutorial presents some interesting ways PowerPoint can be used in the classroom. Topics include: using recycled presentations, presentations for parents, presentations for instruction, and creative presentation ideas.

Recycled Presentations

The greatest advantage of using PowerPoint for classroom lessons is that you can modify them and use them over and over again, each time you teach those lessons.

Presentations for Parents

PowerPoint presentations are excellent tools for use for parent events. For open house or parent night events, develop presentations with automatically timed slide shows. Have these presentations running in the background.

Some ideas for parent presentations:

Create a PowerPoint presentation to inform parents and remind students of classroom expectations, policies, and other important information.

Develop a student slide show that includes digital pictures of each student with notes to their parents.

Design slideshows to exhibit student work.

Presentations for Instruction

Use PowerPoint presentations to enhance the effectiveness of classroom instruction in many ways in every subject area.

Main points can be emphasized and the presentation itself can be enhanced by using graphics, animation, or sound.

Add flair to presentations with slide and bullet transitions and animated effects.

Presentations can be used to make lessons more organized and flexible.

Text on a PowerPoint presentation is much easier for students to read than trying to read notes that are written on an overhead projector or chalkboard.

Student interest can be stimulated through the use of graphics and cartoons.

Variety is the key to keeping the attention of students.

Many tools are available for use with PowerPoint, so experiment to see what works best for you and your students.

Creative Presentation Ideas

Flash Cards - Create Flashcard presentations for individual and group reinforcement. You can create a template and choose whether you or your students will insert the words or phrases. Topics may include: reinforcing math concepts; practicing parts of speech; practicing spelling; reinforcing story problems; and reinforcing numbers, letters, or colors.

Field Trip Slide Shows - Develop field trip slide shows to review and apply knowledge learned on a field trip. Students can work together to make a slide show that presents what they saw, as well as what they learned.

Autobiographical Stories - Students can create short autobiographical stories about themselves. Scanned photos can be inserted for interest. Once the slides are complete, you can put them together in a presentation to show an audience, such as an open house or parent night.

Interactive Book Reports - Have students create a PowerPoint presentation about books they read.

Music Class Recitals - For music teachers, PowerPoint is a useful tool for creating slide shows of student recitals. During a recital, take pictures of the students while they are performing and record a small portion of their music. On slides, include both each student's picture and music.

Group Slide Shows - Give your students a topic (such as zoo animals) and tell them to choose parts of the topic to focus on (such as specific zoo animals). Have students research their assigned portions of the topic and develop slides to serve as a part of a group presentation about the topic.

Poetry Readings - Students can create slides exhibiting their personal poetry along with a voice recording.

Science Presentations - Use PowerPoint to teach processes and how things work. Teachers or students can add additional items to a diagram to illustrate how a process grows and changes. Science principles work well using this format.

Student Portfolios - PowerPoint can be used to create portfolios of student work.

Class Yearbook-Type Presentations - Collect photos; information about special events; examples of class and student projects, etc. throughout the year and create a year-in-review presentation.