Technology in Room 24

     To wrap up our biography unit, each student read a just right biography and created a slide show in Googleslide.  Each slide show had the same requirements: Tell the audience, who was this person, who was in his/her life, what was the time period like, struggles and major accomplishments. Also which text features were helpful in understanding the subject's life. While this was a fast paced creation, 3 days on computer, 1 slide per day, it took some time for all of the 24 presentations to be made to the class. We have finally concluded all presentations. They were awesome and many student's slide shows generated interest for classmates to read about the biographical subject! Who could ask for more?!
      I am thrilled when students really "get into" a project and that is what happened in our classroom! It is amazing how students in third grade learn and master a new concept using technology! We experienced some very creative presentation. In some cases, I hadn't seen this kind of interest and creativity with other mediums used previously for final presentations. I think we have some budding graphic designers!!
     That brings me to the main reason for this blog post....Please go on line and have your child show you his or her slide show. Follow up fun could be allowing your child to create endless slide shows. What better typing practice and learning and growing in an area that will be so useful in future schooling and life. My daughters loved making power-point shows (there was no Google slide show back then!) about any and every topic....All About Me, Getting To Know My Dog and My Summer Vacation were just a few. They learned to insert photos and create hyperlinks to related web pages. They really enjoyed showing off their shows to the rest of the family too!
     I can't tell you how many presentations they've each done in their school career and it all began on those long, hot summer days with nothing in particular to do!! This is truly a situation of getting better at creation by doing. Typing practice can be boring, but making your own slide shows adds the creative aspect and we are back to something interesting and fun to do. Just be sure your child uses the skills they are practicing daily on typingweb. Typing with all of their fingers in the correct spots! I have had a few students create a slide show of their own already! Also I always try to show off any work classmates do during snack time.