Help Students Review Material With Jeopardy-type Games

This lesson is the third in a series of lessons for teachers who don’t feel comfortable using technology in their classroom.

It’s that time of the school year, when our thoughts turn to preparing our students for their final exams. Jeopardy-type games are a fun way for students to review learning material. Using PowerPoint to create review materials is a great way for both teachers and students to use technology in the classroom. This video can either be used by the teacher or students to create review materials.

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Using SmartArt in Your Classroom

This lesson is the second in a series of lessons for teachers who don’t feel comfortable using technology in their classroom. In this lesson you are going to learn how to use SmartArt to spice up your lessons and your students’ assignments.

Start off by watching the video below:

Lesson Ideas:

Now that you understand how to use SmartArt (Let me suggest to you that you play around with it so that you have a better understanding of what it can do), here are few ideas that you can use to enhance your lessons:

Have your students compare and contrast two or more things using the Venn Diagrams in SmartArt. Students can use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint for this assignment. This type of activity can be used in any subject area.
Cause and effect is sometimes difficult for students to grasp. This is especially true in science and social studies. Using SmartArt students can create a cause and effect diagram. Click here to read an article about a cause and effect lesson.
My students had to create organizational charts which explain power and authority during the Tokugawa period in Japan. SmartArt has great organizational charts that can help the students to complete this assignment.

There are many other uses for SmartArt – experiment with it you just might surprise yourself.

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An Easy Ed Tech Lesson for Non -Tech Teachers

One of the biggest challenges for any teacher who does not feel comfortable using technology in the classroom is finding lessons or activities that easily incorporate technology. With that in mind, I have decided to create a series of ed tech lessons that you can use in your classroom.

Hiring Someone Famous

Let’s get started with a relatively easy activity that can be used in any subject area in which the students study famous people. I know most of you are thinking that only social studies teachers deal with learning about famous people, but this activity can be used in any subject area. Math teachers who can you name that is famous in your subject area? What about Blaise Pascal or Pythagoras ? Science teachers who is famous in your subject area? What about Marie Curie or Einstein? Language Arts teachers who do your students study that is famous? (Almost any author or character from a story). My point is that all subject areas should be able to use this activity.

In this activity students will :

1. Research facts about a famous person. Students are strongly encouraged to use books and the internet. Teachers: one of the hardest things for a student to do effectively is to find relevant information about a particular topic on the internet. Let me suggest that it is best if you provide the students with several internet sites (that you have verified), this will save them time and possibly save you (or them) the embarrassment of stumbling across an inappropriate site. Provide your students with questions or topics which will help guide them to find relevant information.

2.Write ( using a word processor such as Microsoft Word) a cover letter and a resume for an advertised job (teacher created) which must include relevant information about the famous person’s qualifications.

The following is an example of a teacher – created career ad that Christopher Columbus (or any other explorer of the 15th and 16th Century might have applied to):

Explorer Wanted

Our Company, Somewhere Out There Inc. has a position available for an adventurous type to seek a maritime route to the Far East. The ideal candidate must be willing to work extremely long hours under hazardous conditions. Ideally you like challenges.

Please apply with your letter of application and resume to:

Somewhere Out There Inc

1492 Not Sure Where Avenue

Old World, Europe

Putting It All Together

1. Find at least three websites to help your students do their research. The following sites are examples of useful information on Christopher Columbus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/history-kids/christopher-columbus-kids/

Finding the sites is probably going to be the most technical aspect of this assignment for you. The more difficult aspect will be teaching students how to pull information from the websites – no technical expertise is needed for this part of the lesson. You might find this lesson from readwritethink useful.

2. Teach your students the components of a cover letter and of a resume. Again, no technology is required for this part of the activity.

3. Have students type their cover letter and resume.

As you can see, this activity does not require you to be an expert in the use of technology; rather you need to know how to teach your students how to decipher information and how to write a letter and a resume.

Go ahead a give it a try!

Using Picture Effects to Enhance Your PowerPoint Presentations

In the last article you learned how to add pictures to your PowerPoint presentations. In the following video, you will learn how to use picture effects to enhance your PowerPoint presentations.

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How to Insert Pictures Into a PowerPoint Presentation

One of the biggest challenges in creating engaging PowerPoint presentations is understanding how to insert pictures into the PowerPoint slides. Watch this video to learn how.