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At Instructor, we're bearing from more and more tech-savvy teachers. Here are two projects from our readers that make PowerPoint, a program designed for visual presentations, into a powerful classroom tool.

Author Presentations

Drive-in effect! Camera effect! Animation preview! This is the language my third graders were using within the first week of introducing Microsoft PowerPoint.

This year for our author study, I wanted my students to present what they learned in a new way--as a PowerPoint presentation. However, before I told my students, I needed to learn how to use the program myself. I visited www.actden.com and found an excellent PowerPoint tutorial.

Once I familiarized myself with PowerPoint 98, I developed a presentation of my own to use as a model. As I showed it to my students, I explained four things: what a slide was, how to choose a template, how to add text and animation, and how to choose a transition. Then we went to work on our author presentation!

Each student created one slide, but before coming to the computer, he or she needed to research the answer to the assigned question, and then write and proofread the question and answer very carefully. We studied Ezra Jack Keats, the author of The Snowy Day. My students learned about his childhood in New York and how he became a writer and illustrator. My class was very proud of their final presentation. So was I.

Not only did my students learn about our author, they also learned computer vocabulary, new computer skills, and how to follow complex directions to completion.

-- Anna DelMonaco

Woodside Elementary School

Peekskill, NY

Student-made Study Cards

I integrate technology into my 6th-grade social studies class and improve their study skills at the same time. My student are divided into study groups and each assigned a chapter of our textbook. Each group plans and creates PowerPoint study cards for the entire class to use. We call these pages "E-notes." The E-notes for each chapter highlight key terms, people, places, and social studies concepts. The example here is from our unit on immigration. It included pages on important topics such as labor unions, tenements, prejudice, Ellis Island, and Jane Addams's Hull House. The kids add background color, clip art, and sound effects to make the series of cards interesting. E-notes have many advantages: They can be used in class, e-mailed home, saved to disk, or printed out. They are a great study tool!

Arleen Perkins

Grover Cleveland Middle School

Ca/dwell, NJ

RELATED ARTICLE: Share your teaching experience and great activities with Instructor Readers!

We love to hear your latest... What are your current class projects? What new technology, method, or approach is bringing new life to an old subject? What activity did your class just adore? Instructor is seeking activities for E-classroom and the Ready-to-Use section. If we publish your submission, you will receive a $50 gift certificate for Scholastic products! Send your activity via e-mail to Instructor@scholastic.com or by nail to Instructor, Activities Editor, 355 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. Include your name, e-mail address, school name and address, and the grade(s) you teach.