Presenting and presentations

My tech tip this week is about PechaKucha.  PechaKucha 20x20 is a presentation format that takes 20 images and they automatically advance every 20 seconds while the presenter talks about them.  This is a great way for you as a teacher to present a new topic or for students to give a non-typical presentation. 

It’s not a PowerPoint, it’s not a Prezi.  PowerPoint or Google Slides can be used to create a PechaKucha.

In PowerPoint you can rehearse timings and add narration in the Slide Show ribbon.  Or the presentation can be given live with the slides advancing and the conversation/speech given on the spot.  This is a great way in a speech class to force students to practice what they are going to say because the slide will automatically advance. 

See a sample here:PechaKucha sample

Learn how to auto-advance PowerPoint slides: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/powerpoint2013/32

Create a Google Form to track professional and parent contact

Why a form?

By using a form you don't have to remember what information to log and all the information is in one place and easy to access.  This type of information makes sense if you want to track all communication or log time spent on activities all in one place.  If you prefer to log information per student this might make more sense to put in your gradebook.  You can always copy the information from the form responses into your gradebook comments to keep a log AND keep with student records.  I find it easiest to keep all contacts in one place.  Emails are easy to save but you still may want to log emails and reference the save location in case you need documentation.  Either way, it's smart to log your communication somewhere and I found this to be a quick and easy fix.  The initial form takes 20 minutes to make and logging contacts at the time is a breeze.

 Start with a form that allows you to select the type of contact Parent or Professional

Question type choose from a list.

Then you can choose the box go to page based on answer if the form will be different based on the contact type.

I then select the information I want to collect.  I make sure I add a time/date option but the form will be automatically time stamped for the date you fill it out so if you fill it out at the time of the conversation you don’t have to put in a separate time/date.

The results will print to a spreadsheet for you to have a log.

Finally, share your link with yourself on your desktop.  I put it on my webpage.  It could be a resource in Schoology or you can put the link in a Word document and save the document to your desktop for easy access.

Creating Hyperlinks

Often we want to include a hyperlink in a document or email.  This used to be a bit of a process but now we are used to the software recognizing email and website addresses and linking them appropriately.  That occasionally causes issues.  For example:  if I type www.google.com I expect the software to hyperlink my text.  Within this blog space however, the links are not created automatically.

Sometimes, especially in web-based and Microsoft Office software the link is generated because the software recognizes a specific format.  Sometimes it helps us too much.  Example www.epcwellness.org. www.epcwellness.org
 This happens because the link itself still has the . even if it's not part of the text.  This is an easy problem to fix.
In the program with the non-responsive link, highlight the text

right-click, select Hyperlink, Edit Hyperlink

Then edit the link portion.  You should find that there is a section for text people see, and the link that will be visited.  It doesn't matter what the display text says so long as the link is accurate.

Once the link is accurate, hopefully, it will work when you share it. :-) www.epcwellness.org

Snow Day Slump

The art of YouTube.  I use YouTube a lot these days.  I must confess it started as a way to show math concepts to students, often I thought they'd understand it better if someone ELSE explained it. Then I found techniques for taking Praxis tests (what's a Praxix test?).  I used it for students and for me.  I guess I was behind the trend as my students were using YouTube for entertainment.

Today's tip is for the snow day slump.  We aren't getting out and doing much exercise these days, at least I'm not but I created a playlist on YouTube and added 5 10-minute workout videos.  I can do them all at once or if I only have 10 minutes do one of them.  It took some time to find the ones that suited me but now that they are in a playlist I don't have to hunt for videos I just pull up my playlist and workout.

If you have Chromecast or Apple TV and depending on the device you are using you can show the videos on your TV, that's what I do.

For help making a YouTube playlist: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/youtube/creating-playlists