my point about power point

1st I’d like to state:  How cool a mac aquarium. Love to see a picture of that. (p.177, new uses for your old computer chapter.)

 

Now, I would like to comment on how true it is that a PowerPoint will dehumanize a speech.  I know that when I get a copy of the presentation before hand and the speaker only reads from it without adding anything, I usually tune them out and just read over the handout to see what I am interested in listening to.  I agree that when we teach we need to motivate our audience, connect with emotion, passion, and fire.  ”A sense of warmth, excitement, shared adventure.  A PowerPoint driven meeting delivers chilly, preprogrammed video graphics.”  When I read that,I felt that was what is missing in my teaching.  It has been so disheartening by the number of students that I have that don’t care about school, working, or even moving to get a pencil that I provided, that I forgot why I teach.  I left out the excitement I usually feel when I am teaching the subject that I love.   I know that I have been the worst teacher I have ever been this year because of the lack of planning and the large number of students with no desire to learn what so ever. I have just referred 17 out of the 50 students (in high school) I have for summer school.  This is the first year that I have more than 5 people fail my class.  I’m sure my lack of enthusiasm towards my subject was a cause of some of those failures.  I feel like I am the one to blame, but it is hard to go into a classroom full of students that hate you, hate what you teach, and hate being at school on a daily basis and stay upbeat.  Sorry for the rant, but reading about being excited and putting emotion into my daily routine made me think about how unattached I had become to the students.  I am glad I read the book and hope I can become excited about my subject again.  THanks for listening.