On Monday I’m giving a training session for teachers in my school on PowerPoint, something I’ve cleverly called “PowerPoint for Teachers”.

I’ve used lots of different sources for my resources, and anyone who is following me on Twitter, I have been making the materials for most of Thursday & Friday of last week.

Now I’m the first to admit I am not the most original of content creators, my personal philosophy on things like this is very similar to a brilliant Bruce Lee Quote:

“Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.”

I have used multiple sources for creating resources for this training session, the best of which I would like to share with you.

1)  Meet Henry - Slideshare

This presentation identifies some of the key points of good PowerPoint design, and some great visuals. I have repackaged some of the images to be education specific, but really I didn’t need too. Just a shame that it is an advertisement for a company.

2) 5 Hacks to Improve your Presentations - Ririan Project

I don’t think this really has added to my presentation but it has added to my awareness when I present. Some good points about presenting and also in-turn about PowerPoint - the message is the message not the media.

4) Design for Educators - Dan Myers

Dan is a teacher after my own heart. I wish he had taught me maths, maybe then I wouldn’t have had to re-take it! I aspire to be a little like Dan, his content is great, his ideas original, and his lessons have realism. Something sadly lacking in education really. This post he works through some design ideas, then fills in some gaps in the comments. A good read.

5) Smallest Presentation Hack Ever - Chris Brogan - LifeHack

Short and simple, and something I ALWAYS end up doing. Well no more, as I keep finding when I am an audience member, if you read it out, it doesn’t really need to be on the slide, does it?

6) (Saving the best til last- from the Daddy of presenting) PowerPoint - sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying - Presentation Zen

Some absolutely cracking video’s and information from this Creation Zen post. The eye opener for me was this video. Hilarious. But horrifically true.

I have taken ideas from all of these sources over the last few weeks, and I will be providing the links to the originals in the hand-outs so staff can see the process I have followed to help them become better with PowerPoint. Below is my amalgamation of all this information into an introductory presentation for staff.

Hopefully they will find it interesting and engaging and want to follow some of the advice from these fine people. If nothing else it has opened my eyes and actually made me like (Yes, Like!) PowerPoint again. I can distill PowerPoint down to one phrase:

“You get out what you put in”

Tags: Powerpoint, Teacher, Training, Design, Bruce Lee, Influences, Sources

Popularity: 7% [?]