An Apology and Prezi

I am sorry I have been a bad blogger. The last two weeks have been very difficult. My father  had some major health concerns on top of a crazy schedule here at school. Our principal came back from sick leave, only to lose her again for a family crisis. I wasn't sure whether she would even be available for my evaluation, scheduled for first thing this morning. What was I thinking? I am not a morning person, so I start out s-l-o-w-l-y. I had a great figurative language lesson planned whether she was here or not. To do the lesson the way I wanted meant learning a new skill, Prezi.

Prezi is like PowerPoint on steroids. Prezi Desktop allows you to use your creativity to make a presentation. There is also a Mobile Prezi for viewing your Prezi on an iPad. Prezi has a free license for teachers and students. Many templates are available.  (Think of Prezi like a large sheet of paper, where you jot down your thoughts.) The program "follows" your path of thinking. It can zoom in and out to emphasize words or a picture. It searches Google for pictures for your presentation, or you can upload your own. Videos from  can be embedded. I  was able to insert a video into my lesson from YouTube (Yipee - finally unblocked!). I discussed the quality of things you can find on the internet with my students because I wasn't able to find the video I wanted without spelling errors.

It is a great tool. Learning to make it follow your thinking isn't always easy, and took me LOTS of tries. The end result was worth the effort.

Figurative Language and The Grinch

Have you tried Prezi?