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.
Have you tried Prezi?