Once upon a time, I used PowerPoint as a sometimes tool. Now you won’t catch me teaching without my slides! Trust me when I say that it’s the best thing for both classroom management and student engagement!
Planning in PowerPoint
It’s true that there’s a learning curve if you’re new to creating slides, but once you have one presentation done, it is literally copy and change. Such a timesaver!
I take the unit and break it into days/lessons. From there, I think of all of the things I need for each component and I link them there. I actually turn in my slides as my lesson plans because they are so thorough.
Slide Structure
I teach upper elementary with blocks, so I’m reteaching content. A typical daily slide deck includes a warmup and list of materials needed for the day, a sharing piece, a mini-lesson, a group activity, an exit ticket, and a closing activity.
The slides contain timers, explicit instructions for each activity, and links to videos: if I need it to run class and transitions, it’s in the slides.
Teaching with PowerPoint for Classroom Management
Because the slides contain everything I need as well as everything my students need, it minimizes both questions and off-task behavior. It provides a visual reference for my students in addition to my verbal instructions.
It also helps to manage the group work portions of my class. Roles are defined on a slide and the task is there for them to reference.
Teaching with PowerPoint for Student Engagement
Student engagement is another win in this approach to teaching.
As I mentioned above, the slides allow the student to keep up with learning objectives and pacing, so it’s very kid-friendly.
But it also helps to get students to participate in digital learning activities in a seamless way since class codes are displayed. We use Quizziz and BrainPop as activities in class and I display the information this way.
I also sometimes include blank slides so that, when projected onto the smart board, it acts as an interactive whiteboard that students can use to actively participate in the lesson. This is one of my favorite ways to incorporate movement and engagement with assessment.
Next Steps
For more information on slides, this second-grade teacher has a blog post on her reasons why she uses them. She also has a slides course if you feel like you just can’t wrap your head around the concept.
If you’d like other ideas on student engagement, check out this post I wrote.
