"Dressing up"

I love to dress up an assignment with pictures or clipart. This could be due to the fact that I'm a visual learner and pictures often help me make sense of the context (like any good storybook). Nothing bores me more than to watch a plain presentation. I like to see colors, fun fonts, and lots of pictures. Can a person have too many pictures, sure a person can overdue it and take away from the main purpose. So be careful not to overload a presentation with too much of anything because more than likely someone's brain will be on overload along with the presentation.

I think back to Kindergarten (many, many years ago) and learning the alphabet. Students come to school singing the alphabet therefore parents assume they know the alphabet. This is not true, you will find that many Kinders will not be able to identify the letter with its name. Often they believe LMNOP is one letter, as it runs together in the song. I can't imagine not learning my alphabet without the alphabet people. They were big balloon people that hung in our classroom on a big clothes line. The image (visual) helps me as a student relate my letters to their appropriate names. While I don't see alphabet people in the classrooms today the concept can still be used, especially when working with technology.

As for sound clips, this is something I have done before but not to the extent of my Day in History, April 9th, assignment. While I'm happy to look at pictures as I watch the presentation the sound really brought a new depth and spark to my final presentation.

I think back to my students and all the special effects their video games and cell phones offer, so why shouldn't my lessons? Simple steps can create a presentation that is sure to engage the visual and auditory learners.