I will be honest. I have never been a big fan of teaching math with a PowerPoint presentation. It seemed old-fashioned and disingenuous. I knew there were teachers using them to teach Math and they were doing it successfully. I worked with some of those teachers. But it was not my thing. I liked using interactive notebooks and foldables and using the document camera to take and talk through the notes with the students.
Then, Covid-19 hit the globe and made teachers everywhere rethink their best teaching methods. Suddenly, PowerPoints became the evident solution. Teaching in-person or face to face? They work. Teaching on a Hybrid schedule? They work. Teaching all virtually? They work. Teaching various students on various schedules? They work. The ability to voice- and screen-record my lessons while demonstrating content made sense to me. It made sense because all students, whether learning at home or at school could access my content.
Enter my mad dash to create a PowerPoint for all my Geometry lessons. It is a lot of work, but I am thinking beyond this year. If/when we go back to school fully face to face, I can still use these PowerPoints. What a great solution for students who are absent! I will have all the lessons videoed with my voice teaching saved so that students can access them. They can use them when they are absent or if they just need further clarification.
Teaching Geometry with a PowerPoint is tricky because the content is extremely hands-on. Here is a video I made (with no teaching voiceover) so you can see how I have adapted my lesson to visualize the geometry content.
Here are ways to Make the PowerPoints Useful and Engaging:
- Record your voice directly onto the slides and send the file to your students to watch at home as a PowerPoint slideshow. Insert > Audio > Record Audio.
- Use screencast software (Screencastify, Screen Cast-O-Matic, Zoom, Loom, Google Meets) to record yourself sharing your screen. Upload to YouTube and send the links to students.
- Hold a live video session (via Zoom, Google Meets, etc.) with your students and screen share the PowerPoint slide show.
- Record yourself teaching the lesson face to face using the PowerPoint.
- Send the PowerPoint to absent students.
- Use when you have a sub to ensure students are getting quality content even when you are not there.
Here is another example of a Geometry PowerPoint.
I have also been converting all these lessons to guided interactive notebook notes, which you can read more about here. They follow the same style as the PowerPoint lessons, with the same examples and formatting.
If you are interested in checking out my PowerPoint lessons, I have them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click here to have a look. What other strategies have you tried this year that have been successful? Leave a comment below.
