How to introduce powerpoint to those who should know it

http://www.actden.com/PP/index.htm

PowerPoint in the Classroom

Powerpoint in the Classroom (PPITC) is a great site to introduce MS Powerpoint to people who you know SHOULD know it, like classroom teachers. PPITC is cute - but not so cute that it gets in the way of its effective design.

This is a nice trick in a world full of kitsch and crud. A strong positive is the way the screenshots of the application are interspersed with the text and descriptions. The lowest point of the website is the fact that it is out of date. The last update was in 2006. For most teachers this is not a huge drawback - as we need to be versed in the many computers we will see in the classroom. I have had MS Windows ME, MS Windows NT, Mac OS 8 and Mac OS X all in the same classroom.

This does not make me unique, nor does it make education unique. It is a challenge and makes this sort of site – not necessarily driven by the latest glitzy things –even more appropriate for the modern educator.

Why power point? The classroom is one of the environments best suited for the use of powerpoint – to introduce material, to emphasize particular skills or information, perhaps to show a picture or diagram. Powerpoint is not meant to take the place of instruction – but just to be a quicker way to deliver the notes to the students.

Most teachers have at least a lesson or two that are perfect for Powerpoint, and once you start there will be no turning back, especially with Powerpoint in the classroom to keep you moving in the right direction.

New Classroom

Wow - I am excited to see how huge my class/lab is - but there is very little technology evident.
I have a ton of work ahead of me to get this where I can feel comfortable! I have a TV and 3 computers - they look like several year old PC's.......

RSS Feeds

I think I can use this RSS idea for homework and assignments this next year. I will look around for some examples to see if this makes sense - and if I can do it as more then an experiment.

Fermi Questions

I have recently discovered Enrico Fermi again. There are some seminal intellects in Physics; Einstein, Newton, and Galileo are universally known names. I have certainly read and learned much about these 3, but with my new role, Physics Teacher at BCHS, I need to start expanding my data set. Enter Enrico Fermi, and his famous questions.

I know of Fermi's work on the Atomic Pile under the football stadium at University of Chicago. As I was tuning up this summer - researching Physics - I discovered Fermi questions. Evidently the native of Rome( Italy not Texas)was a great teacher as well as a Nobel prize winning researcher.

Physics is often involved in the very large and the very small, and the ability to estimate magnitude is essential. Fermi problems or Fermi questions are exercises in estimation.

Example - How many personal motor vehicles (cars and trucks) are there in Matagorda County, Tx?
I would estimate there are between 16,000-20,000, let's say 18,000 vehicles. Here is how I estimated it. There are about 40,000 residents and a we are a relatively young county so a big chunk of the residents are too young to have cars. Further, we are a relatively poor county and we have many 1 car families.

Actual number of vehicles in Matagorda county according to
http://www.city-data.com/county/Matagorda_County-TX.html
was just under 23,000.

So my estimate was about 78% of the correct number, not too bad. The population I used was a little wrong too, the county had an estimated population of 38,000 in 2005 according to the above site.

Here are a couple of sites with examples and some history.

http://mathforum.org/workshops/sum96/interdisc/sheila1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem