As the end of the year approaches I've noticed a lag in my students attention span. They have a general look of disdain and are reluctant to participate with the vigor and enthusiasm they once had. The truth is, I'm exhausted too. I've spent my last three weekends cleaning and packing my apartment in preparation for my move to NYC and have worked tirelessly on the tutoringcreativity.com website. When I get tired, instead of lecturing off my notes, I start to make PowerPoint presentations. Generally, I avoid PowerPoint presentations because I believe people rely on them too much and that they often start to become stale and boring after the third slide.
However, I have created a revolutionary end-of-the-semester PowerPoint trick to get their attention. His name: Edward Cullen.
I am not a fan of the Twilight Series but my students are OBSESSED with everything vampire-like. They've even gone so far as writing collage poems from Twilight book jackets. My masterful PowerPoint trick is simple and yet extremely effective.
Every third slide, roughly every 8 minutes, I include a picture from the Twilight series, primarily highlighting Edward Cullen. This is paired with my exclamation of:
"Edward Cullen, how'd you get in there!?" in a highpitched adoring fan voice. They perk up like a Doberman that just spotted a squirrel.
This PowerPoint trick can be used with any number of the following images/themes:
- Any picture involed in the movie Twilight
- A picture of the Golden Girls followed by the statement, "Thank you for being a student."
- A Facebook status update with the statement, "OMG I love this class," written in it.
- A powerpoint slide completely filled with text message jargon: omg, brb, btw, and the like.
- A facebook bumper sticker, typically something ridiculous like a picture of David Bowie with a statement under it that says, "David Bowie is severely disappointed in you." Or a 'Hello My Name Is' tag with the words "Edward Cullen's Girlfriend" photoshopped onto it.
- Anything to do with ESPN. Typically, downloading the sound file and then making it play between every third slide helps keep the guys interested.
The best combo is the ESPN sound file and then a picture of Edward Cullen. Works like a charm.
I put a link to your blog on mine.
ReplyDeleteCheers
This is incredibly funny. Wouldn't have found your blog if it hadn't been posted in the Coffee Shop! Please feel free to follow me at http://creditcrunchcareerchange.blogspot.com. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny!
ReplyDeleteMy mates love twilight, and i'm not too sure why...
I'm a student and Learning can be very boring - unless you have a fun teacher that know what kids like.
That is brilliantly funny!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!
ReplyDeleteI recently tried to do something like this in the High School where I've been interning to get my teaching certificate in Biology. I put together a ppt presentation on oceanographic research in the Antarctic to show the seniors (hoping to inspire some of them to consider a career in science by giving them an idea of some of the "cool" -no pun intended- options related to these fields). Anyhow, I wanted to punctuate the more serious scientific slides (how and why we collect samples, what do we do with them etc.) with "fun" moments to illustrate what a bunch of nut jobs most of us (Antarctic scientists) actually are. Worked like a charm! What do ornithologists do on base? Picture of a poor fellow chasing after a penguin! What do marine biologists do? Siesta on deck among the nets that are ready to go into the water... and then images of us with some pretty freaky critters that got caught in the nets. Extra work detail for volunteers? Time to test survival suits... (those used if boat sinks). How to test them? Put it on and jump in the water! Surrounded by ice cubes and a seal. THEY LOVED IT!
So yeah, a powerpoint can be mind-numbing to the students, but include a "weird" slide every so often and you're sure to have their attention the whole time!
You've got an interesting blog here. As someone who is pondering on wether to go into teaching or continue in research (or do something else entirely), I'll be following your posts hoping for inspiration! ;o)