Prezi and 6th graders

"You are doing what?"  a fellow teacher said.

I replied, "I'm sick of seeing kids do the same thing over and over again, pages, appleworks, word, powerpoint, keynote, they need to do something different."

"Good luck."  a fellow teacher replied.

Then I took my reading class to the computer lab and started teaching them Prezi.

If you aren't using Prezi, I understand, It's hard, It's visually difficult to understand, it's more work, but gosh darn it, it's different and it's cool.

There is something to be said for cloud computing, no flash drives, no logging onto a school server, just saved to an email address.  Gotta love it.  How do kids turn it in?  No printing, no dragging, just e-mail me the link, and you only have to do it once.

"I'll e-mail it to you now, but if I make it better, do I have to e-mail you again?" a student asked.

My reply, "Nope, all you do is work until you think you are finished and let me know.  I'll look at it then."  Kids reply, "Cool!"

We looked at some sample Prezi's, we looked at one I made, critiqued it (show-offs!) watched a few "how to" videos, and started playing.

Day 1 - Played
Day 2 - Added information about their author, e-mailed me the link
Day 3 - Added images
Day 4 - Created the path and added fun stuff
Day 5 - wrapped up and shared with the class, the kids loved it.

Even though there were some bumps in the road (who knew Prezi and firefox wouldn't get along, had to use safari) the kids were really proud of what they did.

Check them out!

http://prezi.com/wskgtlsfti4z/jeff-kinney/

http://prezi.com/jmailst-hgdd/gloria-whelan-winner-of-many-awards-and-writer-of-wonderful-books/

http://prezi.com/1emti-oaaunw/jk-rowling/

http://prezi.com/lklc1mh9xyxc/edward-bloor/

http://prezi.com/fnnn50s_ibe1/chris-dlacey/

http://prezi.com/pccyn5zv4nkt/sharon-g-flake/

http://prezi.com/_zec4cthfjbt/rick-riordan/

http://prezi.com/dswgzrhkxrgr/rick-riordan/

http://prezi.com/7mfpw7lftsan/se-hinton/

http://prezi.com/yyrxcszamgrd/author-questions/

http://prezi.com/-dbcx_tc-tac/author-questions/

http://prezi.com/rjjirtelg27y/dan-gutman/

http://prezi.com/v6h1mtzrc7-e/roland-smith/

http://prezi.com/wrzbc8nicizg/linda-buckley-archer-report/

http://prezi.com/slh1jjb2ov6j/gary-paulsen/

http://prezi.com/m_xjxalsexm8/jenny-nimmo/

http://prezi.com/vmnox8sa1z_p/el-konisberg/

http://prezi.com/ljai02ga2v27/reading-strategies/

http://prezi.com/qufjwzalx-ah/report/



Resources I used to "teach" Prezi

What is Prezi? - a Youtube video

Tutorial - a Youtube video