Power Point Seminar

Published by Sara Coggins, Kids Connection Manager

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity to teach a seminar on using Power Point in the classroom to English teachers here in Taraz. There were 29 teachers in attendance. The seminar was organized by TATE (Taraz Association of Teachers of English). Half of the teachers in attendance had never used Power Point before. Teachers in Kazakhstan are being encouraged to use technology as much as possible in their classrooms. Many of them have access to rooms where a projector is set up for presentations. Although they have access to these facilities, many of the teachers have not been trained on how to actually create presentations.

On Wednesday, I showed them the basics of using Power Point. On Thursday they worked in groups to create a presentation that they could use in their own classes to teach a lesson. On Friday, they presented their presentation to the entire group. I was really impressed by their creativity and use of Power Point. By using each other and asking me questions, they figured out how to do much more than I taught about the basics on Wednesday. It was fun to see their enthusiasm.

On the second day of the seminar, I heard that some of the teachers even went home and practiced what they learned on the first night. The next day in class, they showed their students what they had learned before coming to the second day of the seminar. It was fun to hear that they were already applying what they were learning in the seminar. It was fun to see a group of teachers that really enjoyed being around each other and had a distinct love for learning and sharing what they learn with their students.