Energy Conservation Project Presentation

Here is the link to my Powerpoint presentation.

My feeling after watching the video of myself presenting is that I did pretty well. My presentation was 8 minutes long and there was no filler, it was short and to the point. I like the fact that I was concise, but I also feel that in this kind of presentation it is good to have some extra ideas so you can diverge off of the PowerPoint presentation a little bit. I never really like PowerPoint presentations because people just read off of the screen. I would rather have them just give me the text to read to myself. The worst is when you get a handout of the PowerPoint slides, and you can read through the whole thing in the first 5 seconds of someone's presentation.

I liked my presentation and I think that I was pretty articulate throughout. One problem that I noticed is that I say "aaah" a lot. I don't say um, I just say "aaah" when I am pausing between two thoughts. I never noticed before that I do that. It is weird to hear my recorded voice because to myself when I am talking I sound different.

-PRESENTATION: I have a really clear and loud speaking voice. That was good. I said "aaaaah" too much. At one point in the presentation I was doing something funny with my hands... I realized that I shouldn't fidget in front of people. During my presentation I was also kind of wringing my hands behind my back at one point. You couldn't see it on the movie but I had to consciously stop doing it. So fidgeting is one thing I need to not do when I am speaking. I know I am supposed to be facing the audience more than facing the screen. In this presentation I was reading off the screen so I did not face the audience enough. I think I was pretty good about turning toward the audience often, but in the future if I am in front of a big group of people, I will practice the presentation more so that I can face the audience more than the screen. Maybe I will print out the slides so the material is in front of me and I am not always looking to my side at the screen.

-VISUALS: I don't have much experience doing PowerPoint so I saw some visual things in the other presentations that I could incorporate more into my own. The biggest thing, to me, was that the background of all my slides was just white. I had some cool pictures, one that made people laugh, but I should have come up with cool background colors and designs for the slides. I will do that in future presentations. I still had a lot of pictures illustrating the ideas that I was talking about. I think they went well with the material. I could have spent more time on finding pictures for my PowerPoint.

-ORGANIZATION: I think my presentation was very organized and it had a good flow. It was not rocket science to get from the essential question to my conclusion, but the information that resulted was very fascinating.

-CONTENT: I think the content of my presentation made everyone in that room think about how they need to recycle. I remember some people in class talking about how they don't recycle, so I wanted the presentation to make them think again. I think I was successful in that. I wasn't trying to pick on anyone because I think all of us have been guilty of not recycling at points in our lives. I liked my presentation because everyone knows that they should recycle, but a lot of people choose not to. We don't realize what the exact difference is between recycle and don't recycle. I think my presentation made it clear what a huge impact a simple process like establishing a real school-recycling program has. During my research I read that in some areas of the country they are reducing the waste added to their landfills by nearly 30 percent because of recycling. At first I had a simple idea. I was amazed at the conclusion I got after just a little bit of math.

Despite the fact that I was sick and I haven't had much experience doing PowerPoint, I think that I still gave a meaningful presentation. It is funny to watch yourself present. I always get the feeling, "Is that really me?" This project has inspired me to go back to my original idea of implementing recycling in my classroom if there is not a school wide program. It might be a drag to collect all that crap and drive out of your way to go turn it in somewhere, but as one teacher I can personally prevent one ton of material a year from going into the landfill instead of being recycled. That's pretty amazing.