I find the idea of incorporating your own graphics and images into the classroom to be very valuable. Especially for elementary students, learning with visuals is often super helpful and engaging. If there are words and images on the screen, the chances of students looking and analyzing the visual first is much higher. When the image is really powerful and effective, rather than the image always accompanying the text, the image can be the main attraction and text can be added to support the image instead.

Although sometimes it may be useful to include images from google or other places, having the skills to create your own graphics as a teacher can go a long way. This skill would prevent the risk of accidental copyright; it also allows the images to be specific and personalized to the content being shown in the classroom. If a teacher made their own graphics, this would provide more opportunity for discussion because the teacher would be more passionate about what they’ve created and would be more eager to share. As technology advances, teachers technological creations will be a great model for students to follow if they want to learn how to create their own graphics eventually as well.

Adding artistic effects to graphics promotes creativity in the classroom and enhances the class’s interest level over the content being introduced to the class. Colour, motion, patterns, collages, and pictures are naturally engaging and will capture the students focus throughout the lesson. Today in class, we experimented with adding graphics and effects to powerpoints to make them more engaging and to practice our skills. I’ve shared the link to my work below.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Tk80r8mE7Zz0JCBkpvME_ELuU_FCVnKsHvk3jA_55BQ/edit?usp=sharing