I’ve learned that I’m right to blow off PowerPoint’s cognitive style!

Again, while reading for graduate school, I’ve come to a realization: I’ve been right all this time to ignore what PowerPoint does best (pidgeon hole information) and redesign slide content, etc., to fit my needs as a speaker/presenter. I’ve never quite locked on to a template format…and Auto Content Wizard has always been a nightmare for me. I need to say and show what I want to say and show, and PowerPoint is usually just my way to get meaninful visuals into one place so that I don’t have to search through different files to get to my graphics. My PowerPoint presentations are more like a rollercoaster ride, which is usually how my presentations end up feeling, but BY MY DESIGN. I’m not one for formal talks, not at all! I prefer to, as Tufte quoted in The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching out Corrupts Within, “Just talk about [my] business.”

As for Tufte’s suggestion to switch to Microsoft Word and a few high definition handouts? That’s much more my everyday teaching style!

I’ve learned what it feels like to fly.

One short note: While  I was in Epcot, I flew, bodily. One of the rides, called Soarin’, actually gives passengers the feeling that they are flying. WOW. A must see (or should I say must experience?). Anyway, I can check that off my list of things I wish I knew: I now know what it feels like to fly!

I’ve learned that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Apparently, I’ve also learned to plagiarize, for, haven’t I heard that somewhere before?

Here’s the deal. Prior to chaperoning 185 high school seniors to Disney  World on their senior class trip this past week, I would NEVER have thought it possible to take that many students to a hotel and several theme parks for four days and go INCIDENT FREE. I have always been afraid to take students ANYWHERE that involved leaving school grounds. As a coach, I’m a nervous wreck when I take my team to other schools. As a teacher, I’ve headed up only ONE field trip in my eleven years of teaching. I err on the side of caution where field trips are concerned; I fear all of the things that can go wrong…I fear the logistics and the responsibility and the accountability of taking students pretty much anywhere, not because I’m irresponsible, but because the students are precious and the whole world seems to have gone crazy.

But, alas, I’ve learned that the only thing between me and a successful chaperoning experience was my own fear. The students were GREAT and the chaperones had the time of our lives down in sunny Florida. Sure, we slept little and were completely accountable for lots of teenagers, but you can catch up on sleep, and the students proved me wrong. There was nothing to fear.

And then there was the fear of rides, a fear that I’ve been slowly developing over the years…fear that comes with age and just a little bit of knowlege of physics (i.e. falling). I decided before I even left for the trip that a fear of rides would be silly since I ride a motorcycle, which is a hell of a lot more dangerous than some silly rides.

Okay, so not all of the rides were silly. Some were downright outrageous! In the end, I guess that I also learned that a certain amount of fear can be fun…what good is a ride if you’re not screaming from beginning to end?