Instructify

I’m an avid Microsoft Office user. I use Excel pretty much every day, and most of my posts on Instructify were composed using Word. Except for Word’s horrible table system, I really don’t have many complaints about it. But even a shill like me can’t resist the allure of OpenOffice, which does pretty much everything Microsoft Office does, except for free. Yeah, that’s right, free.

If you’re tired of receiving essays written in hen scratch on ragged notebook paper, tell your students to use OpenOffice Writer. Need to get organized, but don’t want to pirate your friend’s MS Excel? OpenOffice Calc will handle your spreadsheet needs. There’s a doppelgänger for pretty much any MS Office program, like PowerPoint and Access (I’ve never used Access and am not about to start just for this blog post, so you’re on your own as to how Access-ible it is). I wrote this post with Writer, and it appears to be compatible with all consonants and vowels. Best of all, I can save in MS Word format, so if I email a document to Bill Gates, he’ll be able to open it.

OpenOffice is a lot older than Instructify, so we realize we’re late to this particular party. Still, enough people don’t know about this great resource that we had to mention it. I highly recommend you give OpenOffice a try. Just think about how your administration will love you once you show them they don’t have to keep shelling out licensing fees to Microsoft. -BILL FERRIS

OpenOffice

You avid readers might remember a post a few weeks ago about PowerPointPalooza, a site which compiled a load of PowerPoint presentations for your classroom usage. Not to be outdone, but there is a slightly more comprehensive and less ComicSans ridden site out there. Check out SlideShare to get all sorts of slideshows for use in your classrooms, on your blogs, and for your own education. Topics range from creating open source software to “toilets of the world.” You can share your own slide shows here, or simply download those presentations that other users have allowed for download. You might not even need to download the presentations, though, as fullscreen view is available for all of the presentations. –JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

SlideShare

Let’s face it– it takes a lot of visual aid to make history engaging. In order to really get your students focused on the American Revolution or the rise of Charlemagne, sometimes it takes an extra step for them to visually experience the lesson. Luckily for us, that’s what PowerPoint presentations are for. But amongst all the grading, lesson pacing and everything else, who has time for creating them? Well, as it turns out, even if you haven’t, someone has, and they’ve created an online database just for you.

PowerPointPalooza is a site dedicated strictly to History lesson PowerPoint presentations. With more than 180 presentations in A.P. European and A.P. American History, as well as Global Studies, there is more than enough to choose from. The presentations vary in length from as little as a dozen slides to upwards of 140. Topics range from things like “Life in Gilded Age New York City” to “How To Do an AP Euro DBQ” and each are extensive, yet generic enough that anyone can find a way to personalize the information.

There are also some student projects available for download, so don’t hesitate to give your own students something to aspire to. If nothing else, PowerPointPalooza might just give you the inspiration you need to create your own database. (Please use less Comic Sans, though.) –JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

PowerPointPalooza