Introducing…

“The Prezi U Teacher Profile”

…where we showcase classroom teachers and demonstrate how they successfully integrate prezi within their daily lessons.

Written by PreziGirl (aka Bridget Mann)

Prezi U’s Featured Teacher Q & A with educator Marsha Layne 

Background:  

Mrs. Layne has been teaching for 13 years, she currently teaches Speech & Debate at a high school in Florida. She has also taught all levels of secondary English. 

How did you first learn about Prezi?   

I was taking classes for a Gifted Endorsement and another teacher in the class shared it with me. I was immediately intrigued by its possibilities! 

Why Prezi?   

I love using prezi because it’s a real attention grabber, much more so than any of the other presentation formats that I’ve used. My students think prezis are fun to watch, whether it’s mine or one that a student has created for the class! 

What do I LOVE about Prezi?

I love that it’s fast and easy for me to sit down and make a prezi for my students. Especially if it’s a lesson topic that I know really well, I can just pop out a great prezi for my classes to see right away! I know that if I had more time in my day to practice with it, that the quality of my prezis would be even better! In addition to being a teacher, I co-sponsor our school’s debate team (which travels all over the country), and I’m a wife, a mom, and marathon runner so I need to find a way to clone myself to make extra time to create more prezis!  

 
What are some ways that you use prezi in your class?

On many days, I often begin my classes with a prezi start-up/bellringer, it settles my students into ‘work mode’ and gets them focused on the upcoming lesson, or reviews the lesson from the previous day. I also make a prezi when I have a new subject to explain to my students or need to demonstrate how to do something new. I also plan to save time/energy and use the pre-made (and free!) daily start-ups that I found at www.prezigirl.com

Do you have some prezis you’d like to share with other educators?

Here is a recent prezi from one of my students on a “how-to” speech assignment:

http://prezi.com/htqm3pd-rjn4/dive-speech/

And here is one that I made on the basics of debating and the importance of listening in a debate format!

http://prezi.com/xw4r_oxbtlns/q-a/ 

Here is another prezi that I made detailing the instructions for an upcoming project…

http://prezi.com/quqljgtykoku/rhetoric-activity/

What are some other benefits to teachers who want to use prezi in the classroom?

 I love all the new changes and improvements that have recently been made. For example, the templates, the new path/slide organizer at the bottom of the prezi editing page, and the text color enhancer adjacent to the text editor block. 

What can Prezi U do to make it easier for educators to use prezi in their classrooms?:

All of the aforementioned improvements have helped make prezi a lot faster and more user-friendly for me! Also, I would imagine just having more preparation time in my day to explore other teachers’ prezis to see if they meet my needs. It would be great to find useful prezis made by all the talented teachers that are out there, to use in my own class! (Editor’s Note: The Prezi U library is currently being stocked with subject-categorized prezis to make it easier for teachers to find/share prezis with their peers, who may be searching for one on a particular lesson/topic!)

If you are a teacher who enjoys using prezi in your class and you'd like to be featured in our next Prezi U Teacher Profile, please take a moment to email me… Bridget@prezigirl.com  www.PreziGirl.com     Happy Zooming Ya'll!  -PreziGirl