Let Me Introduce Myself

Let Me Introduce Myself Bob Dylan serves as the musical inspiration for this introductory assignment. What’s the topic? YOU. Making use of artifacts (pictures, mementos, memories, stories, writings, etc) you get to make a short PowerPoint presentation that gives the greatest hits of your life.

Let Me Introduce Myself Why you as the first topic? That’s easy to explain. The story of the U.S. is the story of US, and it begins with you. You have to find yourself in the story this year and to do that you have to retrace the 15-17 year journey you have been on.

Let Me Introduce Myself Let’s try a two-pronged attack. First, start collecting the artifacts of your life. The sorting will come later.

Let Me Introduce Myself Second, start talking to people about YOU. It is easiest to ask questions and record their answers. You can tape record them, write some of their answers down, or BEST OF ALL, videotape them.

Let Me Introduce Myself We are eventually going to be making films this year…so videotaping them would be ideal!

Let Me Introduce Myself What kind of questions? Here are some examples: Where was I born? Did you know what my name would be immediately? When did I come home from the hospital? What was I wearing? How was my room decorated? What was my favorite food? (baby and toddler) When did I start walking? When did I start talking? What was my favorite toy? How long did I sleep in a crib? What were my first words? When did I get my 1st tooth? Who were my playmates? Did I go to preschool? Did we move or stay in the same house? What do {parents} remember about my first day of school? What do you remember about it?

Let Me Introduce Myself From this point on you take over……….your memories about growing up from five to your current age. Think about friends, vacations, interests, changes in your life….all the stuff that makes you who you are.

Let Me Introduce Myself Now comes the hard part. You have to sift and sort and see what story emerges. That’s what historians do; they distill a mass of facts into a coherent narrative that reflects their own personal interpretation. It can be done using images words or even a combination of the two. Our goal this year is to study both forms, what is unique to each medium and then explore them in tandem.

Let Me Introduce Myself And the process starts with this assignment.

Let Me Introduce Myself Sometimes the goal is the process itself and sometimes the goal is the end product. In this case we are more interested in the process, but there is a finished product. What is that finished product?

Let Me Introduce Myself A roughly 3 minute (3:15) PowerPoint slide show that tells the story you want to tell about you and the first 15-17 years of your life.

Let Me Introduce Myself PowerPoint is easy to use and is loaded on all Upper School computers and probably most of our home computers. Pictures that are digital are easy to load, non-digitals have to be scanned (we have scanners at school).

Let Me Introduce Myself Bob Dylan’s, “The Times They Are A Changin” is the musical backdrop for all of the presentations and once you have your slides produced you should set the timing for a 3:15 minute presentation.

Let Me Introduce Myself For those that have not used PowerPoint before I will provide a brief introductory lesson, but the easiest way to learn it is to use it!

Let Me Introduce Myself Specifications: A title Dark backgrounds and white text A minimum of ‘bells and whistles” (don’t overdo the graphics and animation) About 20-25 slides A clear theme that is distinguishable

Let Me Introduce Myself So have at it and good luck! Questions? Come and see me. Due date: In class

Let Me Introduce Myself If you are a novice with PowerPoint visit this site for a tutorial http://einstein.cs.uri.edu/tutorials/csc101/powerpoint/ppt.html