Mission Accomplished

     This past week has been a busy one as usual. In the midst of deadlines to upload and post grades, annual reviews to prepare for, and loads of emails to respond to I have finally to been able to accomplish one of my most desired goals - taking a formal PowerPoint class! Yeah!!! This has been something I have tried to do four times over the past two years. Each time I saught to register for this course it was either full, not offered at the time, or my schedule would not accomodate it. As a Registered Nurse for 15 years now, I have taken many classes for professional development. I thoroughly enjoy increasing my personal and professional knowledge in different areas. I firmly believe in being a lifelong learner. This is something I practice both in my personal life and my professional life. I also teach this principle to my children and my kids at school.
     I have now attended two of the six classes for PowerPoint offered at the Professional Learning Center in my school district. I have learned SO much in just these two classes! One may think "what can be so difficult about creating a powerpoint, what's the big deal?" Well, let me tell you. When you are trained to do assessements and to document everthing you do hands on as as a nurse there is no need to create a PowerPoint presentation. It is nothing something you do as a nurse. The technology aspect of healthcare is mainly in use of the high-tech equipment that we must operate. It is not hard to create a couple of simple slides for something here and there or to take a PowerPoint from Ctearn and "make it my own" but I do NOT enjoy doing that...there is SO much in my heart and mind from experiences in Nursing and life that I want to create during my OWN presentations and now I will have the ability to do that!
     I now have the ablility to express the quaility work I would like to create using technology. I now tools to do so. Such a great feeling. I highly recommend this course to anyone who has access to it. There were employees from many different departments taking this same course.
      Some of the things we have learned in addition to creating PPTs are how to create banners and posters, invitations,  how to upload videos and personal pictures, and how to create your own template/background...wonderful! Each task we learned was taught in a manner that caused us to create what was being taught at that time (hands on). I chose to use my own laptop instead of one the computers at the PLC. Made it more relevant and useful for me.There are four more classes to attend and lots more to learn. I am SO happy to be able SQUEEZE this class into my schedule right now. I cannot wait for my students to start reaping the benefits of my PowerPoint training!!!