You Have a Projector in Your Classroom...Now What?

An LCD Projector in the classroom is such a great tool for education. More and more schools and classrooms are discovering the value and adding projectors to their technology list. In this post, I will discuss some of my favorite uses of projectors and give some tips and tricks for effective use. All of these ideas are based upon having a computer connected to a projector. That being said, one of my favorite uses of a projector is with a document camera. I will cover document cameras in a separate post. If you have any questions or tips of your own, please let us know...we would love to hear from you!

In my opinion, there are two broad categories for projector use in the classroom...passive and interactive. I actually call the passive category "sit and watch". It's not glamorous but it is definitely effective in the right situations. This category is when you are showing some sort of video clip or slideshow. I tell teachers not to feel guilty about showing a video clip. Showing a video can be the very effective and completely appropriate for a given lesson. My favorite use of the "sit and watch" category is for the anticipatory set. I learned this from a colleague and science teacher. He always starts new science units with hilarious videos he finds on YouTube. The kids are engaged and excited about learning the new content. You can also show videos at any time in the lesson cycle or as a way to enrich your lessons. For example, my favorite Spanish teacher shows clips from Spanish language sitcoms every Friday. The kids love it!

~ TIP ~
What is the best way to show videos from YouTube or other video site?
This can definitely be an issue, especially if your school district blocks YouTube. So, you have to do some homework. First of all, I never, ever stream video from a website for my students, even if the site is not blocked. Streaming a video is a big risk because it puts a big demand on your network resources and if the connection crashes...you are sent scrambling for an activity for the students. It has definitely happened to me before! So, I always download movies first and have them ready on my school computer. You may have to do this at home if the sites you need are blocked. Next, I use a website such as zamzar.com to convert the videos. Sites such as this let you put in the web address (URL) of the video and choose an output format. I usually choose .mpg. After you put in your e-mail address and click "convert", it send you a link for the converted file. This takes a while so don't count on doing this right before class starts. Once you know how to do this, try making your own video library of videos relevant to your subject.


Interactive uses of a projector get kids working, moving and creating. Create all of your daily warm-up activities in PowerPoint and have this on the screen when the kids walk in. PowerPoint works great because it helps keep you organized and you can annotate on the slides. For example, you may have a set of daily math problems on the projector every morning. On your next PowerPoint slide, have the same problems but with the answers as well. Or, you may want to make a PowerPoint with daily writing prompts. Put this on the projector and the kids get to work. If you are lucky enough to have a white board, project lessons and activities directly on it and have kids get up and annotate using markers. I have seen a language arts teacher project sentences on the white board and while students identified parts of speech with different color markers. The sentences were in two columns and students divided into teams and were competing to complete the activity. The students had a great time and were super excited to work on grammar. What a great use of a projector!

There are so many other great uses of projectors and lesson examples. I would like to hear your ideas so please post a comment and share with the group.