How to make engaging and professional presentations for our Spanish classes

As teachers, we all like to create our own materials to use in the Spanish classroom. To do so, we use our precious free time to search through thousand of resources to create fun, worthwhile educational materials that really work in the classroom, and that achieve our precise academic objectives. But what do we do when we want to teach our Spanish students some grammatical content, or simply some denser material? How can we make the lesson engaging and interesting? How can we ensure that we effectively capture our students' attention? The truth is, it's very possible to make a great presentation, with images and dynamic components that will ensure that, once the presentation is over, the students will have retained the majority of the information. In this best case scenario, students would thus just need some practice in order to process and internalize the information, applying it to the appropiate communicative situations or social contexts.

What tools should I use to make my presentations?

There are many tools to make presentations and it is oftentimes this wide variety that can overwhelm us and lead us to keep using tools we already know, even if they aren’t the best or most adequate for our needs.

With this in mind, we're laying out a brief outline of tools you can use to make lesson presentations for your Spanish classes:

• Power Point: a classic in slideshow presentations. It's easy to get (it's also available on Google Drive or LibreOffice if you don't have Windows) and equally easy to use. You can create almost anything in a very simple format, so it comes in handy for lessons on grammatical content. Drawbacks: the design is a bit outdated, so you have to be creative. Tutorial.
• Prezi: some say it can be confusing for students; however, it's very useful for any type of presentation, because it allows you to order your material and move quickly from one topic to the other. Like other tools, it allows you to link multimedia files. Drawbacks: you have to register for the 15-day free trial version. Tutorial.
• Haiku: it has a more modern design than Power Point and its templates allow you to add images and content quickly. It’s a good choice to introduce new vocabulary. Drawbacks: You also have to register for the free version, but at least there's no time limit. You won't be able to download the presentation unless you buy the full version, but you can share it with your students on social networks or Google+. Sending them the presentation means they don't have to worry about taking notes during class and can better focus on the lesson! Tutorial.
• Emaze: allows you to make educational presentations after registering for free. You can choose from many attractive templates, and can choose a slideshow format like Power Point or a format like Prezi. It's very comprehensive. Drawbacks: You can only share the presentation, and must buy the full version to download it. Tutorial.
• Slid.es: similar to Power Point, it's also very simple to use and allows multiple people to work on the presentation, so it’s a good tool for students making their own presentations in group activities. It also requires free registration. Drawbacks: The design is not particularly attractive and also requires you to pay to download the presentation. Tutorial.

Have you used any of these tools to present content in lessons for your Spanish classes? If so, which would you recommend?

We look forward to hearing your comments!