In Language Arts, we gave TED talks about things that were special to us. I talked for four minutes about New York City. I lived there for nine years. I enjoyed telling people about shows, food, and fun places to go to. The process was very fun, but also a little stressful. It was only stressful because we only had a few weeks to make a whole TED talk, when professionals get months. 

 

If you ever need to give a presentation, here are some tips:

 

• Don’t use the software’s built-in templates of bullets, letters, and dashes
• If you have multiple photos, use a black background
• Most photos should be “full bleed” or cover the entire screen
• Use one typeface (e.g., sans serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, or Calibri)
• Comic Sans and Papyrus are strictly forbidden
• Use 24 point or larger font size
• Use at most three sizes of your chosen typeface per presentation
• Think simplicity and contrast
• Use only one color of font per presentation unless you want to show emphasis or surprise
• Don’t put everything you are going to say on a slide
• Give image credits
• Rarely show video clips longer than 30 seconds
• Use two transitions: none or dissolve (less than half a second)
• Save your work!

It was so fun to talk about my favorite place in the world, and listening to other TED talks was interesting. Topics ranged from chess, to lacrosse, to favorite vacation places. We made our slides in Google Slides using speaker notes and copyright free images. That was definitely a challenge because I was talking about the Rockettes and I had to find a copyright free image to use. If you ever present a TED talk, you can use the tips, and read this post again!