Learning to use Google Slides

Yazmin Serrano
EDU 214 - 2001
Teacher: Hello, class, good morning!
How are we doing on this wonderful
Monday morning?

Students: Good morning, teacher!

Teacher: Did anyone do anything

exciting this weekend that they’d like to
share?

Emily: I went apple picking with my

family.

Steven: I got a new bike and rode it all

weekend.

Carlos: I was sick all weekend.

Teacher: Oh, no. I’m sorry to hear that

Carlos. Emily, Steven, sounds like you
had a lot of fun this weekend. Alright
class, let’s get into today’s lesson.
Teacher: Alright, class. For today’s
lesson I’m going to ask a question first.
Who here has heard of Google Slides?

Teacher: Okay, great. I see

everyone’s hands raised. Now, who
here has actually used it before?

Teacher: Okay, only two hands up. No

worries, today we’re going to go over
all the features Google Slides has and
in the end, you’re all going to create a
presentation on a topic of your
choosing. Don’t worry, you won’t have
to present it to the class unless you
want to. So you can all sigh in relief
now.
Teacher: Okay, everyone ready?

Students: Yes!

Teacher: Okay, great. First things first.

Anyone with a Google account can
access Google Slides. Everyone here
should already have a Google account
as it’s been needed for other classes.
Does anyone not have one?

Teacher: No hands? Everyone has an

account, correct? Okay, great! Now,
can anyone tell me what Google Slides
can be used for? Let’s see, who has
their hand raised? Jessica?

Jessica: To make presentations.

Teacher: Great, Jessica! Thank you.

Now, I’m going to show you how to
access Google Slides.
Teacher: Alright, class. Now we’re going to
get into this so make sure you’re all paying
attention and if you have any questions or I’m
losing you, let me know. Got it?

Students: Got it!

Teacher: When you first go to the Google

homepage, in the right corner you will see
four options. They will read “Gmail”, “Images”,
six dots in the shape of a square, and a circle
that will have your initial on there. Everyone
with me so far? Any questions?

Students: No questions.

Teacher: Okay, the option we are looking for

is the six dots in the shape of a square.
Clicking that will bring up all the tools and
functions Google has. You might need to
scroll down a bit until you see “Slides”. This is
what we’re learning how to use today.
Teacher: When you click on the Slides
icon, it will automatically take you to
Google Slides. This is what the
homepage should look like. Jackson, you
have a question?

Jackson: Yes. Mine doesn’t look like that.

I don’t have anything in recent
presentations.

Teacher: That’s no problem. If you

haven't used Google Slides before, then
you won’t have anything there because
you haven’t created anything yet. After
today’s lesson, though, you will have the
presentation you created there.

Jackson: Oh, okay. Thank you.

Teacher: Of course, any more questions

class?

Students: No.
Teacher: At the very top is where you
will start off. You’ll see a couple of
templates they offer to use and if you
click the “Template gallery” option you
will see even more templates you can
pick from. Personally, I like to click the
blank presentation because I like to
pick my own colors but it is completely
up to you whether you use a blank one
or one of the templates. If a teacher
assigns a project where you are to use
Google Slides, they will most likely tell
you whether they want you to use a
blank one or a template. For this
lesson though, I will show you on a
blank one.
Teacher: When you first create a
blank presentation, this little screen will
pop up on the right side of your screen
with possible themes for your Slide
presentation. You can look through
them and decide if you like any but if
you don’t you always have the option
of changing the color to whatever color
you want. At the very top, locate the
tab that says “Background” and click
on it. A small window will appear with
the options of “color”, “image” and
“reset to theme. If you click the box
next to “Color” a drop down menu will
appear with lots of colors to choose
from. Everyone see it?

Students: Yes!
Teacher: Now, let’s see. What color do
we want to make this presentation.

Crystal: Pink!

Trevor: Black!

Roger: Purple!

Polly: Green!

Marcos: Grey!

Riley: Yellow!

Teacher: Okay, I’m hearing a lot of

colors right now. Let’s take a vote.
How many for pink? Black? Purple?
How about green? Grey? Yellow?
Okay, looks like Yellow is the winner.
So let’s change our color to yellow and
this is what our presentation looks like
now.
Teacher: Okay, class. Now we’re going to go
over all the features Google Slides has to
offer. A lot of these will be similar to other
programs you have used such as Microsoft
Word but we’re going over them as a
refresher, okay? Any questions

Students: No questions.

Teacher: First off is this little section that says

“Untitled presentation”. Anyone know what
this could be for?

Tracy: Is that the title?

Teacher: Yes, Tracy! That is where you will

put the title of your presentation. If you just
click on that, it will highlight the text and let
you write over it. What should we name our
presentation? Liam?

Liam: Um, let’s name it talking rock.

Teacher: What an interesting title, Liam.

Okay. Everyone watch how I click it, write the
title, and there. Our presentation is now called
Talking Rock.
Teacher: Now that our presentation
has an interesting name, we’re going
to go over all these features at the top.
A lot of these should be familiar to all
of you so we are going to go through
them a bit quickly, but if you need
more clarification or for me to slow
down let me know or we can have
some one on one time later and I can
do more explaining. Sound good,
class?

Students: Yes, teacher.

Teacher: Okay, great! Let’s start off.

Teacher: The very first option we have
is the “Files” option. If you click on this,
a drop down menu will appear with
various functions. This is very similar
to the “File” section on Microsoft
PowerPoint or Word. You will see
options such as “New” which gives you
the option to start a brand new Google
Slides presentation. “Open” to open
another presentation. “Make a copy”
which adds a copy of your
presentation to your drive. “Rename”
which gives you another option to
rename your presentation. And “Move
to trash” which gives you the option to
delete your presentation. These are all
the options I think you’ll be using the
most and don’t think you’ll use any of
the other options but if you have any
questions you can ask me about them.
Teacher: Next, we have the “edit” tab.
I know you all are very familiar with it.
It’s nothing new. You have the option
to undo or redo an action. So if you
accidentally mess up and delete a
sentence, you can bring it back with no
trouble. You can also cut, copy, paste,
paste without formatting, delete,
duplicate, and select all. Lastly, you
can find and replace a word if needed.
I know I went through that fast but
we’ve covered the edit button before
so I’m sure this is all a refresher for
you all. Any questions?

Student: No.
Teacher: This tab might be one a lot of
you have never seen. The “view” tab is
typically for presentations and has the
option to present the presentation as
well as more advanced tools like
motion for pictures or if you want your
text to move. You can add a grid view
in case you want to be sure everything
is straight and even on the page along
with the ruler on top. You can also use
guides provided to help make your
presentation as neat as possible.

Lisa: What does the zoom button do?

Teacher: Good question, Lisa! If

you’re having trouble seeing the
screen or want to see something more
close up you can adjust how big the
screen is by zooming in.

Lisa: Oh, okay.

Teacher: Any other questions? Okay,
let’s move onto the Insert tab. This is a
tab I use a lot and I suspect you might
too. First, we have the image tab. This
allows you to put in a picture or a gif
you may have saved on your computer
to the presentation. If the picture or gif
is from Google, it often just lets you
slide it onto the presentation as well.
The text box lets you add an extra text
box if needed. If you want to insert
sound or your own voice you can do
so with the Audio feature. You can also
insert a video you created. You can
also add shapes, tables, diagrams,
word art, and lines of your choosing. I
really recommend playing around with
this feature because it is one of my
favorites.
Teacher: Everyone with me so far?

Students: Yes!

Teacher: Okay, this next one is pretty

simple. The format tab simply allows
you to adjust text and pictures to your
liking. You can fix the text, add special
spacing to it or make it into a list with
bullet points. It also allows you to
create a table if you’d like to display
some data of some sorts. Lastly, it also
has an option to add borders and lines
to your presentation to spice it up a bit
and give it some personality if you’re
into that.
Teacher: The next tab is pretty simple,
most of tabs left are really easy as
well. The slide tab is where you will
deal with the layout of the slides in
your presentation. You can decide
whether you want to add a new slide,
duplicate the slide, delete, skip, or
move any slide you want. You can also
change your background, layout, or
theme from this tab.
Teacher: The “Arrange” tab is mainly
used for pictures and text. With this
tab, you can align, center the text or
picture, or rotate it. You can also
arrange it by grouping or ungrouping
the pictures. We’re almost near the
end class, stay with me. Anyone have
any questions?

Students: No questions.
Teacher: The tools tab, I find, can be
really helpful. This tab has a spelling
and dictionary option. If a word is
misspelled it will allow you to fix it or
even use an online dictionary that you
can use. It also has a couple other
options like voice type speaker notes
but I’ve never used any of them and
have never really had the need to.
Feel free to explore those if you’d like
and I can try to help with figuring it out.
Teacher: The last two tabs are
“Add-ons” and “Help”. These are two
tabs that I don’t use at all and don’t
think any of you will ever use. The
add-on tab allows for users to
purchase and download other things
they can add to their presentation. The
“help” tab gives tutorials on how to use
certain features of Google Slides.

Jerry: What does the yellow share

button do?

Teacher: Well, Jerry, I’m glad you

asked, because I’m just about to
explain that.
Teacher: A feature that you won’t use but
should know about anyways is the auto
save. Google Slides automatically saves
your presentation as you go, so you don’t
have to do anything. It will show your last
work as “Last edit was made ? minutes
ago” depending on when you last worked
on it.

Teacher: Next, if you look at the top right

corner, you will see three buttons. The
message shaped button is used to write
comments (to yourself or others) on your
presentation, but it won’t appear on there.
The big present button just puts the entire
thing into presentation mode. And lastly,
as Jerry was inquiring, the yellow share
button allows you to share the
presentation with someone or a group of
people as long as you know their email. It
also allows you to simply send a link of
the presentation and anyone with that link
can access it.
Teacher: Just four more slides and we
get to your activity, just hang tight!
We’re near the end, class! There is a
small line of little icons below the tabs
we just went over. The plus sign, which
I will go over shortly. The two arrows,
which are just shortcuts for undo and
redo. The printer which is a shortcut
for printing out your presentation, and
the little roller which is a paint format.
Teacher: As I mentioned just a couple
seconds ago, we’re going to go over
what the little plus sign does. If you
click on it, it will show a drop down
menu with lots of formats for your
slides. If you don’t want all your slides
to be the same, you can use some of
the templates provided. For example,
you can use the title slide and then
following it you can use the title and
body slide. Or, you can just use a
blank slide and format it the way you
want to. It’s completely up to you
whether you use the templates or the
blank slides.

Marissa: Can we use a lot of the

templates or can we only use one?

Teacher: Good question. Unless a

teacher specifically says you can only
use one, you can definitely mix and
match and use as many as you want.
Teacher: The next five icons are an
arrow, which is just your selec tool.
Next, we have the text box feature
followed by an insert image feature.
Lastly in this section we have a shape
and line feature which lets you add
from a variety of shapes or lines you
wish to add to your presentation.

Jae: So all these buttons are just

shortcuts for things under the tabs?

Teacher: Exactly, Jae! This just makes

it easier and faster if you know what
each one does.
Teacher: And last, but certainly not
least, we have our last set of icons.
We have the “background” feature
which, as mentioned previously, allows
you to change the color of your
background for your presentation.
Next, and these all pretty much go
hand in hand, are the layout and
theme icons. These have different
ways to organize and decorate your
presentation.

Kelso: So what’s our project?

Teacher: I am so glad you asked,

Kelso.
 Student Activity
Students will have to create a presentation on a topic of their choosing using
Google Slides and with a minimum of 10 slides. The topic must be school
appropriate, if unsure, please ask the teacher. Students must follow the checklist
and rubric to get full points as it highlights exactly what needs to be on the
presentation.

Comments? Questions? Concerns? Ask away!

 Student Presentation Checklist
● Make sure it is school appropriate (if unsure, ask!)
● Make sure it is at least 10 slides
● Make sure it has a title
● Make sure it has your name somewhere on the title
● Add at least one picture
● Add at least one gif
● Make one slide your least favorite color
● Make three slides your favorite color
● Make one sentence font size 52
● Turn it into Google Classroom!