Gone are the days of monotonous lectures and scribbling on chalkboards. In today’s fast-paced, visually driven world, you have three seconds or less to capture the attention of your audience.
For teachers, PowerPoint templates have become an essential tool in shaping the educational experience for students. Educators are embracing the power of technology to engage, inspire, and support their students’ learning journeys.
Whether you’re a seasoned educator or a newcomer to the world of teaching, the tips and insights in this post will help you harness the true potential of PowerPoint to make a lasting impact on your students.
Why Is PowerPoint Beneficial for Teaching?
Looking for more of an understanding about why you should take the time to create slides. Here’s a look at some of the ways this can benefit you and your students.
Enhance Learning
PowerPoint slides can serve as an effective visual aid, helping students understand and retain information better than listening to a lecture alone.
Elements like images, charts, and diagrams can clarify complex concepts.
Get Engagement
Slides can incorporate multimedia elements such as images, videos, and animations that can make the presentation more engaging and appealing to students.
You can also share them before or after the lecture, allowing students to review the material at their own pace or catch up if they missed class.
Boost Flexibility
Teachers can easily modify and update their PowerPoint presentations to accommodate new information, different teaching approaches, or to tailor the content to specific student needs and preferences.
Better Time Management
By planning and structuring their presentations in advance, teachers can manage their time more effectively and ensure that they cover all essential topics within their time frame.
What Slide Design Best Practices Should You Include?
There are several best practices you can use to maximize clarity, engagement, and visual appeal.
Here are some tips for designing PowerPoint presentations:
- Keep it simple: Avoid cluttering your slides with too much information. Stick to one main idea per slide and use concise bullet points, images, or charts to communicate the key points.
- Use legible fonts and font sizes: Choose clear, easy-to-read fonts that are readable from a distance.
- Limit text: Avoid large blocks of text, as they can be overwhelming and difficult to read. Instead, use concise bullet points and phrases to convey your message.
- Use contrasting colors: Ensure that the text and background colors provide enough contrast to make the content easily visible. Opt for dark text on light backgrounds or light text on dark backgrounds.
- Choose high-quality visuals: Incorporate relevant, high-quality images, graphics, charts, or diagrams to enhance your message and engage your audience. Avoid using low-resolution or pixelated images.
- Be consistent: Maintain a consistent design throughout the presentation, including font styles, colors, slide layouts, and visual elements. This consistency contributes to a professional and polished look.
5 Types of PowerPoint Templates for Teachers
Ready to bring the power of PowerPoint to your classroom? Use these ideas to get the ball rolling.
Lecture-Style Presentations
Traditional presentations that involve the teacher speaking to students while displaying key information through slides or visual aids.
Interactive Presentations
Presentations that incorporate multimedia elements, such as videos, audio clips, and interactive quizzes, to engage students and enhance learning.
Storytelling Presentations
Use narrative techniques to convey information, making it more relatable and memorable for students.
Demonstrations or Hands-on Presentations
Presentations where teachers show students how to complete a task or experiment, often allowing students to participate as well.
Infographic Presentations
Use visually appealing graphics, charts, and diagrams to present complex information in an easy-to-understand format.
How to Make Presentations in Shutterstock Create

PowerPoint’s a steady standby, but it’s not the only option.
Create a stunning design for any software with Shutterstock’s alternative to PowerPoint slides for teachers for your next presentation.
Using Shutterstock Create, you can put together a compelling presentation in minutes.
Here’s how it works:
Prepare Your Canvas

In Create, select Custom Size and enter the dimensions for your presentation design.
Want to kick-start the design process with a template? Instead of starting with size, check out our Free PowerPoint templates for teachers and choose your favorite design to customize it.
Find a Starting Point

Now, you’ll have access to thousands of fonts, graphics, textures, effects, and color combinations to pick from. The possibilities are endless.
If you change your mind and want to start with a template instead, simply click Templates then search and select one that meets your needs.
No matter what you choose, you’ll have access to the same customization options.
Make Design Changes

Click on any element to make your adjustments and see what options are available to you in the toolbar on the left side of the editor.
Select Your Visuals

Update images or graphics to meet your needs by clicking Images or Graphics. From here, you can upload, browse through the photo library, or select from your catalog.
Download Your Slides

When you’re ready to download your work, click the Download button in the top-right corner and select your preferred format.
From here, you can save the design to your system and prepare to present to your students.
Looking for more presentation ideas? Check out these posts next:
License this cover image mockup via Bagus Production, Kovalov Anatolii, and Shutterstock Create’s Presentation Template.
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