Importing PDFs and Fit to Width

I've previously posted about this, but since it is standardized testing season I figured you might want a refresher. There is a super easy way to use those online text examples in ActivInspire to highlight, underline, or take notes.

1. Find your PDF and save it to your computer.

2. In ActivInspire select File--->Import---> PDF.

3. Choose your PDF.

4. On the next screen you have a few options. I usually just select "at the beginning of this flipchart" and select OK.

5. Now, the PDF is in Best Fit mode. This means the whole page is shown and now the text is too small to see. If you zoom in or try to make the page bigger, any highlighting or notes you write will not move when you move the page to see the next paragraph or question. To solve this problem, on the top right drop down menu choose Fit to Width.

This will fit your page to the width of the screen and give you a scroll bar on the right. In this mode you are able to highlight, underline, and add anything else you want and it will stay on the words or location it was placed. For example, when I scroll down the page, the highlighting I put on the picture above stays where I want it. Now I can go back and forth between the questions and the text without having to clear the screen. 

I hope this helps in testing review! Don't forget that there are plenty of resources on Promethean Planet to help as well as websites such as these:

http://cuacs8.mck.ncsu.edu/mathsampleitems/main.html

http://www.bes.ccs.k12.nc.us/testing-practice%20for%20eog/EOG%20Practice.htm

http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/blair/EOG.htm

And don't forget to check out my delicious.com bookmarks for more!

What are these Infographics?

So I've been seeing these things everywhere online and I just realized they have a name and more purpose than I realized. I thought I'd share just a little bit of information about them. They're called infographics.

Like this one:


Courtesy of: Schools.com

What is an infographic? Infographics are found all over the web now. They are posters of information given in graphic form. Think Glogster or Prezi in one page/poster form. You can find or make infographics about almost anything. The neat this is that the fonts, font sizes, colors, and graphics can be manipulated to stand out on the page. This makes it visually interesting to the reader and lets the most important information stand out. It's great to include graphs or flowcharts too.

I think these could be very neat tools for sharing information about a unit such as biographies, animals, landforms, how to solve a math problem, graphs and data... The list could go on. And I assure your visual learners will be drawn to them.

I've just been introduced to this, so I am learning too. But you should check out these articles about infographics and these sites of graphics for you to use.

Places to get more information:

Great Article: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/teaching-with-infographics-places-to-start/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/teaching-with-infographics-science-and-health/



Infographics for you to use:

How to Become A....: http://www.schools.com/visuals

Use or Create: http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/

Create 5 Free Infographics (very easily!): http://creately.com/

and check them out on Pinterest! (search for infographics)

Symbaloo

I have recently been introduced to a website called Symbaloo. Symbaloo is a bookmarking website that saves your bookmarks in a unique way. It's also not really JUST a bookmarking site, but a place that you can bookmark files, videos, pictures, and more. These can all be saved on something Symbaloo calls a "webmix" and then accessed all from the same page. I'll show you how some of this works.

After going to http://www.symbaloo.com/ and creating an account, you will see that Symbaloo has given you some automatic webmixes for you to start off with. You can edit them or delete them as you like. 

In the middle of each webmix is a Google search box. This box is also where some of your other icons are viewed.

This is a sample webmix about Dolphins:

When I click on a video, the video views in the middle of the screen right away.

The same is true for pictures:

Both of these came from icons in the webmix. So if you were doing a unit on dolphins, you could store all your resources here and have easy access to them. 

You can also share your webmixes with other teachers and parents, or add students and give students access to the webmixes. 

If you want to find webmixes that are already made, such as the dolphin webmix above, you can search for webmixes on Symbaloo and add them to your tabs. 

Here's how:
Go to the Symbaloo Gallery and enter your search in the box. 

Find one you like and click on it to preview.

The preview will give you a little more information about the webmix and it's author.

Once you add the webmix you like, you will be able to find it again in your tabs.

If you want to create your own webmix, you can go to Add a Webmix to get started.

You will name your webmix:

Then add the address of the website. When you type in the URL and then click in the box to create a tile, Symbaloo will automatically find the name for the tile based on the website you entered. You can then edit the name if you wish.

Then you'll design your tile by choosing a background, icon, and how the name is displayed.

When you are done, click Add Tile To Webmix and drag the tile to the desired location.
It's ready to use!

Repeat these steps each time you have a website, image, or video to add to your webmix.

SMART: Magic Pen

SMART Notebook 10 has a feature called Magic Pen. I recently discovered some new ways to use it.

You can find Magic Pen next to your other pen icons:

The first time I clicked on the icon all I discovered was a pen tool that works like disappearing ink. You write, and within a few seconds it begins to fade away and disappear. That could be kind of cool if you are wanting to highlight something only for a moment.

You see here how what I wrote first is starting the fade away:

There are two ways to use Magic Pen that I didn't know before.

To create a spotlight:

1. Click on Magic Pen and draw a circle.

Once your circle is drawn and you life the pen off the board, a spotlight will appear.

You can resize the circle and move the spotlight around to reveal smaller portions of your picture or text at a time.

To create a magnifier:

1. Click on Magic Pen and draw a rectangle.

2. Once your rectangle is drawn and you lift the pen off the board, a magnifier will appear.

You can move the magnifier around on the screen and resize it to magnify different parts of your picture or text.

These are just two new things I learned that I thought I'd share. It definitely adds another element to your lessons and would be easy for a student to do as well.

Promethean: Creating Containers

Containers are a neat function you can create in your flipcharts that allows you to place objects or words into a "container". I like to use this feature for sorting words or objects into the proper categories. If the word or object is placed correctly, it stays in the container. If it is placed incorrectly, it shoots back out of the container. I'm going to use a map activity I made for 1st grade as an example:

Before you set up the objects as containers, there are two important things to note.

• Your containers must be larger than the objects being contained inside them. For this map, I had to make sure my text boxes were smaller than the rectangles I created. This was easily done by clicking on the text and resizing the boxes. 

• Your objects need to be on top of the containers. You can make sure they are on top by going to the object browser and moving all the objects over the containers. In the picture below all the text has been moved on the list ahead of the shapes. They can all stay in the Middle Layer. 

1. Make sure you choose to View--->Browsers and go to the Property Browser.

2. To create the containers, click on the object that will act as the container. In the Property Browser find Container.

3. For Can Contain choose "specific object".
4. In Contain Object click on the icon with three dots next to where you type the text. Don't type any text in that box. You MUST click the icon. Then, this box will appear:

5. Choose the object you would like to contain and click OK. You are done making the container.

6. Now you need to go to the object that will be contained. Click on that object and in the Property Browser click on Container.

7. You will only change one thing here. Go to the last option, Return if not Contained, and choose True. This means that if the object is placed in the wrong container, it will return it back to its original location. This step is important because if you don't choose True, then the object will stay wherever you place it, even if it is the wrong container.

Repeat these steps for each container. Once you have done this with all of your containers and objects to be contained, lock the containers so they don't accidentally get moved during use.

Now you can have students try their hand and putting the right answers in the correct locations. They'll know they got it wrong if the object won't stay in the container. This is great as a pre- unit or lesson activity, post- unit or lesson review, or as an independent activity during centers. A great way to assess student knowledge while getting them up to interact with the board.

SMART: Standards Correlated Lessons

Did you know there is an easy way to search for lessons that go with specific standards? When you go to the SMART Exchange website, click on the tab on the top navigation bar labeled "Standards Correlated Lessons". Using the drop down menus, input your state, standards, and subject. Then hit "View"

The standards will appear and so will lessons to go with each.

Totally simple way to get lessons that you know are right on the money, instead of searching through pages and pages of notebooks.

New ActivInspire Features in Version 1.6

Promethean released Version 1.6 of their software this past October. They've updated it and come up with a few new features. To make sure you have the most recent version, you can go to Promethean Planet and download the latest version. Just click Download ActivInspire and follow the directions on the screen.

Technically, the new features include:

• An Equations tool, which can also be edited
• Integration with Promethean's ActiView document camera
• Asian vertical text
• A page extender option
• A right-click menu that allows you to toggle between the pen and select tools quickly

Unless you all write lessons in Asian vertical text often, I think you'll find that the most useful new features are the equations tool and new right-click menu.

Right Click Menu for Select and Pen tools:

Before version 1.6, you could choose the pen and select tools by clicking on the main toolbar. But this is often time consuming and distracting when you are going back and forth across the board to do so. Now you can switch with two easy clicks. 

1. If you are on the arrow/select tool, simply right click and this menu will appear. The first option is "pen". Now you will have the pen tool.

2. To switch from the pen tool to the arrow/select tool, right click and this menu will appear. Choose "select" and you will be on the arrow/select tool.  

You also have the option of changing all of what you just wrote into text. For example, in this flipchart I have written the name of the hidden animal:

I can now right-click and choose "convert to text" and it will change all of what I have written into text.

This is just like the Handwriting Recognition tool, except that when using Handwriting Recognition you have to make sure to write quickly. It also changes the color and width of your pen. 

When using the "Convert to Text" option, nothing changes except the words are now text. You are also able to do this without worrying about keeping up with the timing. 

Equations Editor:

The neat thing about this tool is that you can easily add mathematical equations to your flipchart without having to search for the right symbols or line up your fractions just so. It's simple and easy to add fractions, long division, or even more complex operations. 

The Equation tool can be found in two locations:

Insert--->Equation from the main menu on top

or Insert--->Equation from the main toolbar

Just click on your flipchart and this menu will appear:

Click around on top and different math symbols and equations will appear.

I decided I might add some fractions to make a flipchart page. Just click on the equation you would like to use and insert the numbers into that equation.

Once my fraction is inserted, I can click on it and resize it or move it around the page. 

I can also edit that fraction or add a new one.

Now I have an easy fraction flipchart page. I don't have to worry about trying to line up the numbers and symbols to make it look right, it's done for me. 

Good job Promethean!