The New Promethean Planet

You may not have known this, but Promethean Planet has been working on redesigning its website. It's finally here and has some improvements! Searching for resources is much easier. It now displays 20 results at a time and the left side contains many filtering options that weren't there before. I also feel that information is displayed in an easier to read format. There are more community features and online storage of your files so you won't lose them if anything happens to your hard drive. Their store also seems to have more products.

There is also a "My Planet" feature that is a big part of this remodel. I can enter in biographical information, share with friends, and show my recent downloads. It is similar to a facebook page, but is a networking tool among promethean users.  (You can even log in using your facebook account.) I just visited around today, but will have to get my profile up and running soon. Hopefully I'll be able to connect with other teachers all over the world teaching and sharing the same things. I am excited about the possibilities.
Go to Promethean Planet, log on, and click around. Tell me what you think!

Other than ActivInspire....

I haven't meant to neglect posting, but have hit a creative roadblock as end of the year tasks pile up. Testing and a different schedule has thrown us off course. Not to mention a second virus on my laptop and the time to fix it and re-upload software. I have not used ActivInspire much in the last few days, but have still utilized the board and features. The size of the board and the side speakers made showing a Discovery Education video on multiplication a big hit. I'd been trying to show the students 2 and 3 digit multiplication, but hadn't had much time to make a good flipchart to demonstrate. The kids were getting sick of listening to me, so I showed a video that walked them through the steps and even highlighted fact families and problem solving. It asked a lot of questions and kept the kids interested. After the video, I asked students to demonstrate what they learned on the board. They could do it! Though a flipchart with different interactive activities was not used, the video was interactive enough to keep student attention, help them work out problems at their seat, and then use the board as a means to assess student learning. I'd say:  mission accomplished.

With testing this week and another virus on my laptop, my Promethean hasn't gotten much use. But, Monday afternoon I used it during after-school tutoring. I was able to have my student practice reading comprehension questions and then a longer passage for 45 minutes just because he wanted to have the board all to himself. Awesome. We used Test Tutor at http://www.harcourtschool.com/ and free online tutoring through Soar At Home.

Another Game

Played an awesome Jeopardy game to review for EOG's today.

http://jeopardylabs.com/play/3rd-grade-math-eog-prep

The Promethean made it easy to see, keep score, and the kids really liked it.

Jeopardy labs has other games as well. You can even create your own Jeopardy games or use their templates. I like this site better than another similar site I have used because it is user friendly and the layout of the game is neater. Check it out.

Keeping Interest

It's Spring. It's the time of year that our minds are on the beach and sleeping in just as much as our students minds are on video games and playing outside all day long. No matter how cool this Promethean is, it's hard to compete with the sun shining through the windows beckoning students attention. I'm trying hard to keep things interactive and entice students to participate in what we're doing up front. I've been reminding myself of all the tools available to change up activities that are seemingly the same. For an EOG math game today I used the spotlight tool. The kids were just answering EOG questions again, but this time, they couldn't wait to see what question the spotlight would reveal next. I've, of course, had students coming to the board to annotate, highlight, underline, and answer reading questions. We've loved "fit to width" option and are able to write our thinking and underline answers and then save our annotations to revisit another day. This has been very helpful and the students even "oohed" when I showed them what I had learned. I'm also trying to use different reveal strategies, such as erasing annotations over typed text to reveal an answer or moving a whole text box to reveal others. A strategy I used recently in a science flipchart was having students "trash" items that didn't belong by dragging them to the trash bin. I might even use this strategy to "trash" answers that don't belong with our EOG questions. At this point I'm using every strategy I can think of to keep student attention.

What is everyone else doing?

Preparing for End of Grade tests

My laptop had a virus and I haven't been able to use ActivInspire all week. Until today! It was wonderful. The students missed it, and I did too. We have been playing review games, but they really like any game that they can come up to the board for. They ask all the time.

Today I used the Fit to Width feature as well for reviewing a reading comprehension passage and "Thinking About Our Thinking" strategies. It went so well. The passage was easy to see, as well as the annotations. I was able to very easily scroll up and down through the passage without having to switch between pen and arrow to do so. And going back and forth to answer the questions was also a breeze. The students are still amazed at how easily we can do this now. Instead of waiting for me to erase and redo, or squinting to see a tiny passage, I heard "oohs" and "aahs" as the annotations scrolled with the text on the screen. I could barely keep them in their seats they were so excited to be next. It was nice to spend the majority of my time teaching rather than stumbling through technological roadblocks.

Now that I have my laptop back and it is able to get to the internet, we will be able to resume using it for centers and get to all those review games I had planned. Again, check out my delicious site for links.

Fit to Width

Check out Mark's comment to the previous post on the "fit to width" option. I've been showing a few people around school and it is awesome. If you don't understand, leave a comment and I'll come help you.

Also, check out my delicous site for plenty of interactive links. In the two weeks we have before end of grade testing, let's try to make review fun and less stressful while also making it more engaging. I also appreciate the links that have been sent to me and have added a few from other people. If you are using anything else, please let us all know!!

Annonate Over Screen and Other Thoughts

A co-worker asked today about scanning documents to project onto the Promethean instead of using the ELMO. Apparently there is software that allows you to annotate over the screen while using the Promethean with the ELMO, but we have not been able to get it to work in anyone's classroom yet. However, yes, you can scan documents as PDF's (or other files) and use the "Annotate Over Screen" feature. If you didn't know you could do this, trust me, your life is about to change.

There are two options for you.

1. Open file. Open ActivInspire. Click the "annotate over screen" icon. The file will appear along with the ActivInspire toolbar. Click on the pen, arrow, highlighter, or any other tool and use it over the file you are viewing.

2. Open ActivInspire. In the "Dashboard" or under "File", choose "Import from PDF". Choose your file. It will appear in your flipchart. You can choose to place it at the beginning or end and even incorporate it into any part of your flipchart as a single page.

I use this feature daily. Using the math textbook online, as a class we check our homework and work out the Problem of the Day. This feature allows students to show how they worked out problems and to underline the important words in our math problems. We also use it to highlight reading comprehension passages and sometimes over websites.

I have had some issues with the way the feature works though. The previous mentioned co-worker ran into the same issue and reminded me of it today. Whatever you write on the screen, stays right there on the screen until you erase it. If you are viewing a file, you usually view it close up so the text is big enough for students to read. This means the whole document is not viewable all at the same time. You have to scroll down or move it around the screen. The text you highlighted or wrote over moves, but the annotations do not. Annoying. Especially when highlighting reading passages.

The other issue is that if I import the file into my flipchart, the program automatically resizes it to fit the screen. This means that usually the text is small. I have to zoom in and move the file around the screen to view the different parts of it. I find that annoying too. It would be awesome if I could break up parts of it to go over a few flipchart pages instead of having it only fit into one. This is a problem mostly with the fact that it is a PDF file though. I've just found it annoying.

I'm glad this teacher brought this to my attention though. I'm sure she's not the only one who didn't know about this feature. I hope now you all do!

In other thoughts:

If you are still learning the basics or learning how to use ActivInspire as opposed to ActivStudio, Promethean Planet offers free webinars. You can learn more at: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.19094

I will also put in another plug for the free online courses. The tutorials showed me basics I now understand how to use better.

How have students benefited?

In math I use the Promethean daily to go through the introduction of my lesson before splitting up into groups. We go over the Problem of the Day and homework through the math website and then I open the flipchart for the day's lesson. Almost every student who comes to work on the board as we go through our lesson knows how to interact with the board. They know how to write, how to erase, how to change colors, and how to change from writing to other tools. Often times I'll say, ok, how about we use "such and such" and as I go through the tools menu to switch to that mode, the students like to try to direct me as if I don't know where to go. I'm glad to see how comfortable they are with the technology. Even the two new students who have joined our class in the last 6 weeks walked in, took a look at it, and seemingly just knew how to use it. I think with a combination of working with the board over the last two and a half months as well as watching me work with it has made them as Promethean-savvy as I feel I have become. I think that's a plus. The more you are willing and able to fiddle around with a new technology the more comfortable you become with it and the more confident you feel about this and other technologies.

As a kid I learned so much of what I know about technology because I was able to fiddle on the computer and my dad could come down and save me whenever I messed something up. And the plus side, operating systems are so user friendly these days that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn the basics of most technologies. All it takes is the confidence to "fiddle" with it until you learn how to use it right. So, that being said, the more confidence students gain in using the Promethean, the more confidence they can transfer to other technologies. Of course, the confidence to interact with the Promethean is the biggest bonus here because now students will come up and use it, getting the most out of the lesson. This also fits in well with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study Technology Goals, such as Competency Goal 3: The learner will use a variety of technologies to access, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.

I have certainly captured their attention as well. Most students are eager and falling-out-of-their-seat willing to come up to play whatever game or move whatever object or share whatever thought they have if it means touching the magic board.

I'm gathering my other thoughts still on other student benefits and will share soon.

Promethean and Change

Promethean technology is only as good as the person using it will make it. If you simply use it as another white board with annotating capabilities,that is all it will be. If you simply import slideshows from Power Point and show them in ActivInspire, then all you've done is shown another slideshow. One of the downfalls of the technology I have found is that there is a learning curve in implementing it into the classroom. If you make it a point to focus on how to use it and do the research, the more useful it will become. It also is so easily implemented into existing classroom routines and often serves as a more advanced replacement for a white board. I know I often use the Promethean to show worksheets, word problems, and pages from the math textbook online and annotate over them. I use a blank flipchart to write out charts as students share during language arts or word study. I love that I don't have to erase a messy white board. I love that it only takes a click of the pen to clear the screen. I also know that often times I am the only one interacting with the board. And since you can import from Power Point or a PDF, it is so easy to take what I used to do with a laptop and projector and just make it run smoother and more organized.

I am still torn as in the previous post. Interactive White Board is the name given to the technology because it is supposed to be interactive. And the "research" (read "advertising") on the Promethean websites totes it's interactivity and capabilities. But, as a tool in my classroom, why would I not utilize it to make my classroom routines run smoother, to save chart paper, to save time, and annotate over work the students are doing as we work through it? I see these as valuable time saving and organizational uses in the classroom and uses that I hope everyone who recieved a Promethean at my school is taking advantage of.

But I still don't want the endless resources and capabilities of this technology to be lost. With such a high price tag and such little money in our schools, we need to use everything we have. Not to mention the tremendous benefits I think students would recieve by variety, manipulating things on the board, and by reaching the visual and kinesthetic learners. I know, you already know this and believe this. But how interactive are you using it? How much do students use it? What are you doing that is making it a visual learner's dream come true? How has the Promethean promoted Change in your instruction and in student learning? How are you measuring it?

Please, share your ideas. And then visit me Delicious sites. I spent hours finding interactive activities and I'd love for you to tell me what you find useful.

Pedagogical Changes

In an article discussing the integration of Interactive White Boards (IWB) in Australian classrooms, the conclusions drawn indicated that overall teachers did not pedagogically change their instruction. They successfully integrated the IWB into the ways they already taught, but it didn't drastically change anything about the teaching.

I wonder how much we, at Stateside Elementary, are changing our pedagogical practices? I know I have stated before that I had felt that I had really only integrated the Promethean into our regular classroom practices. How am I making a significant postive impact on learning with the Promethean? How have I changed my instruction in a way that impacts students more than when I didn't have it?

I think I fall somewhere in the middle. While I am still figuring out how I am changing my instruction, I still struggle with creating lessons that are truly different. I did already attempt to make lessons that got the kids out of their seat and moving (mostly since they can't stay in their seat already!) and things that could be classified as "interactive". Now I use the Promethean to aid in those activities or to create them. Do I always use it in this way? No. There are times that I am flipping through the slides and charting the student's answers. That can not be classified as interactive, and is something I did occasionally already within Power Point. But how can I say I have changed pedagogically? I'm not sure, but I can say my classroom instruction and routines have changed. I can say that the students get excited to use the board and react to the lessons used on it. I can also say that as I continue to learn and try to incorporate the board in many ways, I learn and change more. So maybe I'll be able to say someday that I have pedagogically changed and be able to show how.

How about you?

Tools and Tricks

Using ActivInspire is so different and so much cooler than using Power Point, but still there are some program similarities. I remember going through college and learning how to make good Power Points. There are specific tricks of the trade and ways to make a Power Point really effective. Now using ActivInspire, there are new tricks of the trade. There are some ways to make a flipchart well paced, interactive, exciting, and effective. I have read through most of this website below:

http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/technology/integration/prometheanboards.asp

For beginners, there are some directions. And for everyone new or old to ActivInspire or Promethean software, the "What Makes a Good Flipchart" and "Easy Teacher Tricks" are a must read.

I have also spent hours pouring over the resources available in ActivInspire. There is so much and the more familiar I become with them, the more I can incorporate them into my lessons. Besides the resources already in the resource browser, I can download Resource Packs from Promethean Planet with more resources in it. It is time consuming when there is that much out there to use, but as I sort through it all, the ideas keep flowing and the uses seem endless.

Tonight I found a Potato Head Designer (Resources-->General-->Characters) and made a fun writing activity I am going to try out this week.

I want to learn as much as I can about this technology and I hope you'll share what you learn too.

April 14- Interactive Activities

The whole point of having a Promethean board is to make classroom instruction interactive. It's not just about fancy flipcharts and a place to write things besides another tablet of chart paper. Instruction and learning are not going to be remarkably improved if students are not interacting with the board in some way. Sure, many times I use flipcharts that have information typed in and only a few places to write in new information, but at least the students have to come and input that information. For example, in math this week we practiced using a table for problem solving. The flipchart I created had the word problem and a table. We had to input the numbers and information into the table after underlining the important words in the problem. Not hard or too creative, but still students interacted with the information.(Plus, I could just flip through all the text instead of having it written out on the board. Cleaner, user friendly, and organized. Another plus of the technology. But I digress....) So in my quest to make use of as many interactive activities as possible I did some research this week. Luckily, even though I may be new to Promethean, many others are not. And they share their lessons and activities online.

A few I found the most useful for my classroom:

BBC (I'm always finding good games and activities here. Now with the board, it's even easier and the kids can come up and play instead of telling me what to put in on the computer)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html


I like these fraction circles I found there.













Forsyth County Schools (Georgia)

http://www.forsythcountyschools.org/its/kadkins/activ/pb.htm

Topmarks Educational Search Engine

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/EducationalGames.aspx?cat=12


NGFL-CYMRU

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/eng/index-new.htm

This site has tons of interactive activities that you can use online or save to your computer and pull up anytime. And it's free!

Here is an example of what you may find:

(For this video, I actually made the lesson online a full screen, and opened ActivInspire to record the screen. If I used this in my classroom, I could then upload the video to my school website for students to review at home. Neat!)

You can check out all the things I bookmark at my delicious bookmarks site (Link on the right side of the screen.) Anything for Promethean is tagged under "Promethean" or "technology".

Now I've got to decide which things to use in my lesson plans next week. I really just want to spend a day with the kids playing with all of it!

Inserting Video in Another Way

You may remember that I put a video in a recent flipchart on summarizing. I inserted it so that it would begin playing as soon as I flipped to that slide. Well, I figured out how to insert video that begins playing in another way. I had downloaded a flipchart a while ago that had me click on text to begin playing a video. As I paged through the resources online, other flipcharts had me clicking on objects to play a video. Always this video popped up on screen in a new window. I wanted to be able to flip to the slide I wanted to play the video, but not have it begin playing until I was ready. Well, I figured it out. (It's so uncomplicated)

First, I chose the video, downloaded it, and saved it to my computer. Then, I inserted the object I wanted to click on for the video in my flipchart. In this instance I am making a flipchart on plants and have chosen a video titled "How Plants Grow" from http://www.discoveryeducation.com/. Then, I right-clicked on the object (a picture of seeds) and chose "Insert Link to File". It then prompted me to choose my file, and then hit "open". Another screen pops up about inserting the file. It says things like "choose file path", "store as", and "multimedia". They are all set on default settings, which will work fine. However, I suggest choosing under "store as", the second option: "store file in flipchart". I believe this will allow me to send the flipchart to my team and they will be able to play the video in the flipchart without having the video downloaded to their computers first. Hit "Ok" and you are ready to roll.

When you do show the video, the screen that pops up can be resized if you think it's too small. (I do.)

Very cool. And easy. I figured it out myself. My motto: When in doubt, right-click.

21st Century Goals

April is Financial Literacy Month and a great time to think about gearing lessons towards 21st Century Goals. Not every state has adopted them, but North Carolina has. You can see just an overview of the 21st Century Framework here:

http://www.p21.org/documents/P21_Framework.pdf

Students are to be taught skills in "Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy".

Check out:

http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/classroom_practice/secondary/b/weblog/archive/2010/04/01/resources-for-financial-literacy-month.aspx

for some resources you can use in your classroom to teach financial literacy. You can incorporate this into your economics unit in social studies, or maybe a money unit in math.

Be sure to check out the other goals too. The more you familiarize yourself with the goals, the more you can be sure to incorporate them into your classroom routine. You probably already do teach some of them without knowing it. Now you'll know you teach them and can gather evidences for your portfolio that you are a 21st Century Teacher.

The one that stood out to me today as I glanced through them was under "Produce Results": "Demonstrate additional attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to:

• Work positively and ethically
• Manage time and projects effectively
• Multi-task"

(http://www.p21.org/route21/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=11 for a closer look at the skills)

We just finished biography projects in third grade and while I know the students practiced some of this, next time I can be sure to teach this aspect of it and even grade them on time management by having them turn in certain parts by specific dates. Just an idea.

What are yours?

March 31-It can do what?

Ok, I'm going to have to backdate some of my posts because my internet at home was down and it was a crazy week.


On Wednesday, I went to Deborah and Gretchen for some help. I wanted to know how I could upload my lessons onto my school website. I found out two things.


1. If I export my flipchart as a PowerPoint, then I can upload the file under the "files" section. Awesome. I have been creating flipcharts in math that could be viewed from home if a student missed a lesson or wanted to review what we had done at school. They could even do the activity we did at school that day at home if they had all the materials (ie. rulers, paper, etc...) So now I know how I can get them up on my website and share them. The kids may or may not be excited about it, but I am.


2. Did you know you could record what you are writing and then view it in Windows Media Player? Yup.


Say you are demonstrating subtraction with regrouping. You can:

Go to the main menu tab -->tools-->more tools--> screen recorder --> full screen record

Then a recording box will pop up. When you are ready, click record and the "Save" box will pop up. You can name and save your file. When you click "Save", the screen will be ready and will start recording. There is a pause feature if you need to pause in the middle of the recording. When you are done, click stop.

To view your recording, hit play (or view it later by opening the file you saved). It will play in Windows Media Player as a .wmv file. This can also be uploaded to the school website.

Like this:



Does anyone have any other ideas to incorporate this into lessons?

Not Thinking Outside the Box

I've come across an issue using the Promethean. I've gotten used to it being in my classroom, I've grown accustomed to using it in every part of my routine and have found as many daily uses as possible. And while my students always scramble to be the one writing or moving things around, I really haven't made my flipcharts that interactive. I think, for the most part, I've been using ActivInspire as a PowerPoint replacement. I've treated it like PowerPoint and used it just like PowerPoint, but with an easier way to move information around the board. And sure, PowerPoint can be interactive if you put the time and effort into it. However, ActivInspire is so easy to make interactive that it's just ridiculous not to. I just don't think I've made my flipcharts as interactive as can be.

I think back to our last science unit on the phases of the Moon. Tina, who has had a Promethean in her room all year, found a great flipchart on Promethean Planet and converted it to PowerPoint for those less fortunate to use. I spent time going through and adding some of the interactive content through PowerPoint. This particular flipchart used the "erase and reveal" tool as it asked questions and showed great pictures. Now that I've had the chance to sort through all the ActivInspire resources, I've also found that the flipchart took advantage of some of the pictures already available instead of searching for new ones. Had I a Promethean in my room during this unit, I would have had the students come up and "reveal" the answers and draw on the charts as we went through. I need to incorporate that into my lessons now. I need more student driven flipcharts that encourage student participation in a variety of ways. I need things that fit into my routine that don't feel routine. The students will know how to use the board in different ways, but it will be different all the time.

Guess I'll get started on our soil unit and some more entertaining EOG practice. Any ideas?

Getting Tech-Savvy

I am nerdily excited to announce I found out that Promethean Planet has an Iphone application (for free!) and is also on Facebook. Take a look at some of the things you can do:

There is a page for the latest resources, like this "Plants" flipchart that would be great for our upcoming science unit.

I haven't found the application to be that useful yet since I can access all of this information from their website and the resources are limited. I can't create flipcharts on my phone and if I am going to be working with ActivInspire or Promethean Planet I am on my laptop anyway. But, if I'm thinking of something on the go and want to know if there's a resource out there, I can search for it. I can take the blog, discussion forums, and other information with me wherever I go and flip through at my leisure. Maybe this application will come in handy for something soon.

While searching the website for more information, I saw that Promethean Planet had a fan page on Facebook too. I fanned the page and now status updates appear in my news feed. The neat thing about that is even though they are not always applicable to my classroom or curriculum, they are new ideas and sometimes inspire new ideas in me. A recent update was about the Ghengis Khan resource pack from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We are studying biographies right now, so what a neat exhibit for students to see virtually from our board. And, even if I don't download that resource pack, I can see if there are other museum resource packs available with biographies a bit more applicable to my students. I searched and found no others from museums, but I did find a flipchart on Paul Revere that looks really nice. It will work great with the reading comprehension practice I was going to give my students tomorrow. Now that I have fanned Promethean Planet I'll be sure to be in on the latest news and resources and I will have inspiration for new ideas all on one page.

And, since I can access Facebook and Promethean Planet from my Iphone, these things are literally at my fingertips.

Placing Video in Your Flipcharts

Tonight I've been playing around in ActivInspire creating a flipchart on summarizing to use this week. I wanted to spice it up and played around with backgrounds (Go to "Resource Browser", there are AMAZING things there) and font. I even wanted to insert a video. I found one on Discovery Education, downloaded the clip and then imported it into my flipchart.
Like this:
Insert --> Media --> Choose Media to Insert

I have the video set up as a full screen right now that will begin playing when I click to the page. I have seen other flipcharts where you can click on an icon and then pull up the video in a new, smaller screen. (I don't know how to do that yet. But I will find out.)

I knew there were backgrounds and charts in the Resource Browser, but I took the time to flip through each folder today to find the hidden gems inside. I found ready made charts and graphic organizers, diagrams like a skeleton and flower anatomy (perfect for our upcoming science unit), grid paper and number lines (which I have used for geometry and fractions), game boards, and fun, swirly background I used in my flipchart today.

I was also bored with some of the color choices for the background and pen ink. I decided to right click on a color I was bored with and a color screen popped up. I could replace it with a different color, or click on the color picker for more options. I am excited to change things up just a bit.

I have a bunch of new ideas already for my flipcharts and they definitely include resources from the Resource Browser. I'll let you know what I do soon.

New Ideas

I am definitely using my board on a daily basis. Word study sorts and games, interactive websites, math lessons, and pretty much anything else we would work out on the board, etc... It has increased some enthusiasm, and being able to use the shapes and lines has been great for math. Without it, I don't think the students would have understood fractions on a number line quite as well. I have used the same things in different ways over the last few weeks, but I'd like some new ideas. How do you use the Promethean in your classroom?

Creating Flipcharts for Math

On Monday's teacher workday I was planning instruction for math. I love using the EnVisions Interactive Activities at the beginning of each lesson. I often use the activity as is, change it to fit my needs, or combine it with other activities. Until now I had been reading the word problems that often accompany the activities out loud to the kids, writing them on the board, or typing them up to use with the projector. Since getting the Promethean, I have been opening ActivInspire and using the screen to work out the problems and let students share answers and pictures for their word problems. Finally, it donned on me. Why am I not combining what I am doing? The last two days I have typed the word problems and directions into a flipchart, leaving room to work out the problems. We can flip through the pages, share answers, and I don't have to hold the book or transfer between programs. So easy!

Also, http://www.professorgarfield.org was awesome today. It's an interactive website we used for inferencing. The "Reading Ring" was great and really kept the kids thinking. It didn't hurt that there was a lot going on all around the screen and the game was a reading boxing match. I couldn't keep them in their seats during this lesson, but I definitely didn't want to.

Word Study

I pulled up http://www.spellingcity.com yesterday during our word study time. I had already entered in and saved our list for the week. I pulled it up and found games we could play as a class. We played Unscramble and MatchIt. Needless to say, the kids loved it and fully participated hoping they could get a turn to go up to the board. In this anxious time waiting for spring break and warm weather, I'll do anything to keep kids motivated and get them to pay attention. It was a lively 15 minutes and requires only that I remember to save my list each week. Awesome.

For Beginners...

Over the last three weeks that I have been using my Promethean Board, I've made sure to use it every day. Here are some of the easiest ways I have begun to incorporate the board into my room:

1. Interactive Websites: Since our school uses First In Math, this has been a great way to show students how to use the site, play games, reinforce concepts and get kids excited to play on their own. Using it on the Promethean means that students can come up and play on the board and take turns while everyone is able to see what is going on. I even used the Know and Show games to review geometry questions for their math test. On our recent Math Literacy Night I put up First In Math for students to play as they came in the room. It was a big hit. All the kids came in and made cubes and pyramids out of toothpicks and marshmallows and then migrated to the big, shiny board for some games. I will definitely keep using this when I want to review concepts or keep students interested. This would work for any website that has games such as http://www.gamequarium.com/ or the plethora of lesson plans and games available through BBC.

2. Math: The EnVisions Math site has everything from the student and teacher's edition online, including printable resources. Every day in math I can pull up the Problem of the Day or Daily Spiral Review and use the "annotate over screen" button to write all over it. This comes in handy for underlining our important words in word problems and drawing pictures or writing number sentences. EnVisions also has videos at the beginning of each topic in the student edition and I can pull it right up on the screen. The class has also taken advantage of the etools. Since we just did a geometry unit, we used the shapes and I was able to demonstrate slides, flips, and turns then have the students come up and give it a try.

3. Sorts: The first thing I do with my spelling words at the beginning of the week is open up a flip chart and type in all the words. I make an individual text box for each word, which merely requires me to click on the text box button, click on the flip chart screen and begin typing. When I am ready for the next word, I click somewhere else on the screen. The text boxes will continue to pop up until I click on another icon. I put all the words on the side or bottom of the screen. Then I can ask the students to sort them. I don't type in any titles for the sorts so I can use the flip chart for any sort that we do throughout the week. As we begin sorting, I can just write our sort titles using the pen or text recognition tools. After we sort the words I can print what we have done and then choose not to save the changes to the flip chart. The next day when I open it up for another sort, the words are back on the bottom of the screen and we have a blank canvas for new possibilities.
I have also used the shapes option to create sorts for geometric shapes.

4. Promethean Planet: I feel no need to reinvent the wheel all the time. When I am looking for an interactive activity I can visit http://www.prometheanplanet.com/ and enter in my keywords to search for whatever I am teaching. I recently found a flipchart titled "Fact or Inference?" by Jaime Dawson. I tweaked it just a little for my purposes, but it went over really well and was a great time saver. What was so great was as we went through the examples in the chart, students were able to come up to the board and underline their supporting details. That really got them interested in what we were doing.

5. Test Prep: I can import PDF files into ActivInspire software. This is great for importing those End of Grade reading passages or math questions. We can go through and highlight, draw pictures, and answer the questions right on the board. I had been using the Elmo, but I know many people don't have that technology in their classroom. The passage is up on the screen and I can zoom in and move the page around on the screen.

In our recent training I learned even more about the amazing resources available right there in ActivInspire that I can pull up easily. I'll get to those in my next post.

In the meantime, tell me the easiest ways you have incorporated your Promethean...just leave a comment.

Resources

I, and so many others, say often "There's just SO much information out there to pull from!" Especially when it comes to lesson plans, worksheets, ideas, centers, articles, etc., etc., etc. I spend a lot of time filtering through all the muck trying to find websites with resources that are useful in my classroom and for my curriculum. In a recent webinar I attended through Kappa Delta Pi I learned more about delicious.com, a bookmarking website that will keep and store all my bookmarks which I can then access from other computers. I can also see other's bookmarks and share my bookmarks with others. I have been bookmarking the sites I have found recently and want to share them with you now. You can access my bookmarks at http://delicious.com/hilarythomas.

Resources I have found for Promethean start first at http://www.prometheanplanet.com/. I can download flipcharts and resource packs, find answers and support for my questions, and even sign up for free classes. Anyone starting to learn the Promethean board must start at Promethean Planet. To get started you will need to create an account. In the login box on the left there is a link to register. Just choose a username and password and you're in business. The site is easy to navigate through the tabs along the top. For lesson plans and flip charts, click on Resources. For free classes and tutorials, click on Professional Development. I have registered for the ActivInspire Primary online course under the "More Free Courses" tab. There are also free ActivInspire webinars. I find webinars to be a nice approach to learning because I get the benefits of face-to-face classes while still in the comfort of my own home. Some webinars just require you to listen and follow along, while some like class participation. I haven't checked out Promethean Planet's webinars yet, but I am definitely planning to soon.

You should also check out http://teacher.scholastic.com/whiteboards/languagearts.htm for more interactive whiteboard activities PreK-12.

How Do I Turn This Thing On?

The long awaited and anticipated arrival of my Promethean board has come! I have proudly used it in my classroom for two whole weeks and, yes, it has been turned on and used EVERY day.

(Ok, so I know it's not my Promethean board. It belongs to the school. But I treasure it so dearly that for now it will remain mine.)

Oh, how I prepared for its arrival. Where will I put it? How can I use it? What will my students think? How will this change my lessons? And then suddenly it was up, drilled to the wall in all its glory. And I stared at it thinking, how do I turn this thing on?

That's where this blog fits in.

I am currently studying Instructional Technology through Virginia Tech. This semester I am doing a project on the Promethean board. I will be evaluating it, collaborating with other teachers using the technology, sharing my work, and keeping this blog of all I learn and do with my board.

I hope you find it useful. I hope too, that you will comment and share your work and thoughts. Happy Boarding!