TCC 4-5 Classroom Tech Infusion

Our district uses Promethean boards so this is product related.

Template 63

Some features of ActivInspire to inspire you…
Did you know that there are templates which will allow you to set up an interactive bar graph instantly...students can take a survey and enter results at a click of the pen? These are found in the Resource Browser in the Activities and Templates or go to Insert/Page. Add title, change colors, fill in the axes...and you are ready to go! The one to the left is 63 of 64. 

Along with this are many others: an interactive scoreboard, a KWL setup (or 4 columns), alphabet spaces ready for words, 3 different “How do you feel” charts, and many, many more. The ActivTip 08 gives an overview of these. (Search for ActivTip 08 above the video box.)
There is an additional section which is reserved for LRS (learner response systems) questioning.
While the Templates are left to your own designing skills there are also Activities which are made to be used immediately and come with Notes about the activity which was planned. You find those in the Notes Browser or on some pages there is a Sticky Note button added with an action on the page showing that there are notes. You can add standards or other things to these notes.
The list at the right gives the folders of Activities found as a default on ActivInspire. Some have more choices than others. For example calendars are generic for yearly, monthly and weekly.
These are only the pages supplied by the software. Promethean Planet also supplies pages that are prepared by other teachers. I would suggest starting with a broad search and then narrowing. There may not be standard connections since this is an international company, but the concept you are teaching will probably show up. Many of these also have notes.
One tip is that you can extend any page you wish by going to View/Page Extender (near the bottom) Allows taller, scrollable pages.
Enjoy!

I learned most of this watching Janice Pranstatter's Channel on YouTube. She is a UKI employee of Promethean who produces, along with Samantha Clewes,  webinars on best practice and tools featuring real classroom experts.

*Photos produced with the camera tool.

TCC 4-5 Putting It All in One Place

Here are more efficient ways to do things at a school which blocks some of our favorite tools, like Dropbox or Google Drive. Some of the information is about software choices in my school district: SchoolInsites and Promethean. But you may be able to use 

First another look at the SlideDog. It isn’t a completely new concept...just a new way to look at it. Your talk is sequenced from one file to the next within this tool. So you start with a video, go into a PPT, then open a document then go back to the PPT...you get the idea. All without having open files in the taskbar. And without the time spent getting  it all set up again and again. Along with this you get audience participation and feedback. (See last issue for more)
But did you know that is possible with your usual classroom tools? ActivTip #91 on ActivInspire deals with how to make a unit flipchart with a table of contents which links to the pages needed  and would return to the TOC. This along with the newer feature which allows you to embed videos, link files, and move by using actions encourage putting all your needs in just one flipchart. When doing this or sharing a flipchart be sure to save the additions within the flipchart. These things can also be added to PowerPoint (and other wanna-be’s) slides so you don’t need a new presentation for each day. You just use the TOC to skip to the needed day or page needed. (The note about saving applies here, too.) HowTech.TV has short videos on table of contents and linking pages so that navigation is easier in a unit long presentation.

With flipcharts you can also add timers and other needed helpers to the pages as you go so there is no looking for that during the class. 

Another place which will help with keeping things at your fingertips for class is the file manager in your school website. We have mentioned that this can replace Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud storage which might be blocked at school. In the file manager you files have a unique URL which you can find when you view files. Just copy that address and add it to your lesson plans or to your flipchart/PPT. These files can be private to you and only shared using this URL. Students can access any they have a URL for, but are not able to see other things stored there unless you make it public.
Gathering all materials needed for what you are presenting at the planning stage can save minutes in class and hours of you time when you have to find what you used last year.
The interactivity is possible also: either Learner Response System(LRS) from Promethean for audience response or you can use sites such as Socrative, EverySlide or  PollEverywhere if students have devices of their own or are part of a 1-to-1 program.

Enjoy!

TCC 4-6 Classroom Tech Infusion: Interactive Flipcharts 101

Ways to add Technology to your classroom will be a repeat in our corner talks.

These ideas are from Developing Interactivity webinar on Janice Prandstatter’s YouTube channel. These are produced by the British arm of Promethean Planet. The presenters are classroom teachers who actually use the features shown so best practices are demonstrated and discussed. There is a Flipchart with all the examples and notes for download on Promethean Planet.

These are the main ideas from the webinar, but are not by any means the only possibilities.
And there are notes for each of the pages explaining what was done to make the page work or how it was used in class. You can: 

1. Illustrate and record discussion can be as simple as a background photo and the pen and sound recorder tools
2. .Arrange items to make a sentence, match all forms of a linear equation, make a timeline, or sequence events. Either find or make items to arrange.
3. Use layers to make a container which will hold only the items which are true to your rule or to hide answers until needed.
4. Hide answers with Ink and background colors. Just move to a new background to reveal. 
5. Use text or clipart to make compound words with reward sounds when correct 
6. Use a magic revealer or magic ink to show through a top photo to show change or start a conversation.
7. Use an action to show the answer when it is clicked.
8. Extract text to label the parts of an illustration. This means you don’t have to rewrite the word. 

Enjoy!