Take Baby Steps …Toward the Board!

It’s week 10 of the 2011-2012 school year. Hopefully, your school year is going well and you’ve settled into a good routine. If you’re in a new building like we are, you’ve had a lot of NEW things to learn. New school year. New building. New students.  New technology…. Very exciting but also very challenging!

Some of you may be moving from overhead projectors to new Promethean boards. (Yay! No more Vis-à-vis ink on your hands!) With all the changes how do you find time to create flipcharts, learn about all the tools in the toolbox, and create a more interactive learning environment?
The answer: Baby Steps! Take little baby steps. Break the information down into manageable chunks. Set a goal to try something new every week or two. Observe a colleague that is using his/her board effectively. But don’t feel like you have to learn it all at once.

Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

1.  Start with Promethean Planet. Check out the video tutorials in the Professional Development section. Download a resource pack. Find a lesson and modify it. Don’t feel like you have to create flipcharts from scratch!
2.  Use interactive sites. Teacher Led has compiled some great resources.

3.  Try a new Tool.
       -Add a clock to your warm-up page

            -Use a calculator

            -Create a tickertape and recognize student birthdays

4.  Subscribe to Promethean ActivTips in iTunes. As of today, there are 144 podcasts on iTunes. Topics ranging from embedding video to using the camera tool. Most are 5 minutes are less!

And remember… baby steps.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. ~Henry Ford

Web Resource:
Spooky resources for Halloween from Thinkfinity

Tip of the Week:
Are you a fan of Words with Friends? If so, you may want to download the FREE game created for Promethean. Go to Promethean Planet and check out Words with Buddies. It would be great for a sponge activity! Words With Buddies