What's in Your Toolkit?

Triptico is a great resource to use with the Promethean board. It’s FREE and contains about 20 different interactive tools. Some of the tools include: word magnets, timers, board games, and group generators. You can download it here and explore the variety of resources using the scroll bar at the bottom of the window.

 

 

 

 

 

Ways to Use ActivExpressions in the Classroom

If you are interested in creative way to use ActivExpressions in your classroom, then this video is for you. Watch how Ron Clark demonstrates way his academy is using ActivExpressions.

Tip of the Week:

Here are a few shortcuts you can use within ActivInspire:

• F11 = show your dashboard
• F6 = open the desktop tools
• F4 = activate duel pens (press F4 again to turn it off)
• F3 = activate the Express Poll
• Ctrl + B = opens the browsers
• Ctrl + U = opens the edit profile box (change the settings here)

Favorite ActivInspire Tool:

The Desktop Annotate Tool is the winner. Click on this icon and use your ActivInspire tools on top of PowerPoint, Word, Excel, favorite websites, document camera, etc.

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

Flash Drive! Where in the world are you?

My Flash Drive is plugged in but ‘Where is it’?

Have you ever plugged in a USB device like a flash drive or external hard drive and could not see it in My computer?  Many times this is because Windows has renamed your device using a letter on our network like J or I.  Unfortunately, sometimes our hardware gets in the way when it is supposed to save us time. 

The solution to this issue is to find the drive and then rename it using a letter that is not a mapped drive on the network.   Here is how you do it.

          

1.     Right click on My computer and go to Manage.     

                           

2.     Click on Disk Management.  Right click on your external drive/flash drive name and go to Change Drive Letter and Path.  Be careful not to right click on any drive other than your USB external drive/flash drive. 

           Do not rename the C: Drive.  Never…Never…Never…did I say Never?           

3.     Click on Change.  Make sure you have chosen Assign the following drive letter.  Choose a letter that is not used on our network such as M, N, or P.  Click OK and Yes.

Tip of the Week

Did you know you could import any PDF document into ActivInspire?  Don’t copy and paste that word document!!  Save it as a PDF.  Open Inspire; go to File->Import->PDF.  Then navigate to your document.  Now you can use all of your tools…..zoom in, highlight, write, etc.  If your document is more than one page it puts each page on a different page in your flipchart.

              Website of the Week

http://mwedwardstechnology.blogspot.com/p/livebinders.html

This is a link to many livebinders that may be of use to you including Google Earth, Promethean board resources, and resources that fall under the Creative Commons umbrella. 

Welcome back, Dragons!

We hope your first day of school for the 2011-12 school year went well! A big thumbs up to the entire technology department this year. They worked feverishly this summer to assure a successful first day with all of our technological devices.

CISD VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE:

CISD held its first ever Virtual Technology Conference this summer. All sessions were held online through Elluminate Live! software. It was a success!

Congratulations to the following door prize winners:
1. Tara Chance = Shell $25
2. Julie Hataway = McAlister's dinner for 4
3. Dorothy Cassetta = Bed, Bath, and Beyond $25
4. Jennifer Kleinman = Kohls $25
5. Elisa Rossi = Home Depot $25
6. Janet Blackwell = McAlister's dinner for 4

Please take a moment to thank your technology integration specialist for all of the work, creativity, and extra effort they devoted to this conference! They spent many extra hours in preparation so that the CISD staff would have a positive experience from the comfort of their homes, local Starbucks, or wherever.

DIGITAL NATIVES:

As you begin to plan for this year, remember that our students today prefer to learn digitally. As Mark Prensky coined, today's students are "digital natives," and we are "digital immigrants." Technology is what our students know. Statistics show that most students use the computer to complete homework; however, most teachers do not assign homework where the computer is required. Consider crafting a lesson where students must use the web to complete an assignment. Ask your instructional technology specialists for many ideas! They have websites that will engage your students!

NEW PROMETHEAN BOARDS:

Four of our campuses have been outfitted with the new Promethean Board: CES, JES, WGES, and CMS. If you are new to Promethean, be sure and ask your friends and colleagues at OUES, RES, EIS, DMS, and CSHS for tips and tricks. 

Also, the curriculum coordinators are uploading flipcharts into the G drive this semester. So, if you are looking for a flipchart, you may want to start there.

TIP: Did you know that when you are running ActivInspire and you close your dashboard, press F11 for the dashboard to return.

Fabulous Flipchart Resources

Are you getting a new Promethean board this summer? Or, maybe you have a board and you are ready to learn some new tricks? Check out these fabulous resources and please post a comment if you have some favorites of your own. We’d love to hear from you!

iTunes- Subscribe to the ActivTips in iTunes. As of today, there are 132 tips on a variety of topics ranging from the magic revealer to embedding videos.
http://tinyurl.com/43ejqfl

Google's Custom Search- Use a custom search engine to find flipcharts faster.
http://tinyurl.com/4gawbeh

FCPS- Reference these great tutorials, resources, and quick tips. This is a very comprehensive site!
http://sites.fcps.org/trt/promethean_activinspire

Interactive Sites- Explore these interactive web sites… and if you need a quick sponge activity for your kids, check out Bubble Burst!http://sites.google.com/site/trainprocomputing/home/interactive-sites

Activclassroom Academy- Learn to build a better flipchart and create self-paced activities using these handouts.
http://tinyurl.com/3lhbp9g


Tip of the Week: Keyboard Shortcuts for ActivInspire
F2 Design Mode
F5 Full Screen
F7 Spellcheck Flipchart


Web Resource: 10 minute mail
So you’ve found a great site and you want to create an account. But an email address is required! Use this site to get a temporary email address instead of junking up your inbox!
http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html