Promethean Flipchart Bling!

Did you know you can add animated .gifs to your Promethean flipcharts? I discovered this quite by accident as I was browsing the forums on Promethean Planet. If Blogger allowed animated .gifs, you would see the blue font above ("Flipchart Bling") would be sparkling and moving. But don't despair! Instead, add your animations into Promethean flipcharts to add some spice to your pages. Where can you get some .gifs? Try these sites below:

Glitter Your Way: Spice up your font

GlowTxt: Spice up your font again

Discovery Education Animated Clip Art: Be sure to read the license agreement.





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Promethean Baby Steps
Promethean Calculator Tip
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Virtual Graphing Calculator

I had a math teacher approach me this week with a Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus graphing calculator. He is an avid user of the Promethean board and hates to change to the document camera to show his students how to enter problems into their graphic calculator. "You'd think Texas Instruments would have a virtual calculator that teachers could use on their computer so they could show students how to enter their problems," he said to me. I decided to look around, and sure enough, there IS a virtual TI-83 calculator that you can download and use with your class. It looks just like the real calculator, and you click the buttons on it just like you would on the real thing. (Don't forget to click the power button on the image, or the calculator won't turn on!)

Where did I find this? At Video Math Teacher! Check it out, secondary math teachers.

Assistive Technology Software Worth Noting

While at the MATN conference in Columbia, MD today, I had the pleasure of listening to Dan Herlihy speak on "Using 21st Century Tools to Promote Teaching, Learning, and Providing Support".

He mentioned two new Web 2.0 tools that I have never heard about before.

i-Lighter is a site that allows you to highlight within an existing webpage. The program can be downloaded as extensions within Internet Explorer or Firefox so that you always have access to the tool. It will also store your highlights online!

The second one is the Non-Visual Desktop Access program. This is a screen reader that allows you to point your cursor to words and have it read out loud to you. The best part of this program is that it's small enough to fit on a flashdrive and run from there! Yippee!

Vi.sualize.us to bookmark images

Thanks to Hillary Andrlik's post on The Teaching Palette blog, I now have a favorite web 2.0 tool. Go to her post for a detailed description.

Basically, my new find thanks to Ms. Andrlik, is a site called Vi.sualize.us, which is similar to delicious.com. Vi.sualize.us lets the user bookmark and share images that you find on the web instead of websites. As Hillary mentions, this is great alternative to saving images on your computer and filling up its hard drive. I just signed up for an account and can't wait to try it. I'll post again later in the month when I have had time to review it.

Promethean: Using the Revealer to Control Information

Within the ActivInspire software, there is a revealer tool that allows teachers to black out the screen, much like pulling a shade over a window. Using the ActivPen, the teacher or student can "reveal" the information by pulling the revealer from the bottom, top, right or left. Most teachers feel the need to pull the revealer up like a shade, but this will reveal your information in reverse order (see below).

However, by pulling the revealer down from the top, you can reveal your information in order and control how much your students see at one time. You can explain the first point before revealing the second one. Try it!

Related Posts:

Promethean Baby Steps
Promethean Calculator Tip
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Promethean ActivInspire: Calculator Quick Tip

I found a cool new trick in Promethean ActivInspire today quite by accident. First, activate the on-screen calculator. Type in your problem and click "equal". Once the answer is displayed, you will also see the math problem typed out in small font along the top of the calculator. Click on this problem and drag it off onto the flipchart. You can now display the problem automatically that you entered into the calculator this way. This is great for recording multiple steps as you arrive at your answer.

Related Posts:
Promethean Baby Steps
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Baby Steps: Promethean Style

For the last two days, I have been working at a middle school undergoing renovation. Many teachers are going from having an overhead projector to a short-throw Promethean board, laptop, CPS remotes, flip video cameras, digital cameras, DVD players, and more. The staff has been receptive to the new technology, especially the Promethean board, as I introduce them to ActivInspire.

How did these staff members cope? They are learning Promethean software by taking baby steps. Each staff member is excited about different aspects of the software. They leave with their own little gem, each one different, and they will cling to it until they can add to their knowledge once this is digested.

What did the teachers take away? Here were some of their gems:

1. Typing text on a flipchart and using the fill tool (paint bucket) to color code text. This is great for categorizing words or phrases quickly in a variety of educational settings.
2. Count Down and Count Up Clock: using these tools to keep students on track and practice for timed tests.
3. Revealer: Using the revealer to reveal objectives, warm up questions, or tasks one-by-one.
4. Using interactive websites to enage kids at the Promethean board. Need a starting place? Try here or here.
5. Annotating over the desktop and word documents to utilize existing documents.
6. Math Tools: there is nothing like a virtual protractor, ruler, dice, and compass
7. Promethean Planet: Knowing there was a site for existing resources. Let's not reinvent the wheel!
8. Using white ink on a white background to create hidden messages or hidden answers to matching activities. Fill in the background with another color to reveal the "hidden" message or answers.
9. Utilizing resources in the resource library: interactive Periodic table and color wheel was a big hit
10. Grids and backgrounds: Just changing the background to graph paper, grids, or lined paper can create the setting for interactive success