I often feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of technology leads I receive and consider.  To begin with I found it difficult to evaluate resources without trying them out with a class.  It’s often hard to imagine how a class will react to different methods – I guess the daily surprises are why I enjoy teaching quite so much.  Now I’m finding it easier to place tools appropriately but finding it harder to keep track of the good ones.  So I’ve gone back to basics and had another look at what I use every day – the Interactive Whiteboard.

I have a SMARTboard in the classroom, running with Notebook 10 and the full gallery of resources download.  All the latest software is available from the website including a free student download which enables pupils to open and amend Notebook files and access most of the tools.  Use of the interactive features of these boards is highly encouraged to engage pupils – I’m not bad at this but there is a lot more I’m sure I could be doing.  I worry too little about sticky fingerprints on the actual board.  Next year I want to see more.

OK – where do I start?

Last week I dug out an old email from a colleague in the Physics department – it was a link to  José Picardo‘s video:

Top five tips for creating resources for the interactive whiteboard

I watched it again, understanding more than last time and tried out some more of the ideas including the magic pen for magnifying and highlighting small chunks of work and the word reveal tricks.

It occurred to me that even the board can offer so much potential that I have not yet realised, without me learning new ICT skills or finding new software.  All this was going to take was a little effort.

Next port of call is the Gallery – it really is about time I found time to rake through all of the resources instead of just searching for something which suits a lesson plan.  It’s rather convenient then that I had an unexpected 4 hour train journey yesterday.  The train to Thurso thankfully has first class seats and no first class tickets which means that anyone can make use of the free plugs as long as you embark quick enough!

I’m pleased to report that I came across a lot of tools that I have used before but here are the ones that I promise to use this year.

Clocks – An assortment of clock face resources which can be used for show me activities, a teacher led lesson or as an interactive tool with pupils creating the questions.

Unit circles – Radians, degrees or both – you decide – precise accurate and much more visually stimulating than anything I could draw.

Dice – 10 sided dice that the pupils can roll and race.  Or dice that speak in foreign languages for a little cross curricular work – there’s even one where you can choose what goes on each side – or rather  the pupils can!

Symmetry – 2 Flash activities that pupils can use alone if you’ve got the ICT access or as a class – ready made reflection and rotation resources.  You can achieve this using the flip tools but this looks more professional.

Algebraic Fractions – A brief lesson, more suitable as a consolidation lesson than an introduction because the quiz is a stormer.

Quadratics and Straight Lines and Trig graphs – There are plenty of online resources and maths packages which will create these graphs and allow you to change the variables showing the transformation of the graphs but why look elsewhere when the gallery holds them anyway.  These simulations are clear and easy to manipulate.

Nets – A quick movie showing different 3D shapes being opened out and closed up – supplements physical practice without getting covered in prit stick at the front of the class.

Indices – the first tool I found allowed you to enter an integer value and a power – can be used to show square, cube numbers to lower ages/abilities and patterns involved with higher orders further up the school.  Followed by a smashing game of snap where you have to think quick to simplify indices and surds and spot the correct equality from a choice of changing cards.  Great starter for a higher set.

Interactive Ruler – and finally….you can move this ruler around the page just like the standard one but in addition you can set the arrows to do the measuring for you.  Pupils can read the scale then check their answers interactively.

So my pledge is to use these tools and I would urge you to give them a try too.  iwb-ideas

4 Comments

• 

  By Iain Hallahan, May 25, 2009 @ 4:01 pm

  Nice post. One of the great things about the SMART Board is that there is a constant evolution; new applications, updated software, improved gallery. But it does make it hard to keep up with what is in there. We use the boards a lot, and although your pupils will no doubt be performing at a higher level of ability than ours, some of our Notebooks might be adaptable for you. Any particular areas you were thinking of concentrating on?
• 

  By admin, May 25, 2009 @ 6:01 pm

  Thanks for your comment Iain, much appreciated!

  Moving forward, I’m not sure what classes I will be teaching next year and this will strongly influence my choice of resources.

  With lower sets I’d like to develop more tools that the whole class can interact with up at the board – we loved Billy Bug (http://tinyurl.com/69hpl7 )as a team competition this year for example. I wish I’d found the clocks before I spent a week climbing up on a chair each day to take my classroom one down. The more advanced tools will be useful for my top set 4th year and the 2 year higher class.

  Will definitely keep in touch with you and anyway, I’m determined to see your SMART Table in action one day!
• 

  By H, August 14, 2009 @ 10:50 pm

  Hi Stephanie!
  Just found your blog after clicking on you on Twitter! It’s really interesting, I wish I could do the same but I think twitter might suit me better – no pressure to think of more than a dozen or so words!!

  I saw this guy Tom Reardon at a TI conference in July, he was really inspirational and has done loads on his Smartboard. I think he has lots of resources on his website http://www.tomreardon.com

  One thing he showed us which is quite cool was when he knew he was going to be off school he recorded his lessons with audio using the Smart Recorder. Although I’ve just got a tablet I downloaded the Maths Smart10 for a looksee so am going to give that a go!

  Monday is way too close now!!!
• 

  By admin, August 14, 2009 @ 11:42 pm

  Hi Michael,

  Thanks for the link.
  Notebook software will be fantastic on the tablet – the Maths Beta also ok.
  I’ve recommended to ASN pupils who use notebooks in the classtoom too – easy for diagrams, etc.
  BTW – the blog is just a place to expand on ideas, somewhere to write down what’s going on in my classroom where people who want to can read it! No pressure, it’s my space!

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