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Stixy

What it is: Stixy is a fun and easy way for students and educators to collaborate online.  Stixy reminds me of Wallwisher, but has many more options for sharing.  Start out with a blank virtual bulletin board.  Use the Stixy widgets to add content or functionality to your board, positioning them anywhere.  Users can add notes, photos, documents, or to-do items.  After content has been added to a board, it can be shared with others of your choosing.  Those that have been invited to the Stixy board can be given permission to add content, upload, or edit. How to integrate Stixy into the classroom: Stixy is an excellent tool for the classroom.  Use it as a communication tool for your students.  Create a classroom board where you post homework, resources, to-do items, etc. for your students.  Students can, in turn, submit assignments via the document upload, add notes asking questions of the class, and participate in online discussions.    When working on group projects, students can create a Stixy board where they can collaborate virtually.  Here they can post ideas, research findings, and deadlines for the group. Stixy can also be used as a virtual portfolio for students.  Ask each student to create a Stixy board for the year (or per semester, trimester, or quarter).  Throughout the year, students can add their content and learning to the board.  Teachers, other students, parents, and family members can be invited to view the board throughout the year.  Students can view their learning and progress in one place and parents, teachers, and other students can leave feedback and encouragement on the Stixy board.   This virtual portfolio can “travel” with students as a body of evidence.  I would prefer getting a virtual portfolio of learning over a report card of grades any day! Tips: Stixy does require that users have email addresses.  If you are working with students that have not been assigned a school email account, you can use a service like tempinbox.com or mailinator.com to set up an account.  Stixy does not specify a minimum age requirement for use and does not require any personal information for use. Leave a comment and share how you are using Stixy  in your classroom.

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iboard: Shopping to a Budget

Posted by admin | Posted in Interactive Whiteboard, Math, Primary Elementary, Secondary Elementary, Websites | Posted on 22-12-2009

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What it is: Shopping to a Budget is another of iboard’s offering.  Students are given a set amount of money to spend.  They can choose to “purchase” a variety of candies to spend all of their money.  This is a UK site so all of the coins are British (not US dollar).  There are 3 levels of difficulty to choose from.  With each level of difficulty, the amount to spend increases.


How to integrate Shopping to a Budget into the classroom: Shopping to a Budget helps students practice budgeting and counting coins.  Shopping to a Budget gives students the opportunity to use and practice addition and subtraction.  Students also practice using math language (“you’ve spent 10p, how much more to 27p? What is the difference?”)  This is a fun little activity for practicing counting money, addition, and subtraction on the interactive whiteboard.  Split students into teams and reveal the target numbers.  Students can work within their teams to decide what their team would buy.  Invite one team up to the board to demonstrate how they solved the problem.  Other teams can offer ideas about how they solved the problem differently.  Shopping to a Budget would also make a great practice center on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting.


Tips: iboard has a variety of activities for the interactive whiteboard that can be purchased.  Shopping to a Budget is one of their freebie samples.


Leave a comment and share how you are using iboard: Shopping to a Budget  in your classroom.

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