Interactive Whiteboard – Page 4

Selenia Science Comics

April 14, 2009April 14, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2793 views

What it is: Selenia Science Comics is a fun way for students to learn about science concepts through investigations linked to comics. The comics and investigations focus on science inquiry and materials and their properties. Downloadable resources are provided with information on learning outcomes, background to support scientific inquiry, scientific principles behind the experiments, guidance on the investigation, and an equipment list. Each of the investigations is linked to a online comic that poses a problem which the student is invited to solve. There are six comics with investigations including investigating dissolving, cooling, glue, leaks, air resistance, and hardness. The site also features online games for students to play including wordsearches, quizzes, picture Sudoku, and spot the difference (like hidden pictures).

How to integrate Selenia Science Comics into the classroom: These Science Comics are an excellent way to get your students interested in science and thinking like a scientist. Through fun comics, investigations, and experiments students learn about key science concepts in a way that will grab their attention and make science exciting. Students can read the comics individually, in groups, or as a whole class with a projector or an interacitve whiteboard. Following the comics, discuss what the problem to be solved is, gather ideas for solving, and perform an investigation as a whole class or in groups to solve the problems. This solve the mystery approach to science is perfect for students inquisitive minds! Wordsearches and Quizzes on the Science Comics site are fun for students to complete in a computer lab setting or as a center on classroom computers. Students can play the picture Sudoku or Spot the Difference individually or broken into teams as a class with an interactive whiteboard. After students have seen the Selenia Science Comics and performed a few investigations, they can visit a site like Kerpoof or Animoto and create their own science comics about other concepts they are learning.

Tips: Be sure to visit the teacher page for great ideas and downloads of Investigations.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Selenia Science Concepts in your classroom.

Story Top

March 30, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4079 views

What it is: Story Top is a simple comic strip creator. Students can create an account on Story Top where they can save, share with classmates, and print out comic strips that they create. Students can choose from a set selection of backgrounds, images, and text bubbles (they aren’t able to upload their own images). Using the Story Top clip art and backgrounds, students can create a fun comic strip about almost any topic with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

How to integrate Story Top into the classroom: Comic strips are an outstanding way to get your reluctant writers writing (especially boys!) The comic format usually isn’t as daunting as a blank piece of paper. With just a little guidance, your students will be writing and creating comic strips in no time! Use Story Top as a classroom computer writing center where students can take turns publishing their own comic strips (these are fun to use in a class newsletter home at the end of the week or on a classroom website). In the computer lab setting, give students a topic and have them create a comic strip based on the topic. Story Top would also be excellent to use with a projector or an interactive whiteboard. Instead of giving your students a bulleted list of notes to copy down on a subject, why not make it fun and create a comic strip that includes all of the notes. Comics are a fun way to mix up the classroom routine and students are much more likely to remember the material if it is presented this way. Happy creating!

Tips: To use your comic strips on your classroom website or in a newsletter, take a screen shot of the strip to save it as a picture file on your computer (on a Mac it is command+shift+4).

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Story Top in your classroom.

ActivInspire

March 5, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments19752 views

What it is: ActivInspire is a new software from Promethean that is free! The free edition is a ‘personal’ license that can be used by anyone. The ActivInspire software works with ANY interactive whiteboard (SMART, Mimio, Wiimote Whiteboard, eBeam, etc.) and even for those of you who do not have an interactive whiteboard, use the software with just a computer and projector! The Promethean Planet website has thousands of lessons and resources that are free to access and can be used with ActivInspire to engage your students. ActivInspire has two launch options, the first is to launch in Primary function. In Primary, ActivInspire is very user friendly for primary elementary students. The second option is to launch in Studio with tools that are perfect for older students. ActivInspire works on Windows, Mac, and Linux based machines. Some of the goodies in ActivInspire include interactive protractors, rulers, clocks, grids, and more. New power tools include intelligent shapes and handwriting recognition. There are themed templates for fast and easy lesson building. ActivInspire supports flash files that can be embeded in Flipchart lessons. ActivInspire can open SMART and PowerPoint files, making it quick and easy to pick up any lesson and improve it.

How to integrate ActivInspire into the classroom: ActivInspire is software that can keep students engaged in any lesson in your curriculum. The software is incredibly intuitive and makes it easy to create amazing interactive lessons. The lessons (flipcharts) can be saved and shared among colleagues. Begin building a library of interactive lessons for your students. Be sure to visit Promethean Planet for thousands of ready made (FREE) flipcharts and activities to use with the ActivInspire software.

Tips: To see the possiblities of the ActivInspire software, take a look at Flipcharts created by the developers of ActivInspire. Promethean also has a great set of support tutorials that will have you up and running in no time!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ActivInspire in your classroom.

ARKive

February 25, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2911 views

What it is: ARKive is an incredible website that I learned about from a tweet on Twitter (forgive me I was in the middle of class and didn’t keep track of who- thank you whoever you are!) ARKive tag line is “images of life on Earth”, but ARKive is so much more than just a collection of images, it has thousands of videos, images and facts about the world’s species. This is the digital version of Noah’s Ark! This is the most impressive animal and life website I have seen! I truly can’t say enough about this site, students of all ages will enjoy this one (I’m talking k-12 here!) ARKive has an education section of the site that is a free multi-media educational resources complete with downloadable, ready to use audio/visual modules on a wide range of science, geography, citizenship, and environmental based topics. ARKive also has some great games for students to play that are directly related to the lessons they learn while on the ARKive site. Games range from building a habitat to word searches and digital fridge poetry.

How to integrate ARKive into the classroom: ARKive’s ready made educational resources make it simple to integrate into your science, geography, or general classes. The resources are ready made PowerPoint presentations (which incidentally also open nicely in Keynote which we use). The resources bring learning to life with images, videos, facts, and some interactive pieces. This is what textbooks should be! ARKive’s ready made resources can be downloaded on classroom computers for use by small learning groups as a center, downloaded to a lab of computers for individual student exploration, or used with a projector and an interactive whiteboard for whole class learning and exploration. The ARKive site itself is a wonderful place for students to explore and learn more about animal species and life on Earth. This would be a great place for students to collect information, images, and video to create their own presentations. The games provided on the ARKive site are fun for students and teach them as they play. For example, students who are studying habitat can play the Design a Habitat game and gain an additional opportunity to interact with the concepts they are learning. Older students can dig into the facts provided on ARKive and learn about animal classification and species of the world. ARKive images could be used in the language arts classroom as a story starter or creative writing prompt.

Tips: This is truly an incredible site, I encourage you to take a look at it and use it with your class! (Click on the education link at the bottom of the site for the Resources and Games.)

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ARKive in your classroom.

Kid Thing

November 20, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2243 views

What it is: I could have sworn that I had written a post about Kid Thing in the past, but after running several searches on my posts, I came up empty. Kid Thing is a secure digital media player for kids in grades k-4. Kid Thing accesses the Internet but is not a web browser. It is more like an iTunes type environment designed specifically for kids. There are no advertisements on Kid Thing and because it is not a web browser, there is no place to type a web address where students could inadvertently stumble on inappropriate content. The Kid Thing player is free to download and they often have free downloads of learning and interactive activities for students. There is also a Kid Thing store where additional books, videos, games, and creative arts can be downloaded to the Kid Thing player. Everything in the store is very reasonably priced. Right now Kid Thing is offering a free download in addition to the player, a 25 day Countdown to Christmas. Each day students will get to open a new kid thing Surprise with a game to play. After the game has been opened, it will stay on the Kid Thing player to be played over and over again.

How to integrate Kid Thing into the classroom: The Kid Thing player would make an excellent reading center, or learning center for phonics, language arts, and math. The player is very user friendly for students. Start each morning with the free Countdown for Christmas, let each student have a turn to be the one to open the Countdown for Christmas surprise. Throughout the day, let students visit the Kid Thing center to complete the new activity for the day. Kid Thing is great for the one or two classroom computers, a computer lab, a projector or interactive whiteboard, and for home use. Encourage parents to download Kid Thing at home and add books and games that are appropriate for their child.

Tips: At the moment Kid Thing only runs on PC’s running Window’s XP and Vista. There is a Mac version in the works (hooray!!) and if you visit the download page you can sign up to be the first to know when the Mac version is available.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Kid Thing in your classroom.

ict Numeracy Games

August 25, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1702 views

What it is: ict Numeracy Games are created by educator James Barrett. These flash games are excellent for primary and beginning secondary elementary students to practice math. You will find game themes for number facts, counting, bridging through ten, time, shape and measures, greater than and less than, multiplication and rounding, money (this is UK money), addition, subtraction, odd and even, place values, doubles, and equivalence. Each math or numeracy theme has several games to play for practice. Each is interactive and has instructions for integrating the game into the classroom. All great ideas!

How to integrate ict Numeracy Games into the classroom: The ict Numeracy Games are perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard or projector and whole class instruction. Several of the games are also great practice for students working on individual computers. The games are all very engaging. They teach and provide practice for basic math skills. This is a great stop when you are looking for an interactive activity to practice a math concept. The descriptions next to the game are very helpful and you are bound to find new ideas for integrating technology into your classroom.

Tips: There are advertisements on this site but they are unobtrusive, your students probably won’t even notice. The games are high quality enough that this shouldn’t be a deterrent.

Leave a comment and share how you are using ict Numeracy Games in your classroom.

Jigsaw Planet

August 20, 2008August 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment15462 views

What it is: Well, it is the first week of school which for me means that it is rules week. Every teacher has to go over the rules at some point and it is usually met by major groans from students. This year I approached rules week differently. I used an awesome site called Jigsaw Planet to turn my rules into jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaw Planet is a site that makes it simple to create custom jigsaw puzzles. Just upload a jpeg image to the site, choose how many pieces you want, what shape you want the pieces to be and Jigsaw Planet does the rest. You instantly have a custom interactive puzzle for your students to play! The puzzles can be saved for your own account, shared with students via a url, or embedded into your classroom website for easy access.

How to integrate Jigsaw Planet into the classroom: Jigsaw Planet puzzles are AMAZING to use with an interactive whiteboard! Each puzzle is timed as you put it together, split students into teams to see which team can complete the puzzle the fastest. Instead of the typical PowerPoint type presentation to teach students facts, create a puzzle for them to put together and have them read the fact once the puzzle has been completed. Turn your classroom rules into a series of jigsaw puzzles for students to put together. Honor your star student of the week by creating a puzzle of that student, just take a picture of the student and upload to Jigsaw Planet. Put the puzzle of the student on your classroom website to honor them. Students can use Jigsaw Planet to create their own puzzles. This is a great place for them to study, they can upload spelling words, math facts, maps, etc. Students will love creating their own jigsaw puzzles, if they have their own blog or website they can embed the puzzles right into their online space. If you have a projector or an interactive whiteboard, have students create a puzzle all about them. They can create a collage of things they like in a presentation program, take a screen shot of it, and upload the puzzle to Jigsaw Planet. Students can put together each other’s puzzles and guess who the student is based on the pictures. This would be a great getting to know you activity!

Tips: I split students into two teams. Each team would complete a puzzle using our new Mimio interactive whiteboard, the fastest time was the winner of that round. When the puzzle was completed, students would read the rule and we would discuss in depth. This made rule day fun for the kids and much more enjoyable for me!

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Leave a comment and share how you are using Jigsaw Planet in your classroom.

Count Us In

August 14, 2008August 14, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1744 views

What it is: Count Us In is a fun basic math skill site with 15 interactive games that teach kids basic math skills. These include counting, patterning, counting, ordinal numbers, representing number with words, addition, subtraction, sorting and grouping, time, numbers, chance, halves, length, and volume. The flash based games can be played online or downloaded to a Mac or PC for offline play.

How to integrate Count Us In into the classroom:
These are great games to teach kids basic math concepts. The site is good for individual use in a computer lab, or center group use in a classroom setting. Students can work at their own level, going onto the next game after they have mastered one. The games can be used to help teach concepts or as review and practice for math skills. The site is best for k-1 students or struggling math students in second grade. The site is also perfect for an interactive whiteboard. Call students up to the board to interact with the games individually or split your class into teams to play the games.

Tips: Visit the “other activities” section of the Count Us In website for some great teacher resources including well thought out activities to use with the games on the website.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Count Us In in your classroom.

Wiimote Whiteboard in action

April 17, 2008April 17, 2008Kelly Tenkely5 Comments2290 views

So here it is…I finally got a few quiet min to get a video made. It isn’t the greatest but hopefully it will show you just how great the Wiimote Whiteboard is. My students are going nuts for it. As soon as they walk into my classroom I hear “Sweet a Wii, are we using a Wii today?” It immediately hooks them, not sure how long that benefit will be there but for this week I am loving it!

Kindle Lab

April 16, 2008April 17, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2669 views

What it is: Carrying on with the interactive whiteboard awesomeness, here is free interactive whiteboard software for your Wiimote Whiteboard. If you have a Mimio, e-beam, Smartboard, Active Board, or Promethean, this software will also work with them! Kindle Lab will run on both PC and Mac. Now, I could give you a long explanation of everything that Kindle Lab can do but I am of the mindset that a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words and can do a much better job of it than I can….

How to integrate Kindle Lab into your curriculum: Kindle Lab is meant to be used to enhance all of your existing curriculum. No matter what subject you are teaching Kindle Lab, along with your Interactive Whiteboard, can bring the lesson to life for your students. The range and scope of what Kindle Lab can do for your classroom is so broad and all encompassing that for me to give you some ideas here would really be silly. Download Kindle Lab, the PDF of the Kindle Lab tools and start exploring. I promise it will be pretty apparent to you how seamlessly this could be used for any subject at any level. So cool!

Tips: At the end of the video clip above, you may have noticed another tool which is called Eduism. This is a 3-D interactive environment that was created for the classroom. It is also a free to use open source project that is meant to be used with the Interactive Whiteboards. Be sure to check it out!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kindle Lab in your classroom.