SMART – iLearn Technology

Lucky Star Game Show for SMART boards

October 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3527 views

What it is: Cyberchase is an animated math series on PBS Kids. Now, Cyberchase is making math even more fun with an interactive game show called Lucky Star. The game show is a free download for the SMART Notebook software. Lucky Star was designed for kids in 3rd-5th grade. The game show has kids competing for top scores while building important math skills. Lucky Star has 150 questions that focus on problem solving, algebraic thinking, number and operations, geometry, measurement, and more. The game show includes an on-screen think pad (a drop down area where students can work the problems with the pen. The game show also includes some great virtual manipulatives that students can interact with on the interactive whiteboard. Want more? Create your own questions tailored to your curriculum using the Cyberchase characters and props. You can customize the game for your students needs.

How to integrate Lucky Star into your curriculum: Lucky Star is a fun way for your students to practice math. The ability to create your own questions that are tailored to your math curriculum means that this is game can be used all year. The game show makes for a great math warm up to get those brains thinking math. Use Lucky Star as a fun class competition, split your students into teams for a little friendly math competition. Your students will love the game show feel that Lucky Star has. Any time I play games with my whole class, I really play it up. Act the part of Game Show host and get into the game with your students. Hold weekly competitions or semester long competitions to see who can get the top score. Hold a fun math themed party for all of the “contestants” at the end of the competition. When I taught second grade this meant bringing out all of the kids favorite math games and calling them by their class number all day instead of their names. To mix it up, I might call on student number 10 by saying “I need 5+5 to line up third in line”. It was a fun way to have fun with math and celebrate the hard work of all of my students.

Tips: I couldn’t get the Lucky Star Game Show download to open in ActivInspire (for Promethean) even using the Smart Notebook option. I also couldn’t get the download to open in SMART Notebook’s interactive viewer. If anyone has a trick or luck with either of these let me know and I’ll update the post accordingly!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Lucky Star in your classroom!

LEGO Smart Creativity Contest

April 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2287 views

What it is: LEGO Education is looking for 10,000 contestants for its 2010 LEGO Smart Creativity Contest. You can sign your classroom up to participate from now to July 2010, challenging your students to be LEGO Smart. When you sign up, you will receive a free LEGO Smart kit to use for the contest. Beginning in August 2010, your students will be challenged with a variety of activities that will encourage them to think creatively.

How to integrate LEGO Smart Creativity Contest into the classroom: Take a look at the activities from last year, there are math, geography, science, collaboration, and social studies projects. The activities are all a lot of fun. The contest is a fantastic way to get your students thinking outside the box, in new and creative ways, while working together to accomplish tasks. Your students will be working collaboratively, solving problems, and creating solutions. Students will be demonstrating their understanding of technology, math, engineering, science and math. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t enjoy LEGOs.

Tips: For most of us, the contest won’t start until the next school year, sign up today and have some awesome activities ready for next year.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using LEGO Smart Creativity Contest in your classroom.

Teacher Led Interactive Whiteboard

April 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2731 views

What it is: Teacher Led IWB is a collection of resources for use with an interactive whiteboard. This is an outstanding collection of 46 math tools and games, 3 geography maps and map makers, 6 English tools and games, and two multipurpose games. The collection is visually appealing and helps teach key concepts visually in each content area. There are too many great resources to go in depth here, I recommend heading over to Teacher Led IWB and taking a look right now!

How to integrate Teacher Led IWB into the classroom: This collection is VERY impressive. The tools and games are perfect for whole class instruction and practice in math, geography, language arts, and creating custom activities for other subjects. Most of the tools are designed for the elementary classroom but there are some that can be used in middle school as well.

Tips: If you have an interactive whiteboard, go to Teacher Led now and check out these awesome resources!

Leave a comment and tell us which of the Teacher Led resources you have used in your classroom.

ActivInspire

March 5, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments20186 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.