Interactive Game Website

I just found another interactive game website that will be fun for you to explore.

Academic Skill Builders

These are free math and language arts games that can be single or multi player. They plan on adding features that will enable you to save records, tailor content for differentiated instruction and pinpoint student problem areas.

I really enjoyed the Penguin Jump for math and Spelling Bees for spelling. All of the games would help you build a great center or independent study area.

I found a few other sites as well and bookmarked them onto the delicious.com site - check 'em out!

Checker Tool - LAT

I have posted about the Checker Tool before and just finished a video on how it can be used for worksheets that you capture material from. I apologize for the audio - am still working on getting my microphone to work! It is a really easy tool to use and makes every page one that can be completed by your students independently.

Checker Tool

Physical Science - Secondary Level

I ran across these simulations that can be used by anyone who is teaching physical science at the secondary level. Many of these can also be utilized by an intermediate teacher. They include electricity, density, buoyancy, friction, motion etc. There are also teacher guides for each simulation. I like that they are simple experiments that allow you to illustrate a specific concept.

PhET Simulations

Changing Toolbar Defaults

Changing the toolbar defaults is easy to do and necessary if you want notebook software to feel comfortable. As I have often said in my trainings, if we all have different pens in our pen cups on our desk, we should have different pens in notebook software.

The pen, line, shape and text tools can all be changed to fit your needs. Simply click on the tool, choose the one that you would like to change and click on the properties tab. In the properties area, choose the default setting that you would like for that item. Be sure to click on "save tool properties" to insure that it is there the next time you open notebook software.

Changing the shape tool is something that most people don't think about, but a great time saver. Every shape that is created is an outline of a shape and you must click on the black outline in order to move the shape. You can change all of your shapes to have a white fill. This will allow you to quickly create a shape and use it right away. Students can then easily click and drag them w/o you having to fill every single time you make one. You will still be able to change the fill color, but white works nicely as a default.

Stop Motion Animation

I KNOW that I will be doing this next year. I have always known people that used this process and have been curious to use it myself, but felt stymied by the process - seemed too difficult to explore.

After visiting this website and checking out the gallery, I definitely will be downloading and adding stop motion videos to my notebooks that are created by students. An awesome method of teaching and relaying information and the software is FREE!

SAM Animation

Differentiating with Centers

Check out this teacher tube video that was submitted by a teacher to receive their SMART Exemplary Educator status where she is using her board as a center for her students. She represents several good techniques within one lesson on ways that you can use notebook software to differentiate.

Video

If you are interested in becoming a SMART exemplary educator, please let me know. It is a fairly simple process and opens the doors to many opportunities. Besides being part of a network of other SEE in Illinois, you have opportunities offered by SMART such as trade show teacher. I was able to take advantage of this program a few years ago. SMART paid for me to fly to Boston to attend the National NSTA conference. While there, I worked in the SMART booth in the exhibition hall a few hours each day showing teachers how I used my board. It was a great experience and the entire thing from hotel, flight, meals etc. was paid for by SMART.

Page Grouping to Differentiate

One of the easiest ways to differentiate your instruction is by using page grouping. Page grouping allows you to create different pages that cover the same content, but have a different instructional approach. For instance, if your students are showing you through formative assessment techniques that they need more instruction, you can have pages ready that offer the type of instruction they need. Perhaps they need extension activities to broaden what they are learning because they have shown mastery of your objectives. Both ends of the spectrum can be remedied quickly with page grouping.

To group pages together click on "groups" at the top of the pages in the page sorter tab. Choose "edit groups" and all of your pages will be displayed in the work area. The first time you do this, they will all be in the same group. You can add groups by clicking on "add group" and also change the names of your groups by double clicking on the group. Move pages that you have created into different groups based on what they are. For instance, you could segregate your pages based on the learning styles that are featured. If you have bodily kinesthetic lessons you can group them all together - making it easy for you to find your pages by learning style. You could also group your pages if they are remedial or extension - although I wouldn't call the group that (of course). Once you are done grouping your pages click on the red X in the right hand top corner.

When you now click on "groups" in the page sorter tab, all of your new groups will appear. If you click on one that group will be moved to the top of the page sorter tab display - easily accessed. Groups can also be used for documenting student growth/regression. Name the groups after the students in your room you need to document and then add pages to the groups as you collect work from them. Since each page is automatically time/date stamped you automatically have a history of how they are doing week to week or month to month throughout the year.

Differentiated Instruction & SMART

Are you reading the EdCompass magazine monthly - if not, you should be. SMART has an online magazine that they send out and you can receive it by email if you subscribe. This month's edition focuses on differentiating your instruction when using your SMART board.

December EdCompass

Differentiation has been a passion of mine for years and the only negative about doing so many SMART trainings is that I no longer am doing any differentiated instruction professional development. As we all know, the more you teach, the more you learn. Check out this month's edition of Ed Compass to find out how teachers are using their boards to differentiate. The board makes differentiating easy since you have so many pages to work with and choices can be endless.

Hide/Reveal - Flip around Axis

Another simple way to create a hide/reveal page in notebook software is by using the object animation "flip around axis." This type of hide/reveal is great when you use your board as a center and need students to independently reveal the correct answer to a problem.

For instance, if you want a word/object to be clicked and the correct answer to appear, you can use "flip around axis."

i.e. antonyms

1. Find two objects/words that are opposites and place on page side by side a few inches apart.
2. Right click on one of the objects and choose "flip." Flip it left/right.
3. Group the two objects together - right click and choose grouping - group
4. Click and drag object to the side of the page so the flipped object is off of the page.
5. Click on the object and choose the properties tab & object animation
6. Choose "flip around axis" - middle vertical - when object is clicked
7. Try it out - when object is clicked - correct answer or hidden object is revealed

Check out the youtube video if you need further help.

Awesome primary teacher website

This website is so great that I had to blog about it as well as tag it for my delicious account and add it to my give away folder. Mrs. Meacham is a kindergarten teacher who has linked hundreds of resources that she uses as well as SMART notebooks. Whether you like to know where to get cool fonts, reading resources, calendars or countless other things - this is the place to go.

Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots

Holiday Notebooks

Need a few notebooks for a fun holiday center? Try one with a word search that is offered by Teachers love SMART boards. If you sign up at Jim Hollis' website you can receive emails on a regular basis with great suggestions on how to amp up your notebooks or links to great sites.