If you haven't already read about planbook or aware of what it is, now is the time to check it out. There are new features that have recently been added.
Planbook New Features
Planbook is an online lesson planner that is free the first year. After that it is only $7.95 per year. Open an account and check it out. It is definitely worthy of a look.
planbook
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Shout Out
I have been traveling a lot lately and wanted to give a shout out to all of the teachers in East Aurora, Carpentersville and Deland who I have met in the past few weeks. I am always impressed with the educators that I meet and learn so much doing this job.
Today, a teacher at Krug (East Aurora) came up with a great solution to one of the hide/reveals that I often teach. If you have been in one of my sessions or familiar with hide/reveal it is the one where the name of the object is written on the object and revealed by the magnifying glass. This is a great hide reveal if the object is one color. In the past, I have shown that you can create a frame around the object and put the name of the object on top of the frame if the object has many colors. This wonderful teacher said, "can't we make the background a different color?" DUH - Yes, you can! Put as many objects on a page that you want and make the background a dark color (or keep it white if you want to use a black reveal object). Bring in your magnifying glass after placing your objects. Type the names of the objects underneath your objects in the same color as your background. The magnifying glass will now reveal the names of your objects. A huge thank you to this fellow educator for helping me find another easy way to help teachers find their way with SMART!
Today, a teacher at Krug (East Aurora) came up with a great solution to one of the hide/reveals that I often teach. If you have been in one of my sessions or familiar with hide/reveal it is the one where the name of the object is written on the object and revealed by the magnifying glass. This is a great hide reveal if the object is one color. In the past, I have shown that you can create a frame around the object and put the name of the object on top of the frame if the object has many colors. This wonderful teacher said, "can't we make the background a different color?" DUH - Yes, you can! Put as many objects on a page that you want and make the background a dark color (or keep it white if you want to use a black reveal object). Bring in your magnifying glass after placing your objects. Type the names of the objects underneath your objects in the same color as your background. The magnifying glass will now reveal the names of your objects. A huge thank you to this fellow educator for helping me find another easy way to help teachers find their way with SMART!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Hat
There are different ways within notebook that you can use to randomly choose a student, vocabulary word or item. This free software allows you to have another method outside of notebook. It is a free download. You enter your student's names and they are randomly pulled out of the top hat with a drum roll. A cute new way to keep your students interested.
The Hat
The Hat
Saturday, February 5, 2011
7-12 Interactive Web Sites
It's often difficult to find interactive sites to use with students at the secondary level. The links off of this site include all subjects and will definitely keep your students engaged. Imagine your students performing a heart transplant on the SMART board or computing ratios from a recipe.
7-12 Student Activities
7-12 Student Activities
3-6 Interactive Websites
Whether it's music, art, social studies or science that you are teaching, this site has links that will help make your lesson more engaging. One of the cute activities is in the Language Arts section called "Huggy Freeze Dance." Students are given a word that is shown as well as said and three monkeys. One of the monkeys is behaving like the word. Words such as irked and lackadaisical are used that would be great writing starters.
3-6 Student Interactive Activities
3-6 Student Interactive Activities
Wonderful Primary Sites
More great websites to help students stay engaged with your SMART board.
This first one has different activities that enhance your student's listening skills. One is titled "Pounce." The students hear the word and then have three word choices. The cat pounces on the word that they choose and they are given instant feedback. Another called, "What's in the Bag?" gives the students three clues on what could be in the bag. Students use inference and listening skills to determine what the object/item is. The 2nd link is the main site with other activities besides listening.
K-2 Listening activities
Main K-2 site
This first one has different activities that enhance your student's listening skills. One is titled "Pounce." The students hear the word and then have three word choices. The cat pounces on the word that they choose and they are given instant feedback. Another called, "What's in the Bag?" gives the students three clues on what could be in the bag. Students use inference and listening skills to determine what the object/item is. The 2nd link is the main site with other activities besides listening.
K-2 Listening activities
Main K-2 site
Friday, February 4, 2011
SMART Exchange - Change coming!
Most of you are familiar with the SMART exchange and have probably downloaded a lesson or two. There are some significant changes coming up that you should be aware of. Please read below information from SMART. The "My Resources" area will be a great tool to utilize.
The SMART Exchange website is SMART’s home for content and community, providing users with more than 50,000 lesson resources created by SMART, publishers and educators. It is easily accessible from within SMART Notebook software, and it adds significant value for customers who are considering buying SMART products.
Registration on SMART Exchange™ Required
Starting February 28, SMART will require users to register and become members in order to download or upload files on the SMART Exchange website. This change will provide educators with more control over the resources they share.
Membership benefits
Once registered, members will continue to have full access to all educational resources and interactive lesson activities. As part of their account, each member will also have a My Resources area in which to edit, delete or replace their uploaded files at any time. The My Resources area also enables users to view all resources they have shared and view statistics on how many times they have been downloaded or recommended.
This update will streamline the process involved in uploading teacher-created content to the site, shortening the time from when a teacher shares a file to when it becomes available to others.
SMART ExchangeThe SMART Exchange website is SMART’s home for content and community, providing users with more than 50,000 lesson resources created by SMART, publishers and educators. It is easily accessible from within SMART Notebook software, and it adds significant value for customers who are considering buying SMART products.
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