I am a huge fan of wordles. They're fun, eye-catching and a great visual aid in any project or presentation. There are numerous reasons to use them in the classroom including character sketches, identifying themes in a novel and analyzing political speeches just to name a few.
Word Mosaic from Image Chef takes the traditional wordle to a new level by adding shapes -- everything from a heart to music notes to numerous user created images.
Thanks to Brenda Dyck's posterous for pointing me to the Innovative Educator's blog which contained a link to Image Chef! Whew! Shows how valuable sharing links on your site can be, and the value of building a PLN! :)
Have a great weekend bringing out your artistic side!
I just finished Day 1 of 2 of SMART Board professional development workshops with a great group of educators at Holy Family Catholic Regional Division in Peace River, Alberta. We focused on the 3 areas in the classroom that an interactive whiteboard can help enhance including increasing student interactivity.
During today's workshop, we took some time exploring the gallery components in SMART Notebook (nearly 7000 items, and counting). The idea for a blog post was inspired by this discussion and exploration -- I thought it was time that I shared my top 5 favourite interactive components in the gallery.
In no particular order, here they are:
1. Random Word Chooser
The uses for this flash file are endless -- insert students' names and select volunteers for activities, sharing answers or forming groups; insert key vocabulary in your subject area and use for a simple review game; insert themes or genres of writing and have students randomly select their topic for creative writing.
2. Dice -- Keyword
Click on the double arrows on the top left corner and edit it to fit your own subject area's content. Have students click to 'roll' the die at the end of class and tell you something they learned about that term in today's class. Voila! Easy-to-create digital exit questions.
3. Interactive Protractor
This upgraded version actually exists on the toolbar in Notebook version 10.6 (although a similar older version exists in the gallery too!). I love the fact that if you click the bottom right arrow, it 'spits out' the angle complete with degrees.
4. Vortex Sort - Image
An excellent review activity for the end of a lesson or, even better, a great inquiry activity with feedback for students to test their theories. Make each vortex rotate, customize the images and categories and have students drag each image to sort them. If they place the image in the correct vortex, the clipart fades inward; if they get it wrong, the vortex spits it back out.
5. Froguts
An old classic fun interactive. This flash file allows you to virtually 'dissect' a frog -- minus the terrible smell! While educationally valuable in Biology class, this is also a fun way for kids to experiment and see the inside of frog -- even if they're not currently in Bio.
Please comment and share your favourite interactive gallery items. I look forward to sharing in future professional development workshops!
For my 3rd installment of new Math Tools for SMART Notebook, I chose to go with 2 of the simpler tools -- the addition of shapes and the ability to create your own irregular polygons. While these are quite basic features, they're also some of the more desired features that make planning a Math lesson a bit more efficient for teachers.
Directions for above video:
1. Click on the Shapes tool within the Math toolbar -- Numerous regular polygons appear, allowing you to choose a polygon with up to 15 equal sides
2. Click on the Irregular Polygons tool
3. Click anywhere on your SMART Notebook page, which will allow you to identify the vertices for your irregular polygon.
4. "Close" your chosen points to form a complete irregular polygon, which can then be manipulated in the same fashion as all other shapes.
Some quick, simple yet effective tools now available from the Math toolbar. As always, try the 30 day free trial at smarttech.com
I realize that 99% of the content on this blog relates to technology in education in some way, shape or form. However, every now and then something ridiculously funny linked to current events just begs to be posted.
The following video is just that -- a parody made by a Canadian improv team known as the Royal Canadian Air Farce. Although this skit was originally made in 2001, recent events were directly related to the issue discussed: the lyrics of "O Canada". For those either not Canadian or unaware of news broadcasts last week, the main issue was the 'genderdized' line "in all thy sons command." For some reason, the federal government decided to raise the issue during its recent throne speech citing that that line may be sexist and that they were considering altering it to something more 'gender neutral'.
Enjoy the video! For those not familiar with the lines in the Canadian national anthem, I've listed the lyrics below....
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Luckily, such nonsense is not being pursued, as the government decided to drop the issue as of Friday afternoon. The question remains, why was it even raised in the first place? There are a few opinions on that topic, including one found here.
Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! Have a great work week =)
Being a former high school Social Studies teacher, I love when I get a great interactive website outside of my area of expertise that still engages me! The Human Body Interactive, put out by the BBC, does just that.
Learn about organs, muscles, skeleton or the nervous system through an interactive placement game. I envision this being used in the classroom as either a review session or, better yet, as a collaborative small-group inquiry session on an iwb.
Thanks to my former colleague Shannon Cederstrand (an excellent high school Biology teacher at Oilfields High School) for the awesome link!
Vanessa
P.S. As I publish this post to my blog, I'm getting ready to head out to my 5th teachers' convention in as many weeks [for those at the Central East Alberta Teachers' Convention stop by and say hi!]
We're all familiar with the different forms of assessment:
diagnostic
formative
summative
Many teachers spend a lot of time and effort creating "good" assessments that accurately assess what the students know. I myself have spent copious amounts of time painstakingly creating exam blueprints to ensure that curricular outcomes are assessed -- and I'm not alone. A large amount of professional development days in schools are devoted to improving assessment techniques.
As such, education is becoming more data focused than ever. Everyone I speak with has their own, usually strong, opinion on whether or not this is a path that they want to head down. However, I would argue that there is one thing that most of us can agree on: the results collected do not always translate into a teaching response in the classroom. There are a variety of reasons for this lack of connection -- over-packed curriculum, lack of time, worn out teachers, a misunderstanding of correlation vs. causation, political initiatives with a separate focus -- the list could go on and on.
The following cartoon illustrates this disconnect beautifully -- we spend so much time and energy focusing on how best to collect data that we often forget the most important component is the follow up.
So the question of the decade remains what do you do with the data? Is it even wise to state that a change in teaching technique might have a direct impact on results or are we simply faced with too many other variable factors (maturity of the students, parental support, funding for education, socioeconomic status, values in the community, etc.)?
What is your school/school division doing with the results teachers collect? Is the data really analyzed to pinpoint specific areas of strengths and weaknesses or do you even believe in 'measuring' achievement? This is a hot topic for debate in the education world right now and I'd love to hear your viewpoints!
Vanessa
P.S. Thanks again to the great people at Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons for giving me permission to use this excellent cartoon on my blog!
I'm always on the lookout for new resources to help support teachers integrate various pieces of technology into their classroom practice. While I love spending time with teachers at workshops, the reality is that sometimes they just need a quick 'demo' of some basic features to get them started.
Enter eduTecher: an excellent site devoted to tons of different resources and tutorials to help get teachers up and running with technology in the classroom. A colleague of mine came across a particularly useful video entitled 5 Tips and Tricks for the SmartBoard:
If you're new to SMART Notebook, I highly recommend taking a look at the above video. Funny enough, despite tons of experience with a SMART Board, I was completely unaware of Tip #5 until my SMART certification this past Fall! Just goes to show that sometimes you don't know what you don't know!
I hope this helps those SMART newbies out there!
Vanessa
I am an Education Consultant for Sharp's AV based out of Calgary, AB. I provide professional development workshops to our Education clients and consult school divisions on their plan for implementation of technology in the classroom. Specifically, I focus on increasing interactivity in the classroom through web resources, social networking and SMART products.
In my former life I was a teacher -- first as a Grade 5 generalist and then as a High School Social Studies specialist. I love current events, politics, sports and, of course, all things "techie".
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