Using the SMART Recorder in SMART Notebook

Today's the day- you're going to teach that complicated, multi-step lesson.  You're prepared - you have created a great lesson using the SMART Board and will have the students up at the board working out solutions.  There's just one problem.  You have absent students today, and if you go ahead and begin now, you're just going to have to do it all over again tomorrow.

We've all been there. We can't just stop our classes because of absent students, but we also know we want all of our students to be successful.  By using the SMART Recorder, we can solve this problem.  The SMART Recorder can be found in the SMART Board Tools. To access, go to SMART Board Tools, Open, then choose Recorder, as displayed.

You can also customize your Floating Tools by clicking on the wheel at the bottom.  Then drag and drop the Recorder to your Floating Tools.

The SMART Recorder will open after you've selected it.  To begin recording, simply click on the red "record" button. 

It is recommended to keep videos at a length of 5 minutes or less.  It will take a great deal of time to convert videos longer than that.  As you finish up your recording, click on the blue stop button.  Your video will be named and you can choose where to save it.

Here's an example of how the SMART Recorder can benefit your classes:

(or click here for a larger version of the above movie)

This can get you and your students moving forward.  Be sure to comment with additional ways you could use the SMART Recorder!

Spicing up Your Presentations

We've all been there - we're watching someone give a presentation and feel like Charlie Brown's teacher is talking. "Mwa mwa mwa..."  I bet our students feel the same way.

There are many times we need to provide information to our students and use presentation programs, like PowerPoint or Keynote.  The rules for using text in these presentations has always been 7x7 - no more than 7 lines of text with 7 words in each line.

So maybe you're happy with your presentations.  Maybe you realize that the students just aren't "getting it," and you're ready to spice them up a little.  Here's an idea:

1.  Let the pictures do the talking.  What are people doing if you throw text at them while you talk to them?  That's right - they're reading the text.  Try finding images that could convey your information.  As students participate in the lesson, they might not take notes.  However, they will actually have to analyze the picture rather than just write down the words from your presentation.  Which of the two will leave a lasting impact on your students?

 

This also provides a great opportunity for questioning.  Take the following slide for an example of thematic lesson or unit on Veteran's Day:

The questions listed on the slide might or might not be necessary.  A teacher could just display the picture and ask the students to respond with questions.  Regardless, the questions listed should spark discussion among students.  This image means many different things for different people.  It's one of those situations that definitely causes the students to "feel" something rather than copy down someone else's words.

By teaching with images rather than words, students with reading or writing difficulties can participate fully.  The focus is away from reading someone else's ideas and instead, the students generate their own.  This can assist to differentiate a classroom for ESL students, visual learners, and even auditory learners due to the discussions that could ensue.

A great site to get great quality, royalty free images is Stock Xchange.  

Try it out!  The next time you need to develop a presentation for your students, try using visuals to enhance their thinking and spark questioning. The students will notice a difference, too!

Funding for Your Classroom

If you could dream, what supplies would you provide for your classroom?

There are many different options to get materials, supplies, and even technology for your classroom.  Below is a list of some you might like to try:

Pepsi Refresh Project: This site allows you to create a project, list your needs/wants/dreams, and others vote on what project should be funded.  Pepsi has $1,300,000 available for donations and finalists will be chosen on October 1st.

DonorsChoose: This is an ongoing site for teachers to list project ideas and the supplies necessary to complete it.  You can request technology or school supplies with this site by registering for an account and explaining your project.

Limeades for Learning: Limeades for Learning is a partnership that Sonic has with DonorsChoose.  Again, just register for an account, list project ideas and needs, then share your ideas with others so they can vote on it.  So far, Sonic has given over $255,000 this month.  Voting closes on September 30, so hurry!

Digital Wish: Whereas the above listed sites can fund anything from technology to crayons, Digital Wish is only for technology projects.  It's a great way to get a Flip camera, digital camera, or even a wireless slate.  Just get an account, list your project ideas, and wait to get funded.

I hope to see lots of our teachers trying this out!  Contact me for assistance in the type of technology to request.

Find it Fast!

Ever been searching a long document for a key piece of information?  What about when you can't find that keyword on the website you're looking at?  Mac has a solution for that.  You can use the 'command f' key combination to find whatever you need in virtually any application.  For example, by using this key combination on a webpage, I searched 'emints.' 

By clicking the "Next" button shown above, the word eMINTS is highlighted individually.  If it is preferred, by clicking "Highlight all," I can see how many times the word is used in a single webpage.

This can be a handy feature when looking for information or for students to use as they determine if words are overused in their writing.  Remember that all applications might look a little different when using this feature.  To close the search, look for a button that is either red or has an "x" near the search field.

Making Your Life Easier on a Mac, Part II

Last week, I posted 5 Mac shortcuts designed to help users save a little time and be a little more productive.  As mentioned last week, the list of Mac shortcuts is phenomenal.  I've chosen a few more shortcuts and tricks this week that might assist you.

1. Take a picture!  So many times we find reasons to share pictures of our screen, but there's no "Print Screen" key on a Mac.  Use the combo Command, Shift, 3 to take a screen shot or Command, Shift, 4 to select your picture area.  The picture will be downloaded to your desktop as Picture 1, Picture 2, and so on.

2.  Make your calculator fit your needs.  The calculator application on a Mac is opened first as a standard calculator.  It can be changed to a scientific or programming calculator by going to View, then choosing your preference.

3.  One thing that is heard from many former PC users when they move to Mac is, "I want my right click!"  A right click on a mouse usually opens up many shortcuts and additional options.  On a Mac, the right click is a control click.  Simply hold the control button down and click on the track pad if you're using a laptop.  All your options will then become available!

4.  Rainbow Wheel, i.e. Spinning wheel of death: How many times have we suffered from this?  It can happen for many reasons, but there is a way to get rid of it.  Alt, Command, Esc is equivalent to Ctrl Alt Delete on a PC.  Try that key combo to Force Quit the application that is not responding.

5.  Close a window or quit a program:  Sometimes when using multiple applications, many, many windows are open.  The windows you are done with can be closed quickly by using the key combo Command W.  Quit the entire program by using the key combo Command Q.

Try these tips this week and soon they'll become habit.  Hopefully, you won't have any reason to use Tip #4!

Making Your Life Easier on a Mac

One of the best things about using a Macintosh computer is the shortcuts!  I counted them - there are 191.  If you'd like to see the complete list, click here.

There are about five shortcuts that I think are the best for productivity.  This can assist you in the classroom and make your life a little easier.  They are listed below with examples of how to use them:

1. Command Tab:  Hold on the Command key and hit Tab.  This will show all the applications you have open.  Continue to hit Tab until the white box is around the application you want to use, then let go of both keys.  The chosen application will be moved so you can easily access it.

2. Expose: This is different for different computer models, but can be changed. Using either the F9 or F3 key, you can see every document, application, and window that is open and running on your computer.  If neither of those keys work, use the Expose and Spaces area in System Preferences to set it up.  Choose the key you prefer where it says "All Windows."

3.  Show Desktop:  Use the function and F11 key at the same time.  Again, if your settings do not allow this function, just change it in System Preferences where it says "Show Desktop."

4.  Increase screen size: Command +.  This will make your screen size larger so you can zoom in on one area.  Decrease by using Command -.

5.  Quick View:  At some time, you'll get to the point where you have so many documents that you're not sure which one is which.  Using the Finder menu, you can easily view documents before they're open.  Click on the document you'd like to preview, then click the spacebar. A temporary window appears.  (See below)

You can preview the document, then click on the spacebar again to close out.

Habits are formed through repetition.  Throughout this week, try these shortcuts regularly until that  habit is established, then venture to the Apple Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts linked above or look for continued posts to this blog for more ideas.

The Reality of the 21st Century Learner

Disclaimer:  This is not a cool tech trick.  This is me on my soapbox.  If you want a tech trick, please refer to the archives. There's lots of great stuff there!

Day 1:  So there I sat, in a conference, learning lots of new stuff.  I was constantly texting, tweeting, sending emails, and taking notes in my wiki, which I use for PD.  I have to admit, I was out of my element with this conference.  The presenters talked about things I had never heard of before.  So what did I do?  I Googled it.  No way I was going to raise my hand in the middle of a conference and ask the presenter what each term meant.  There were lots of techie-looking people in that conference room that would laugh at me for being the "stupid one!"  Luckily, I didn't have to risk that because Wikipedia answered my question everytime.  I did all five of the above listed activities (gasp!) at the same time.  I left that day feeling so much more confident in my abilities as a technology specialist.  I've always been strong on the curriculum side, but this conference gave me the background from the tech side.  I couldn't wait for the next day.

Day 2:  That was when it happened.  The battery on my laptop died.  I had a new battery and was still calibrating it, so I couldn't charge my laptop in my hotel room when I first noticed. No problem - I could charge it during the conference.  Well, I thought it wouldn't be a problem, anyway...
When I arrived at my first session, I looked around the edges of the room.  There were no, none, zilch power outlets around the room! Still, I'm a problem solver, so I got out the iPhone. 

You know how there are commercials on television depicting two unnamed cell phone companies battling for the best 3G network?  I'd never had a problem, and thought the commercials were silly until that day.  I was apparently in a 3G dead zone.  Sending and receiving texts was one thing, but using Twitter, my browser, and even Facebook was not happening.  I tried and tried, unfortunately to the point that I killed that battery, too.  I only had one option left.  The thought of having to take notes on traditional paper (with no table in front of me) was repulsive.  I did it, but sure wasn't happy about it.  At least I learned a lesson that day to always charge my laptop the night before.

This story might be something for you to chuckle at, or maybe even roll your eyes at.  Regardless, this is the story of our students today.  There are two kinds of people in the world today - digital natives and digital immigrants.  I've said before I'm definitely a digital immigrant, not necessarily because of my age, but because of the small town that I grew up in.  Imagine what it's like for our kids, who are definitely digital natives.  Imagine what it must be like for them to sit through a lecture, to sit in a hard chair to read a story, to be so disengaged that they're thinking about anything and everything else.  That's the "Power down" effect:  when kids participate in critical thinking, problem solving, and engaging activities at home with video games or various computer software, then come to school and experience something that involves none of these skills.

Today's generation needs more.  They can handle more.  Their attention span only lasts about twenty minutes, and that's dependent upon their age.  They are multi-taskers, regardless of whether we think they are or not.  They want to create, explore, and figure things out.  If we want our kids to learn, we have to meet them there.

Let's look at our options.  Sometimes you have to lecture (sometimes).  Sometimes you have to ask students to read (more often than lecturing).  Why not use technology while students are involved in these activities?  Need to lecture?  Have the kids tweet the main points as they're listening.  Have them keep notes in a collaborative document to share out with the rest of the class.  They have to read.  Instead of answering the questions at the back of the book, have them blog about their reading and reflect on what it means to them.  They can comment each other's work and see how the same reading piece meant something else to another student.  Need to teach a math process?  After teaching the steps, make it real life.  Connect it to buying video games, designing a room, playhouse, etc.  I know it's not the way we learned, but did the way we learn prepare us for the 21st Century?  Think about it - our primary education was geared toward agrarian societies of students that were going to grow up and work in factories.  The really smart ones (or the ones whose parents made them) went to college.  Did we ever really learn to think?  To value ideas?  Or were we just doing what the teacher asked so we didn't get in trouble?

I warned you, that was me on my soapbox.  I could go on, but I'd just be repeating myself over and over.  I have just one thought to leave with you as we consider the shift with technology and society - when I was a child, an abacus was a toy for preschoolers.  Now I know several preschoolers who have iPods.  How's that for progression?