ActivInspire

My maths classroom that I teach in unfortuantely does not have a SMARTBoard.  It does however have an ActivBoard by Promethean.  Throughout my Bachelor of Education experience at Queen's University, we were only taught how to use SMARTBoards in the classroom, so this is quite the change; new software, at a new school with multiple new classes.  As I am teaching some of the lower band classes, I have determined that the best way to get them engaged in their learning is to make it fun and exciting for them.  And what better way to do this then with an Interactive Whiteboard.

Here are some of my adventures with the ActivBoard this week at school.

1) A student, who was uber excited to use the board, came up and tried to take "the lid off of the pen".  Unfortunately the Year 7 did not realize that it was not a real pen and with all of his strength he managed to pull the top off of the pen.  Either this student was super strong or it does not take that much to remove the top half outer-layer of an ActivBoard pen. 

2) Next time you are measuring angles or drawing a straight line, always use the protractor, compass and ruler tool.  By placing these on your customizable toolbar, you are able to quickly grab and use these tools.  Hint: do not have a black background on yo flipchart as the ruler seems to "disappear."  The ruler is a very useful tool as as long as you draw somewhere "on" the ruler, you will have a straight line appear.  To exit these tools select the icon in the middle of the tool and this will give you the option to close.

3) Using the board as an incentive for students is a great asset in the classroom.  Especially with the Year 7's who are new to the school, students will remain seated and silent to have the opportunity write on the interactive whiteboard.  In my classroom, only students who have remained silent (or worked very hard) during the independent seat work have the opportunity to write their solutions on the whiteboard.  In addition to this, I ensure that my lesson has enough "questions and answers" so that every student will have the opportunity to use the whiteboard.

4) Play games! I created a "memory card" game for sequences (e.g. one card would have "1, 2, 3, 4, ..." on it while another would have "5") for my lower band Year 7's and they loved it.  I required the students to keep the talking to a minimum and was responsible for selecting who went next, but this lesson was more than a maths review.  This lesson was a team building exercise for my class.  Students were positively encouraging each other as well as assisting each other ifnd the correct card.  It was such a great sight to see!

Hopefully through your adventures with the interactive whiteboards, whether it is a SMARTBoard or an ActivBoard, you will find that they are the ultimate classroom tool.  If you have used an interactive whiteboard for an ultimate lesson, please share it below in the comments.