When to Double Up

I spent my teacher workday at a MathForward workshop. The presenter used a SMARTboard and an additional LCD projector onto the board. Seemed like an exhaustion of technology; however this was a logical a solution if you need to write on that worksheet that is projected by your document camera OR do not want two surface images to interact (Also this allows the user to break away from that goofy SB transparent layer).

Unifix Suduko & Your Smartboard

 This weekend I picked up a few things from the teacher store in preparation of the 1st day of school. I passed by and ended up picking up this cool Unifix Sudoku game. As you can see, when I got home, I ended up placing the blocks in ROY G. BIV order and numbered the tops to match.

I also created a Smart Notebook file to go with this activity when modelling the activity with my students. This is a great hands-on activity for students of any age that has never played Sudoku. The purpose for placing the numbers on the cubes is for you to create your own puzzles with the help of online resources such as ultra-magnificent logic puzzle site of Vegard Hanssen. I will post later reflecting what the students thought about this game.

The Beast is released: SMART Notebook Math 2009 beta

The other day… The guys over at SMART Technologies has released SMART Notebook Math 2009 (beta). I downloaded and gave it a test run. No overwhelming changes. Kinda would like to know what will happen after my (eval period)166 days are over.

There is an integrated equation editor that apparrently is not available yet (Will have to stick with the online LaTex editor for now). Love the instant coordinate plane tool. Looks like they will have some TI 83/84 integration within notebook which is currently a disabled feature. The polygon tool is a welcome addition along with the measurement tools such as ruler, protractor and yes… a compass. I am looking forward for the continued development of this version of notebook!

Senteo Madness

Due to the local & state budget crisis, there has been cutbacks on copier usage. Teachers have been running around looking for solutions to avoid making ditto sheets. The tech people at my school (me) are working on conecting our Dukane document cameras to integrate into SMARTNotebook.

Teachers are now diligently requesting to use the handheld interactive response systems from SMARTtechnologies called Senteo remotes. We have had these devices for months, however training was an issue. Teachers are eager to move forward to dare to learn how to use this technology on their own. However, due to the configuration of our school’s laptops, teachers cannot use the new Senteo Teacher software; however the Senteo Manager works like a charm.  This was the first roadblock discovered this past week.

I upgraded Senteo Manager to Teacher (version 2.0.97) on my personal laptizzle and have been creating assessments all week. Here are a few thoughts on the new software upgrade.

• There is a need to make Senteo more robust as a gradebook.  It would be a great feature to export class list (non-PDF file)  from Senteo Teacher. In other words, there is a need for the functionality to print class roster outside of the reporting feature - Creating PDF takes a very long time, well.. on my laptop anyway. 
• Import data from “on the fly” questioning into the gradebook is highly desired!
• Students need multiple representation of data. Cannot view data results as a circle graph – bar graph only.  
•  Privacy button was a great addition.

I will be going out of town this week to NCTM conference in DC. I will be looking for some great stuff to share…

 

 

∑quΛtiØΠ ∑di†Ørs & SMART Notebook

Video blogged today… Happy 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937….. day!

Attn: SB Math Teachers

Go here to sign up to receive a notice when SMART Notebook Math beta is released! Here are the features of this product:

* Equation creation and editing
* Equation handwriting recognition
* Graphing tool
* Real-time linked relationships between tables, equations and graphs
* More shapes additional to those that come with SMART Notebook 10 software
* Shape manipulation and feedback
* Advanced-measurement tools
* Ability to launch and operate Texas Instruments™ emulators from within SMART Notebook

I personally cannot wait to get my hands on this!

SMART Content Creation Seminar (Day 3 – 2/8/09)

Yes… I missed the second day of this workshop due to conflict in scheduling. MathCounts kinda took presidence. However after talking to other participants, they stated that they did the same as they did today, which was to complete the SB notebook lessons from Friday’s training.

The original goal for teachers of completing 10 quality lessons got minimized by the end of the third day. Quality takes time, especially if you are like me – a perfectionist. I won’t bore you with further details, however they gave us their site to share future lessons.

Watch out SmartTech… #2 is on your heels…

My friend Chris Odom clued me on this topic…. This week, I’ll be playing around with Activsoftware (Inspire Edition) to participate in the Promethean Blogging Contest.

I will take my time and put this app to the test since the deadline for blog submission is February 13th. I will of course use this software on a non-Promethean board. Don’t know if that will disqualify me for the contest, but I will still contribute. Please join me and check it out on your IWB.