Posts made in August, 2009

Whiteboard Blog Top Posts 08/09

Posted on Aug 30, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, Site Stuff, Useful Links | 0 comments

As the Summer draws to a close and we start another academic year, here’s a quick reflection on the past year here on the Whiteboard Blog.

Here are the top 10 most read articles.

20 Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Teachers – In which guest blogger Karen Schweitzer suggests 20 great resources to use on your IWB.

Smart Lesson Toolkit 2.0- In which I show to update your old Smart lesson toolkit to the fab and groovy new version 2. An essential update for all Smartboard users.

ActivInspire for all IWB Users? – In which I discuss how important the release of an “open” version of the new ActivInspire software could benefit users of every brand of Interactive Whiteboard.

ActivInspire Toolbars – A guide to the new toolbars in the latest version of ActivInspire for Promethean boards.

Powerful Images to Give Lessons Punch – In which I list several places to obtain amazing images to really inspire Awe and Wonder in your lessons. One of my favourite posts.

13 sites for MFL teaching with your Interactive Whiteboard – In which I give 13 great websites to use to teach Modern Foreign Languages on your Interactive Whiteboard.

Twittering Teacher in Trouble – Some thoughts about a teacher who got into trouble for using Twitter, and what we could do to avoid these problems.

ActivInspire Training Manual – A very short post, that links to a great Promethean manual on the Technowellies blog.

Smart Board Games from PBS – A short post that links to some great Flash games from PBS Kids.

11 Ideas for Music Lessons on your Interactive Whiteboard – In which I give 11 great websites that you can use to teach Music on your IWB.

Here are my top 5 referrers, according to my site logs:

Twitter (as always!)

Promethean Planet

Teaching Ideas

Mrsvandyke.com

Big Brown Envelope

Thanks for sending the visitors my way!

Thanks for all the support over the last year. The Whiteboard Blog has gone from strength to strength and visitor numbers have been steadily increasing. I’m hoping the next academic year is going to be just as successful. I’m quite excited about making my first overseas conference in March in Canada – hope to see some of you there. If you do want to book training from myself then the details are on this site. I’m more than happy to negotiate a training package for you.

Thanks again, and here’s to 09/10!

Whiteboard Wikis

Posted on Aug 25, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, Promethean, SMARTboards | 0 comments

A very quick post to draw your attention to two useful wikis for the main 2 interactive whiteboards out there:

Promethean Wiki

http://promethean.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/su09training

Smartboard Wiki

http://smartlinks.wikispaces.com/

Both look quite handy. Worth bookmarking to use in the future.

Edit – also found one for Interwrite boards: http://mahetc.wikispaces.com/11

Canada Animoto

Posted on Aug 24, 2009 in Site Stuff | 0 comments

Back from a very relaxing holiday and just very slightly jetlagged. Will hopefully get back into the swing of things soon. Until then take a look at my photos, or watch this Animoto slideshow.

Whiteboard Blog is on Vacation

Posted on Aug 8, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, Site Stuff | 0 comments

Going to be all quiet over here for a fortnight as I’m off to Canada for a well-deserved break. Hoping to put my new Canon digi camera through its paces as I tour the Rocky Mountains. Who knows, I might even try and take a picture of SMART HQ as I pass through Calgary

I’ll hopefully be adding pics to Flickr when I can find a wifi hotspot, and might even get round to writing a commentary on my personal blog if I get the chance.

See you in a few weeks!

Jim’s Smartboard Podcast

Posted on Aug 5, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, SMARTboards, Tutorials and Guides | 0 comments

If you’re a Smartboard user then you should already be familiar with Jim Hollis and his great Teachers Love Smartboards blog. If you’ve not seen it before, then get yourself over there now!

Anyway, this week Jim announced a brand new addition to the great stuff he produces – a new podcast called Get SMART with SMART Boards. It’s been produced in association with another SMART Board expert,  Harvey Almarode. The aim is to help teachers use the SMART Board more effectively in the classroom.

In the first episode, Harvey discusses how he uses the website JigSawDoku to have children play SuDoKu and Jim shares a great website called Flash Animations for Physics.

In addition, Harvey and I both share Notebook files that teachers can use immediately inside the classroom. As well as tips for using Notebook more effectively. Harvey explains how to color in a freehand drawing in Notebook and Jim describes how to customize the Notebook toolbar. Each tip has an accompanying video.

You can listen to the Get Smart with Smartboards podcasts via the website, or download it to listen to on your Podcast player of choice

I’m looking forward to hearing more from these two in the future. Definitely a site to bookmark.