NCTies 2011

March 3 and 4 I attended NCTies 2011 in Raleigh. I had a really good time and learned a lot. Below is some of the information I gathered from the sessions I attended.

Get Your ActivClassroom Ship Shape with the GeekMonkee!

- Here is the link to GeekMonkee's Tips and Tricks flip chart. In the flip chart he talks about adding links to web pages, adding screenshots with Jing, getting YouTube videos to work in a flip chart by using Zamzar.

- Use Jing with Promethean screen capture tool. Can be used to podcast with mp4 files.

- Can't embed HTML in ActivInspire

- Zamzar can convert YouTube videos, word files, documents, etc. To convert video, open YouTube and find your video. Copy the URL and paste it into Zamzar in the download video tab. Choose to convert to .flv, .wmv, .m4 and convert the video to one of those formats. Put in your email address and Zamzar will email you the converted video. Then in ActivInspire, click Insert Media and insert your file sent by Zamzar.

SMART ideas from Digital Dottie and Calculating Chris!

- Fraction lesson plan uses (pie) shapes in the gallery. Pull out the shapes you want to use, group them together, then re-size. By re-sizing all together, they will stay proportionate to each other. Label the fraction pieces (1/8, 1/4, etc.) whatever the size of the pie pieces. Have students put them together to find a missing fraction and get a visual of what the fraction piece(s) are.

- Put graph paper background in notebook, draw polygons on the paper. Put square shape (fill in the color) and infinite clone the square. Make sure the square shape is the size of the grid box. Have students move the square into the polygon to find the area of the polygon. To find the perimeter of the polygon, use the creative pen. After selecting the pen, go to properties and line style to make the line thinner to use on the polygon. Infinite clone the creative pen line (make it the length of one of the grid boxes), and have students outline the polygon with the cloned pen lengths.

- Make short answer questions game for students. Type in the clues or the question, place square boxes (make sure to group these together) above the question for students to fill in the answer. For the answers, make squares with a color inside and letters of the alphabet. Group the square and letter together (1 square, 1 letter), and have students move the letter boxes into the squares that are above the questions. This will help with spelling.

- Use color reveal method and create Homophones (there/their/they're, etc.).

Lesson Development and Student Centered Learning with the SMART Table

When creating a table activity, make sure to keep the background at 800 x 600. To do this, copy your background into Paint, Image Attributes, change to 800 x 600. To take the white space out of an image, use Gimp. 

Integrating SMART Toolkit 2.0

Here are some ideas for using some of the activities from the Lesson Activity Toolkit in SMART Notebook.

- Category Sort Images - habitat

- Hot Spot: map of school (where things are located); continents (where they are located, countries within the continents, etc.); grid paper (number lines, etc.)

- Image Arrange: number models (pictures or cards of numbers); place values; life cycles

- Image Select: health, food pyramid; weather; phases of the moon

- Pairs: seasons (winter hat; winter scene); multiplication (match facts 10 x 2, 5 x 4, etc.)

- Sentence Arrange: nursery rhymes; months; presidents

- Tiles: multiplication (math facts); guess the picture; rhyming words. To use the Tiles activity, the answers, image, or shape should be ordered to the back. Place Tile activity in front of the answers/image/shape. Press the tiles to reveal image or answers.

Prezi 101: Replacing Your Static PowerPoint Slides with an Interactive, Dynamic Canvas

New - Prezi meeting - can invite someone to view and/or edit the Prezi at the same time you are editing it.

Prezi is more of a storytelling tool. They have a very good support team. You can add YouTube videos. Register for student/teacher licenses. Can make the content private and there is an ipad app. Should format create the template first before starting the Prezi. Copy and paste content from other areas. When you click on an area to type, a circle that has lines in it (called the zebra) pops up. The middle of the zebra moves the words; the next ring allows you to zoom; the next ring is rotate. You can insert images from your computer. If you want to insert videos, YouTube is the best video software to use. Sometimes other video software works, sometimes it doesn't. To insert a web link, just type in the url (http://___________) save and then it will automatically link to the web site. The Help button takes you to interactive tutorials. View video on frames & paths.

Tips: click anywhere and start typing (double click); ESC when done typing; undo - unlimited number of undoes during the session (if you go out of the Prezi and come back in, you cannot undo what you did in the previous session). To learn keyboard shortcuts in Prezi, click here. Sounds can only be included if they are flash or .swf (need to check to see if Flip Videos work).

Poster Yourself with Glogster EDU (Melissa Edwards and I presented this session)

Presentation is in Edmodo. Join group # zzywbh to view the presentation and links we created.