Interactive Whiteboards and Web Tools

Interactive whiteboards are more than just glorified overhead projectors – the interactive tools allow teachers to create lessons that actively engage students in creative ways. They also allow us to use a variety of interactive web 2.0 tools with our students in a way that allows all students to participate actively.

I hope to add more items to this page throughout the year – great links to other websites and my favorite Smartboard files. For now, it’s a somewhat random listing of files that I’ve either created or discovered on the Internet.

Plickers Free Online Assessment Program

Are you using Plickers? It’s a free online program for assessing students, and it’s fun! Here are some resources to check out:

• Plickers Webinars – Two webinar recordings that explain how to use the program
• Plickers Made Easy with Task Cards (Free tutorial for creating questions from task cards; includes 10 task card images)
• Laura’s Task Card Products with Images for Plickers
• Plickers Facebook Groups – Sign up for the Elementary or Secondary group
• Plickers Pinterest Board
• Plickers 101: Easy Digital Exit Tickets and More! (Blog post)

Cool Websites and Applications for Any Computer

• BrainPOP Free Video Collection – Do you know Tim and Moby? They are the animated characters in all of the BrainPOP videos. Each video is about 5 minutes long, and somehow Tim and Moby are able to teach the essential aspects of almost any concept in that amount of time. My 5th graders loved them! BrainPOP has an entire collection of free resources for each video, too. Unfortunately, many of the videos can only be accessed with a subscription to the site. However, I found this link to all of the FREE BrainPOP videos on the site, and there are actually quite a few. They have a cool iPad app, too. Definitely worth a look.
• Online Countdown Egg Timer – When you click the link, the timer won’t look like the one on the right. But after you enter your time and click start, you’ll see the sand begin to run out. Cool! This website also has other great timers so you can have fun and add variety to your classroom management. You can learn more about these online timers on Corkboard Connections.

Webinar Recording: 5 Amazing Web Tools for Classroom Collaboration

• Stop the Clock Interactive Game – Drag the digital times to match them with the analog clocks. Stop the clock when finished! Can you beat your time?
• Bang on Time Interactive Game – Read the time below the clock and watch the hands move. When the time on the clock matches the time in word form, stop the clock. Score points for accuracy.

Click to watch the recording of a webinar hosted by Laura Candler featuring five terrific educators and their favorite web tools. Presenters include Joan Young, Paula Naugle, Erin Klein, Suzy Brooks, and Lisa Dabbs.

5 Amazing Web Tools Webinar Recording – This is the full version of the webinar as seen in Blackboard Collaborate. You can’t view this file on a mobile device, but it works great on a computer. You’ll feel like you are right in the webinar room with us in the live session! You’ll be able to view the chat area and navigate back and forth through the session.

More Amazing Web Tools Webinar Resources

• LiveBinder of Amazing Web Tools Webinar Resources – Thanks to Peggy George for putting together this LiveBinder of all the resources shared in the webinar!

• 5 Amazing Web Tools Webinar Chat Transcript – PDF File of unedited chat transcript – over 60 pages long but has lots of great strategies and links from participants. Just scroll and scan for book titles, websites, and other info.
• PDF File of Webinar Slides – Here’s the whole presentation in PDF format for you to scroll through and take a look before you watch it. Links should be clickable.
• Presenter Links and Contact Information – If you need to contact one of the presenters, you’ll find everything you need here.

Interactive Fraction Bars Computer Application

Check out this amazing free computer application for manipulating fraction bars! Use the first link to open the program and use it on your computer. The second link has directions and information. The third link is a video demo. Play with this program before you use it with your students.

• Interactive Fraction Bar program
• Information about how to use the program
• View the Interactive Fraction Bar video demo here. It’s an MOV file and should open as a Quicktime Movie. Be patient because it may take awhile to download. Depending on your computer, it may download as a file that you have to open with a program, or it may play in your browser window. Good luck with it!

Smartboard Notebook 10 Files

Mini Pack: Polygon Explorations for the Smartboard

Over 2 dozen pages of patterns, printables, and teaching strategies to supplement any geometry unit. The Smartboard version includes a unique gallery of all 30 “Poly Shapes” used in the activities.

Click through to the Polygon Explorations Mini Pack page to learn more and preview the materials online.

Note: The files below require Smartboard Notebook 10. A free trial of that program can be downloaded from www.smarttech.com. Some of the activities have directions, but you’ll have to figure out the others on your own. 🙂 You may be able to open them with other types of interactive whiteboard software, but I can’t guarantee that the features will remain the same.

Attention Firefox users! Right click on each file name below to download the file and open it using your Notebook 10 software. Otherwise, you’ll just see gibberish!

• Smartboard Random Student Selector
• Place Value Practice Smartboard Activity
• Fruit Loop Algebra
• Growing Patterns (use to create growing patterns for algebraic equations)
• Perimeter Practice
• Random Drawing Spinners

Note: If you are looking for The Hat random name picker, I no longer host this file on my site. You can find it on this free download site, but download it at your own risk! Be careful not to download additional stuff that you don’t want along with that file!