Frustrated!

Tonight I am frustrated! : /

I had a spontaneous lesson with the activboard software during math today. I put up multiplication problems with decimals and then we used the calculator in the program to multiply w/o the decimals to get the "numbers" in the answer. The point was for them to figure out where to put the decimal point w/o getting hung up on the multiplication (or getting the answer WITH the decimal in it by putting it in the calculator that way). So anyhow, that went pretty well. The kids liked coming up and using the computer to put in the decimal point. BUT... I WANT A PROMETHEAN BOARD!@!!!@#

Tonight I was looking for flipcharts to use to reinforce it further. I found a few great ones, but they are sooo cumbersome with a computer. And I couldn't seem to get it to work with the backgrounds, objects, etc. locked into place. I had it in presentation mode, too. Maybe you need the actual board to have it operate properly? 

GRRRRR.... I WANT A BOARD! : (

Time FLIES!

OK. Time goes quickly. Been very busy at home. Daughter had shoulder surgery and I've been at home nursing her. But I haven't been tech idle! My class finished recording their 2nd podcast and selecting pictures to go with each of their parts. So I spent the time in the hospital editing and polishing. It's ready to be sent today when I get in to school. 

I also put together a binder with print-outs for the flipcharts and resource packets. Decided to organize it by subject. Started to search for more flipcharts, but decided to wait until I have the need. There's just TOOOOOO many out there to just randomly look through. I'll sit with it over the summer when I have an idea of the grades I'll be working with next year. That way I can go through the curric and try to make a better match.

Never Ending Search!

Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get myself organized. I had downloaded many resource packs onto the projector laptop and had printed out the page that tells you what it is and where it downloads to. (I remembered how hard it was to find the pack w/o that info.) I also have many flipcharts and their explanation saved as well. So I decided to put it all together in a looseleaf... but how to organize? OK. Flipcharts one section, resource packs another. Then Suborganize? Yes. By content. Yes. Sub-sub-organize? Dunno. Maybe...Will think about it. 

BUT THEN I was desperately searching for a TI-15 Calculator to use. My overhead one died. I did a search in the forum and found someone else looking for one- but no luck. If anyone comes across one in the searches, please email me with a heads up.

Thanks!

WOW! We're FAMOUS!

I just had to take a moment and share some cool news. My class has been communicating with Hallmark Cards' characters Hoops&Yoyo. (I'm a nut when it comes to these guys.) It started out as making a simple response to their blog, and the next thing I knew, they emailed me back. My kids sent them snail mail and asked them to make a "manners lesson" on burping. (They have manners lessons on their website and one of my students is QUITE the burper!) Hoops&Yoyo answered our request for the special "manners lesson" so we made an audio CD to say HI! and sent pictures. So...THEY sent us all Hoops&Yoyo t-shirts. Sooo...we made a movie on classroom manners and sent them some healthy snacks! To make a long story longer, THEY have now put US on their website!!!! COOOOL! Check us out at Hoops&Yoyo on Hallmark Cards.

All this is soooo Elluminating!

Ok. Now I think I am REALLY on overload. (The Little Troll in me is coming out...) When I got home, I decided to go on and add links to all of the sites we've learned about in the last 2 days. That way, I'll at least know they're there and can go back and revisit them as my head gets cleared. I don't know HOW Carol keeps all of this in her head. It's just amazing. Good thing summer's coming soon. I'll really have time to play around with all of this and veg out.

ALMOST THE WEEKEND!

Well today I got extra time to multitask. We had career day, and having a wireless laptop sure makes life good! I was able to go on to Promethean Planet and download a ton of resource packs. So many to choose from! I decided to save the page that tells the description and where it downloads to as a pdf so I can keep it in a binder of some sort to reference later. I also pulled down several flipcharts to explore. It's endless! I'd like to spend time this summer sitting with the core curric and plugging in appropriate videos from Discovery Ed. and flipcharts- and even creating my own.

Then I wowed my coworker's class with the activboard lesson I did with my homeroom yesterday. It was a hoot. They were razzing me about my writing with the pencil, so I challenged them to come up to the laptop track pad and try it! It was hysterical! They won't be teasing me again- at least not about that...

I have a feeling, while playing with activboard, that there's a LOT to explore and learn. My next thing is to run through some of those tutorials that Carol pointed us to online.

Well, think I'll go check out some of my classmates blogs to see what they've been up to... Hey Luigi! Ciao! How's that car?....

OK. The NEXT day...

I just got finished doing a really cool lesson with the kids. I took the math worksheets that I had downloaded from Discovery Ed that correlated with the skills we're working on...AND...I had managed to download the Activboard software (duh...gotta be on the school network to get on to the server...) AND...I imported 2 of the pages into the program. I asked the kids what they thought, and they thought it was pretty cool. But then I picked up the PENCIL and wrote an answer, and they were like..."DANG! Do it again, Ms. Becker!" So, I did! I had their undivided attention for the rest of the lesson. But wait- it gets better! Then I cleared the annotations. They totally freaked! I undid and redid the clear. They made me do it TEN times! This stuff is just way too much fun!