Being new to this wiki I thought I'd introduce myself and share a little about what we are up to at Pleasant Street in my Grade 2 class. I have a fixed Smartboard in my room and have continued to develop my skills over the past two years. ICT is a bit of a hobby for me and I try to incorporate ICT across the curriculum where ever possible - my students are always keen to get their hands on the board and we have a pretty dynamic learning space. I make great use of the many resources available  online, and like most teachers are always looking for something free and readily available. I would love to collaborate with other teachers to learn how they use IWBs to engage, motivate and challenge student learning. Our class has a blog through the global teachers project and use this to share our learning with the wider community. I am currently working with a colleague at school on a Knowledge Bank:Next Generation research project and we are investigating if and how a social network (like facebook/myspace) can support teachers in differentiating the curriculum for gifted math students. We are working with a group of 26 students from Grades 2 through 6 and at this stage are 'blown away' by the work the students are producing - the mathematical conversations that are happening and the sense of community with these gifted students.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with members in the highlands math project and hope to get to meet some of you at future PD opportunities in the region. Trish Dower

Thanks for your contributions, Trish. I think that as teachers collaboration is such a powerful tool for professional development. We learn so much from each other and it's important to keep up to date with current technologies. Have you had a look at our student work samples and new learning objects pages - there is some really great stuff there which I'm sure you'll find useful. I look forward to sharing more with you in the future. Naomi Sordello

 We played maths games this morning, at first the children went Arrgh! the next thing they new it was two hours later and recess. Thanks to Paula for this web site http://www.mathsphere.co.uk/resources/index.htm

This has some great activities for a range of ages. I ran these games/activities off and the students were totally engaged in them. it also allowed students to select what type of avtivity they were involved in. We have also used some of these activities as warm up or finishing games as a class. Thanks again for the tip Paula. Hopefully others will find this as useful as I have.

My children are teaching me more and more about all the programs. If you have Multi--Maths there is a great aspect, grids on it that is fantastic for area. You can colour the squares with triangles, rectangles or colour completely. The children were given a  task of making shapes of an area of 24cm2. The children were then able to demonstrate their results on the IWB for everyone to share. They were queing up to share. They also started to discover how to write their names, again using different shapes of shading to achieve the best result.

Lyn.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions. I love Ryan and Michael's object. They have certainly demonstrated a great understanding of animation. I have had another go at making a powerpoint with some instructions (Exploring Fractions). It would be great if we could turn our powerpoints into 'games' where students could self-correct as Deb was discussing. I can only suggest that a slide is added to the end which shows an example of the correct answer which, when clicked on might be linked to a sound such as an applause, and an example of an incorrect answer which when clicked on gives another sound like a sigh or something! Let me know what you think. Naomi

As you can see the children in Catherines grade at Canadian Lead have been working away on their an animated maths tasks, and we do have a question.  The children have asked us if it is possible to give an animated correction for the task( the way that lots of commercial ICT programs do)

ie The task is given, the student completes the task and then they would like to give a response   eg Well done and some animation movement(for success) or Try again (for an incorrect response to the task)

Is this possible for them to do, or is it in the 'too hard' basket?

Deb

Would anyone have a great link to a countdown timer that looks groovy and makes a sound, for use on the IWB?

Melinda

Hi everyone

My class was very excited in our computer lab this week, following the 'pep talk' and inspirations gained from our PD on Friday!  The children (Year 2/3) have been practising their skills drawing backgrounds in Paint; and creating freehand drawings (self portraits) in PowerPoint.  We need to work on fine motor control with the mouse, (portraits ala Picasso were very common) but these programs were wonderfully engaging for the children and there were a few laughs as we practised.  Skills in Paint are in the introductory stages for most; but we have been learning about animations and the like in PowerPoint so I am more confident when we get to this stage of the project.  We will be brainstorming about the maths side of things next week and moving on from there.  Hope you are experiencing success with your projects too.

Cheers

Catherine (Canadian Lead)