Interactive Boards and Flipchart

FlipChart Fundamentals


The interactive whiteboard was really fun to use. I really enjoyed being able to play with the different tools before we did our flipchart to help with how each activity could be implemented into a lesson. For example the clickers. They were helpful when it came to planning our flipchart because that would be a great way to do a quiz. I had fun using the whiteboard also because you can experience some of the problems that may happen before you use it for the classroom. Such as the clickers. Not everyone's linked to the whiteboard that could be a problem because then you are not sure if everyone did answer or participate.

Creating the flipchart was hard at first. It was hard to come up with an idea. Previously I had a teacher that had given me some lesson plans, etc. So we decided to use one of those and tweak it a little such as adding activites to the flipchart. I think that it was a good idea to use his powerpoint because when we become teacher sometimes you will pull ideas from other teachers. We created an activity which the students have to write out the preamble word for word. That was more of a review. Most students in high school have already had experience with memorizing the preamble, I had to in 8th grade. The other activities we did pertained to what was being taught in the lesson itself.

I did like the outcome of this project however it did start out stressful!

Lincoln Elementary School

Lincoln Elementary School Library

I really enjoyed going to Lincoln Elementary. I thought the Memios were a really great idea. I like the concept that the can travel from room to room. I also like how you can insert a USB into it. Then you have everything you need into one compact tool. I enjoyed seeing how the students could interact with the device too. They basically can go a whole day and everything they do is interactive on the board. I think this would be a great thing to have in any school. I have been to the Waterloo Schools and they have the Promethian Boards. Although those are a good idea, there are times where writing something on the board would be more beneficial than having it up electronically. For instance what if the system goes down? But at Lincoln, if the system goes down, they still have their white boards because that is what is being used to project onto.

I also liked going to Lincoln because it helped me decide what I would like to do for my masters degree. I would like to get my masters in libraries and schools. The librarian at this school wasn't just the librarian. She was the go to person. If someone needs help with the electronics in the building they go to her, if they need help with resources for the classroom they go to her. But she also has the component of teaching. Everyday she gets to teach a class. I think her job is the perfect job in a school!

Collaborative Tools

This is a project that I really enjoyed. It was fun finding a way to collaborate with our group and not being able to talk verbally we had to talk virtually. First our group used eLearning chat but that did not work out too well. What we finally decided on was creating a Facebook page. That was really useful. We could post ideas on the page but we mostly used the chat that Facebook provides.
Our question was what medium do you use most to communicate. We sent an announcement on Twitter and created a survey on Google. I was surprised at the results. Most people would rather communicate face to face and then the second highest was texting.

What is Your Preferred Form of Communication

Problem Based Learning

Project-Based Learning Teaching Module

I really enjoyed the whole process of creating a PBL. The intro videos we had to watched helped think of ideas for lesson plans. What our group finally came up with was creating a constitution for Egypt. During the process of creating this Egypt went from trying to throw out Mubarak to him finally stepping down. Our question was how to rewrite the constitution for Egypt. I would use this PBL in my own personal classroom. I would probably not keep the idea of Egypt but I would either use a country that is facing the same problem or use the US Constitution to teach the students how hard it made be to amend the constitution. It also is a good tool to help the student learn a little of how a government works.

The Intro Presentations I thought that most were pretty entertaining. I think that for my group that personally we could have done better and after seeing a Prezi then if I could redo this presentation I would use that. I really liked the Presentations that used a video because it showed that they really took the time to show who they really are. But as I said I really wish that we would have done something more creative. Or if we still did the web page if we would have personalized it a little more than just pictures. I really felt though, that using a power point would not have been the best option and honestly, that is something I would have expected more groups to do just because it is easy to use and put together.

Here is my group's webpage:
Stephanie and Lindsey

Classroom Computer Applications

In this class my expectations are to learn as many new ways to integrate technology into the classroom. I want to find activities that my students can use to have fun learning and enjoy coming to class because of it. Looking over the syllabus I am most excited about learning more about the Flat Classroom Project. That is something that I woulds like to try and do in a classroom of my own or at least a form of it.