Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Building a math flipchart

My colleagues have told me that the math flipcharts that I have shared with them have been the most helpful in the classroom.  Due to this information, I chose to demonstrate making a flipchart using the math worksheets and manipulatives that I have shared with them.  I hope this is useful in inspiring people to try ActivInspire and using it as a tool to make your teaching more efficient.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Flipchart usefulness

I feel blessed and relieved to have the use of a Promethean Board in my classroom.  Unfortunately, I am the only teacher in first grade who has an actual board.  A few of my colleagues have the free version of ActivInspire and a few have the full version.  I sat down with one of my colleagues the other day to share this blog and ask for ideas on what else needs to be included as posts as well as what she has found to be the most useful flipcharts.
She told me hands down that the math flipcharts have been the most amazingly helpful flipcharts that have organized things and made teaching math so much easier.  Our school uses the enVisions program, the first version with newsprints, not the 2.0 version.  Having the mini-lesson chart, newsprints and all of the worksheets that go with each topic all together has made her math lessons so much easier and saved her a ton of time she told me.  Based on this information, I am going to work on a demonstration video of how I created a flipchart for a lesson within our math program.  There is a video component that is not available within my flipcharts because you have to be signed in to be able to view the video so the link to the video would not work unless we are signed in.
I have worried some about the copyright laws in using the enVisions created materials.  However, our school has a license for the online program and we buy the newsprints so my understanding is that as long as I am only sharing it with my colleagues, who have the legal right to use the program, I am ok. I will be using the image on my screencast but since people who do not have access t the program cannot print it out, it is not violated copyright.  Or so I think.