We still practice handwriting at school with the children. Since having SMARTBoards I have been using the software to transform the way we teach it and the way we support the children.

I don’t think that handwriting is that important, what is written is more important to me – however the practice does encourage some structure, which can improve legibility.

Instead of just using the board to model the different joins (replace) I use the SMART Recorder to make a little movie of the joins as I model them and play them back, on a loop (tranform). Most IWB software (if any good!) has some sort of video screen capture tool. This allows me to step away from the board and go and support he children as they are working. As the class work they can easily look up and see the modelled join/word playing back on the board.

Before I explain how to do that, here is my routine for teaching any handwriting session. When we begin I remind the children about the 5 Ps.

• Position - I encourage them to think about the position they are in and where there book should be.
• Place - are they cramped or squashed? Make sure they have enough room on their table.
• Pen - I talk about the tripod grip, to watch out for the power grip where the wrist and lower arm is too tense and encourage the precision grip with a freely moving wrist etc.
• Posture - Can you feel the back of the chair in the lower back. Don’t be too upright and tense, be comfortable and relaxed.
• Peace - We all need some to do our best.

When talking about the actual joins or words I ask the children to trace them on a giant scale in the air with their fingers, talking about the movements as we complete them. I then ask them to do the same join on the palm of their hand. We repeat the join on our wrists where it is all tickly and then a final time on the back of someone sat next to them. This helps to feel the shape of the letters.

Megan’s Present / Hand by Aeioux
Attribution-NonCommercial License

Before the children go on to practice in their handwriting books, I complete a modelled example using the video recorder. Here is how you do it:

1. Open you handwriting page. We created a template on a blank page with the guidelines that suited our scheme.
2. Open your video screen capture application – we use SMART Recorder.
3. Select just the small area that you are going to be writing in – not the whole screen or page.
4. I find it really useful to have the join/word already written with it’s transparency turned down. So that it is just visible, allowing you to trace over the top. If you are doing a simple 2 or 3 letter join model it more than once.
5. Hit record and complete the modelling of the join or word.
6. Hit stop and save your capture using the join or word as the file name.
7. Playback your movie and set it to loop. Move away from the front and sit with children as they are working. With different movies open in different small windows you can have multiple joins so that children can work at their own pace through the work.

This is a good example of how technology can transform what we have been doing for decades. It breathes life into a common task, providing the teacher the opportunity to support the children at the point of writing. If all we do is write them up on the IWB we are just replacing old ways, we may as well do it on a dry-wipe board, or even just a blackboard or find a cave wall and some berries. The video playback is there if the children need it – they don’t need to remember what was done, they can just watch it, that has transformed the way they learn the joins and the behaviours that support that learning.

Within my handwriting sessions there is that important balance between technology and other approaches, a blended take on it all. Tickling the words on our wrists or a partners back is just as important.

Our class had a very enjoyable numeracy lesson today in which they were further exploring nets of 3D shapes and developing their ability to visualise them. We used SMART Notebook on the class laptops to help record our work as well as Google Earth for our shape of the week.

This week we have been exploring nets of 3D shapes and for the lesson’s “Shape of the Week” starter I had Google Earth running with the Pyramids (Egypt) placemarked – we zoomed, from right out in space, into the location of these great monuments. (I still love the awe and wonder of that, so do the kids!) It was a good link with our Ancient Egyptian history topic. I had switched on the 3D Buildings layer and I panned and moved about the modelled pyramids. We then spent some time talking about the properties of square based pyramids, their nets and the pyramid family in general. I scribed their ideas straight onto Google Earth using the SMARTBoard pens and annotated the pyramids. I good start to the session.

For the main part of the lesson and the independent task I wanted the children to visualise the top and the bottom of a net. Which face in a cube net does not move and which would become the top of the cube? So we combined the practical use of Clixi with a SMART Notebook that allowed the children to easily recreate and record the nets.

I shared a notebook file on the network, which the children accessed and opened on their own laptop. The children were working in pairs on their numeracy tables. They made the possible nets with the Clixi and then generating the same net in the notebook from some infinite cloned shapes I had setup. I then wanted them to colour the top RED and the bottom GREEN to show they understood how the net behaved when folded. The technology was not complex but it allowed them to quickly recreate the nets and show what was needed – less time was spent recording due to the technology. Which meant that more time was spent visualising how the net worked, exploring the Clixi nets they had made and discussing the possibilities in their pairs.

I was really pleased with the progress made throughout the lesson as the children discussed and explored the nets of cubes, cuboids and pentagonal prisms. I was equally impressed, however not surprised, in the successful way the blended learning resources worked – how they complimented each other and how the no frills technology began to become invisible amidst the learning going on.

Following my last post I thought I would explain the process I take to get from a resource created in SMART Notebook to a Befuddlr puzzle. A series of screenshot would have taken longer to do so I have created a short screencast. In this tutorial I am using my IWB software, however you could do this with any photo from a camera or an image generated by other IWB software. Just ensure the image is online somewhere and not too big!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=3805469454361260572" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

I was hoping to create a Jing screencast as I am big fan of the screen capture tool but the video output is horrible! It works with real time swf coding so you are stuck with the size you get – which for me did not fit in the browser when played back. So I went back to SMART Recorder and uploaded to Teachertube.

I hope that you find the tutorial useful – why not let me know of the examples you create and how you use Befuddlr.

• Flickr Uploader tool (As mentioned in the tutorial: giving you the command “Send to Flickr” on a right click of an image – very useful)

I just finished making this diagram in SMART Notebook – what do you think?
If you would like a copy of the Notebook you are very welcome to one, just let me know. The labels are not locked so it would be a nice little task to label the diagram. I just spent 10 mins finishing off and adding colour after school – honest!

Befuddlr allows you to create a quick interactive puzzles and is great to consolidate the learning for this sort of topic. Here is a link to a different diagram puzzle. And a link to a Befuddlr puzzle for my picture too.

Hope you find them useful

This week’s SMARTBoard tip is all about orientating your board. 3 different quick methods to get to the orientate setup. I thought I would make an appearance this week on the video, sorry about the jumper – I know it looks like it shrunk in the wash! I had just got back from taking the class swimming.

Download Video: Posted by tbarrett at TeacherTube.com.

The tip I use most of all is the 2 buttons – not sure if this is the same on the newer model of SMARTBoard or even if the buttons are there. Please let me know. Newer versions of SMARTBoard just have the buttons in a different place. Same tip applies. (Thanks Danny)

You can see other quality SMARTBoard tips like this one on our shared Google Presentation – please consider contributing, drop me an email if you do.

• SMARTBoard Tip – Round the World
• SMARTBoard Tip – The Double Tap

So you have scribbled and annotated all over a numberline, in a maths lesson, and now want some children to come and work on the board on another example. How can you quickly get rid of all of those scribbles.

This is a tip to erase all of your annotations quickly. (Not just in maths!)

Download Video: Posted by tbarrett at TeacherTube.com.

I hope it proves a useful tip. Don’t forget to take a look at the shared Google presentation on IWB tips (now up to 10) – if you have one to add just email me and I will include you as a collaborator.

Great to see a few people have already added to the Google presentation about sharing tips and techniques you have found successful with the IWB. Please continue to add to it, we are on #6 today already! I would love to see 50 different tips before Christmas!

Here is a video I have made tonight called “The Double Tap” which supports tip number 6.
Download Video: Posted by tbarrett at TeacherTube.com.
Hope you find it useful, and feel inspired to add your own pearls of wisdom, just let me know your email and I will add you as a collaborator.

Sharing is good. I have started a simple Google presentation to allow IWB users to share a simple idea that has proved successful in the classroom. I would like this presentation to grow and grow as more and more people contribute their ideas. We can then all use this resource to help provide professional development for colleagues in our schools, districts, local authorities…

The premise is simple – you have one slide to explain one idea, in addition you have one image to help illustrate (if you wish). Let your ideas be for any group of teachers or children, from beginners to advanced users of the IWB – don’t be constricted by the IWB type, just as long as it’s a useful idea – I am sure we will all find a way to do it! Write about a simple tip or a longer project – you choose. Contribute one or contribute ten! I have made a start – the process is easy.

1. Go to the presentation and take a look at was has been contributed. If you would like to be added as a collaborator send me an email (thomasgeorgebarrett [at] googlemail [dot] com – or use the contact tab at the top of this page) I will invite you in as a collaborator.
2. Add your one slide, one idea and one image.
3. Change the presentation title slide to match the number of ideas.

It will have a humble beginning – currently the presentation is called:

“One Interesting Way to use your Interactive Whiteboard”

Please help me change the title and create a supportive document that provides valuable, road tested ideas and tips for IWB users, new and old. I am sure we will all learn something.

Image: ‘Sharing‘ www.flickr.com/photos/33128961@N00/142455033

I have just finished talking to Ben and Joan from the SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast as they have been recording a round table discussion for their 100th show. Joining us was Chris Betcher from Sydney, Australia.

We discussed a few questions about SMARTBoards in schools:

1) Is there a SMARTBoard/iwb pedagogy?

2) Does SMARTBoard/iwb uncover or amplify other pedagogies? What does it show and when?

3) What does effective SMARTBoard/iwb usage look like?

4) What is the next step for SMARTBoard/iwb usage for: a beginning user, an intermediate user, an advanced user? (Also what makes a beginning user, an intermediate user, and an advanced user?)

It was excellent to talk with fellow educators regarding the use of IWBs in the classroom and to share our varied experiences.

If you have never listened to the show I would highly recommend it as there is always something to take away. Congraulations Ben and Joan for 100 shows!

I was pleased to see the final instalment of my contribution to the SMARTBoard Lesson Podcasts published the Sunday before last. Ben and I discuss the future of the IWB and a couple of lesson ideas I contributed.

SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast #74: A History and Literacy Lesson from the UK

Let me know what you make of the show – well worth a listen.