Unfortunately, life is not multiple choice; it’s a story problem. If we want to prepare our students for the demands of college and the real world, we cannot afford to whittle away their knowledge to a, b, c, d, or e: all of the above. At the same time, our time as teachers is at a premium and very few of us can afford to spend hours grading essay tests.

Fortunately, the powers that be are aligning in the classroom teacher’s favor, and there are two great tools you can use to reduce your grading time.

So what does QuizStar have that other sites don’t? My favorite feature of QuizStar by far is the “choose all that apply” option. You can create a

When to Introduce New Technologies to Your Students: The New School Year Whether school’s been in session for a few weeks or you’re starting after Labor Day, now is the perfect time to introduce your students to technologies you want them to use throughout the school year.

2.  Create a “Teacher,” “Student,” and “Parent” account to see how students and parents will see your posts. Experiment with different features in each of these accounts so you are ready to answer questions and get students and parents “unstuck.” 3.  Don’t go it alone. Find another teacher in your building who is willing to take the plunge with you. You can support each other, learn from each other, and try new things.

When the overhead projector was introduced, teachers everywhere celebrated.

With the introduction of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs),

The slate is portable, wireless, and designed to respond to an electromagnetic (or similar technology) pen.

How to Turn Pen Notations into Objects in ActivStudio In a previous post, I mentioned that ActivStudio (Promethean Software) does not allow pen and highlighter notations to be treated as objects. If you ever find it absolutely necessary to turn a pen notation into an object, you can do it using the following steps.

How to Download Free Sounds using FreeSFX.co.uk There are lots of websites out there that allow you to download sounds, but it is important to respect copyright. It’s also important to make sure you aren’t downloading any trojans or viruses, or your tech guys will through a fit. http://www.freesfx.co.uk/ is a free, safe, and copyright friendly website that you can download sound effects from quickly and easily.

How to Adjust to Your Interactive Whiteboard: Animate Objects and Add Sound There is nothing quite as fascinating to students as words and objects that appear and disappear on command. And if you’re looking for a giggle or a laugh, nothing does the trick like an unexpected sound effect when a student is at your board. Embedding sounds and setting up Object Animation is pretty straight-forward. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to add surprise elements quickly and create elaborate, interactive pages sure to capture your students’ attention.

Understanding Layers As you grow accustomed to using your IWB (interactive whiteboard) on a regular basis, you’ll doubtless come up with ideas that you would like to implement. At the same time, you may not feel ready to experiment with actions, sounds, and other properties. Fortunately, you can do a lot with your IWB if you understand layers and use them wisely. Using layers on your IWB is easy and a great step forward in getting your kids to interact with your board.

If you’re new to Interactive Whiteboards, chances are you’ve had a couple of training sessions that focused on creating pages from scratch. While I am definitely a big advocate of being innovative, I also strongly believe that time is precious and teachers have too little of it.  In this post, I’ll give you some tips on how to seamlessly incorporate your pre-existing lesson activities for use on your new IWB.

How to Adjust to your Interactive Whiteboard: The Chart Page Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) have the potential to draw your students into lessons in ways that weren’t possible without substantial planning, troubleshooting, and cut-and-paste work on your part. In this second of what will become more posts, I’ll teach you how to quickly make a “chart” page that you can use over and over again. Then I’ll provide suggestions on how this chart page can be incorporated into various content areas at the middle and secondary level. Why a “Chart” Page? A “chart” page is easy to make and easy for you and your students to manipulate. You will use this page over and over again. Once you’ve saved this page, you and your students can quickly and easily create flow charts, concept maps, and other graphical representations of key ideas and concepts.  As your students go to the IWB to demonstrate their thinking, you will find them more engaged and better able to retain information.

If you’re like many teachers, you find IWBs (Interactive Whiteboards) both exciting and intimidating.

In this first of this two-part post, we’ll explore dos and dont’s with your new IWB. In my next post, I’ll give you some basic lesson plan tips I’ve found that have worked and provide links to some amazing IWB resources.

When given the chance, students love getting involved in the classroom and voicing their opinions.  We know that students who are actively engaged learn and retain more.  Here are 4 fast and easy ways to get your students involved and engaged with your classic or interactive whiteboard (IWB).

The first thing you should know about running a 2.0 classroom is that the tech guys and gals in your district are indispensable.  They are the ones who fix computer glitches, solve network access issues, wire your projector, undo incomprehensible damage to operating systems, and control access to various websites.  Unfortunately, in my experience these individuals are unappreciated.  For your sake and the sake of your students, don’t make the mistake of taking these important people for granted.  Here are some simple guidelines to keep in mind to foster healthy relationships with your techies.

One of the pitfalls of using web 2.0 tools is keeping track of usernames and passwords.  Before teachers and students even begin going online, they already have a number of usernames and passwords to remember.

It is little wonder that students have trouble keeping track of their usernames and remembering their passwords.  As a teacher, you can give them some tips to keep track of everything.

OPTIONAL SIGN-UP The biggest advantage bubbl.us has over other mind-mapping software is that you do not have to have an account to create and print a mind-map (also known as a concept map). 

TIPS FOR YOU As you have your students work with bubbl, here are some tips to keep in mind.

The biggest advantage bubbl.us has over other mind-mapping software is that you do not have to have an account to create and print a mind-map (also known as a concept map).  This means students can get online, map the concept they have been assigned, and print it out for you to grade. 

TIPS FOR YOU As you have your students work with bubbl, here are some tips to keep in mind. “FIT” centers the mind-map in the middle of the screen (useful for panicked students who think their whole project has been deleted) if students move a “parent” bubble, all the “child” bubbles will follow along

But I knew that bubbl was truly useful when one of my students reported she had used it to help her decide which college to attend.

The internet is host to a ton of great information. The challenging part is keeping all the information you need organized and accessible wherever you go. This is where Diigo comes in.