Nicky Knight and Activboard Training Part 2

Nicky Knight came in for a second session and talked about several things.  One of her focuses was on using equipment.  We discussed the Slavonic Abacus and how we can use it in a variety of contexts.  Originally last year, I had been using the abacus for the older children but it was good to see some ways that we could use it for the younger children.  Many of my students are only just learning how to count and the day after the session I already was able to use it to count with the children.  I do need to find a way to cover up the beads on one side though and will look to find that.

We also looked at the fly flips.  Last year with my year 4s I had them practicing the fly flips as part of their flash card activity for math.  With the younger children I will work at using these with the children. I want them to become familiar with the patterns which come up already in stages 1 and 2. I will start using them as a warmup occasionally before lessons.

We were also given a load of resources.  For the next meeting we will look at two strategies in the ALIM booklets we received and be ready to talk with them.  Hopefully over the long weekend I will have some time to look through those booklets and get things ready for the meeting (which is May 28th).

Today we also had the second part of the activboard training we had two weeks ago.  I have already done this but attended so that I could get a bit of a refresher.  Most of the stuff that was talked about were things that I regularly do in my flipcharts, though I did come across a few things that I didn't know (or that I just hadn't been using).

- Math and other activities under resources; there are several things (such as 100s charts) made up as pre-set activities for all subjects.  Using these (or just being aware of them when I'm making flipchart) could potentially save me a lot of time.
- taking snapshots of children's faces to use in flipcharts. We were shown a quick and easy way to cut out children's faces from pictures to use on flipcharts.  This could in personalizing flipcharts for children.
- Video - changing the videos to not autoplay (this will save a lot of headaches when activinspire crashes and I have to reopen flipcharts - I won't have to turn the videos off); taking snapshots during video playback easily (this allows us to create snapshots to sequence stories easily as well as doing it with the class and not having to do it beforehand - which gives the children more ownership of their learning).