Projectable Books and the Smart Board

Projectable books are another great resource to use with a Smart Board! Shena Ashcraft (1st grade teacher at Elda) asked if I would show the 1st grade team how to use them with the Smart Board. I had not seen them before and took a few minutes to learn about them. I'm glad I did! Here are the basics:

Projectable Books
Tools for Small Group and Whole Class Instruction
Reading A-Z integrates technology and reading curriculum with leveled readers and benchmark books formatted for digital projectors and interactive white boards. Projectable Book Tips guide educators to meet literacy instruction goals for fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar, and more. Plus, our companion, printable format extends lessons with leveled books teachers send home for student practice. (http://www.readinga-z.com/book/projectable-books.php)

They are a fantastic way to share books to the whole class! Plus, there are several fun tools that make teaching and learning easier. You can draw and/or highlight over any of the pages. Plus, you can use the reveal and cover tools to show/hide only certain areas of each page. The software is super easy to use and it is web-based so you don't have to download anything! I highly recommend checking these out. For more information, check out:

http://www.readinga-z.com/book/projectable-books.php

Jumping Back into Great Technology Projects!

I want to put a big "Thank you" out there to all my friends at Ross for making my transition back to work easier! After 3 months of leave I am back to work and getting into the swing of things again. Everyone has been so supportive and welcoming. It really has made a difference and made it easier for me!

It sounds like classes did a great job keeping up while I was out and it is nice to be back and able to help where teachers find they need it. Teachers are signing up for technology help in all sorts of areas. We have research projects going on, multiple grade levels using the Smart Board for various lessons, classes using the Turning Point clickers, students using Pro-Ohio, EasyTech and CCI as well as student using the IRT (Infrared Thermometer)! I know there are even more projects then what I listed!

We also have the eTech Conference (Educational Technology conference for Ohio) coming up in February. We have a great group representing our Elementary buildings and district this year. Stacy Strawser, Jenna Rahrig, Lisa Hodits and I will be presenting "Using Blogs and Picassa for Classroom Communication". I will post more about our presentation after the conference!

Stay tuned for more project spotlights on upcoming Fridays!