”Show your work.” That’s what Mr. Clevenger, my sixth grade teacher used to always tell me after I solved a math problem.

Well here’s an example of using technology to enable students to show their work and share their ideas with others.  These 6th grade Bostonians use activstudio to show their work and Jing Project to capture themselves explaining it.  They used the built in microphone in the laptop rather than an attacheable mic. 

What I love about this, is that although all three students explain .83 using the same method. They each had their own unique way of explaining. After her explanation, Minni asks, “Why?” Are there any students out there that would like to explain? Use the “comments” hyperlink below to get started. 

 NETS: 2. Communication and CollaborationStudents use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.

 Have you ever looked at your Promethean whiteboard and wondered, “This is pretty cool… but what else can I do?”

If so (or if not), Atomic Learning is a phenomenal resource for you to use. You can access it through One Place. Check out this great Atomic Learning Tutorial that Kevin created.

Alarm clock sounds are a great way to get students’ attention. If you are using activstudio and haven’t taken a look at the clock. Check it out. Using the count down clock, you can make a specific sound alarm at any given time. Activstudio comes with quite a few folders of sounds to choose from. Within each folder are lots of great sounds. Here are the folder’s titles; animals, domestic, Elementary, explosions, music, nature, Spanish, & transportation.

Here’s how to choose different folders or to reconnect to a folder. (see image below)

• Open Activstudio.
• Click on the clock . Or add it from the toolstore (menu> customize>tool store)
• Select “Count Down.”
• Click on the “…”
• Navigate to a folder
• Here is the navigation for the Domestic folder
  • C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Activ Software\Activstudio3\Shared Sounds

Now that you know how to change sounds, try recording students and using their voice to signal the class to stop an activity or get ready for a transition. It could be a motivating reward for some students. You can use the sound recorder in activstudio to easily record voices. You just need a cheap microphone from radioshack. If you want to edit the audio, use Audacity. It easily allows you to edit the sound… and it’s free!