This weekend, eInstruction, Interwrite Learning and FSCreations (ExamView) merged their websites into an easy-to-navigate fresh-look site.  The site provides an excellent starting point for educational technology seekers and robust resources for new and experienced CPS, InterWrite and ExamView users.

Check it out here.

Check out Amber Tetrick’s (Hillside Junior High School English teacher) quote in this article in the Dention Record-Chronicle.

Check out the fun student/teacher created videos that won the $25,000 classroom technology makeovers!

eInstruction provides an area for teachers to share question banks they’ve authored in ExamView.
Even without installing ExamView, you can add these questions to your CPS database (Prepare Tab/Lessons and Assessments/highlight a folder/Click on the upside down triangle next to Add Files/Browse to the downloaded EV test and click Okay).

If you’ve authored questions in ExamView, take a moment to upload some!

Here is another option at Teachers Pay Teachers…an opportunity to gather some low-cost content and perhaps make some money on your own.

I’ve learned of four wonderful music video submissions to the Interactive Classroom Makeover Contest from Idaho and Washington:

Jill Hanford’s 6th Grade Class - Technology to Soothe the Soul

Kim Geis’ 2nd Grade Class - Underwater Technolosea

Keleigh Bechard’s 3rd period Biology - Interwrite

Molly Zammit’s 4th Grade Class - Heartbreak Technology

Check them out and vote/comment today!

Issues with connecting your InterWrite Pad?

Here are the basics to be aware of:

1.  Update to version 7.6.  (By clicking on the purple “I” icon, you can choose Check for Updates and it will automatically download and guide you through the installation.) 2.  You now have a much easier interface for connecting.  The 7.6 training manual is located here.  An explanation of the new interface is on page 7.

3.  With some of the older Ezurio Bluetooth sticks, a driver is needed.  It is located on your C drive at:  Program Files/Ezurio/BTSoftware/BIN/btwusb.

4.  The InterWrite tech support people have been excellent and usually solve these issues very quickly:  1-800-856-0732 - option 3 then option 2.
InterWrite Pad/Board Welcome Letter

InterWrite WorkSpace Training Workbook

InterWrite SIMS Videos

CPS New Customer Welcome Letter

CPS Training Workbook

ExamView Training Workbook

• Boise teachers, Jill Hanford and Amy Pinkerman were touted in a front page article in the Idaho Statesman on Friday, September 19^th for effectively using CPSrf for classroom instruction.
• This same article was picked up by Teacher Magazine.
• In this crazy election season, we discovered this use (or not) of eInstruction’s CPSrf on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

Back to School Ideas with CPS Response Pads (clickers) and InterWrite WorkSpace for IW Pads and Boards

            How might you use your CPS clickers, CPS Chalkboard or InterWrite pad to build a safe and collaborative community during the first week of school?  Effective teachers know that taking a few minutes during this time to develop and teach routines and establish expectations.  Doing so saves precious minutes of potentially wasted time down the road.  Diverse students can come together in a learning community if they get to know and respect each others’ differences as well as common goals for the time spent in your classroom.  Some of you might recognize some of these from an August 2007 blog entry:

Using your CPS Response Pads

1. Introducing yourself: create a 10 question Q & A about yourself (with images of your family, home, vacation, favorite things, pets, hobbies) allowing the students to guess. Add humorous alternatives, if possible! (Thanks to Mr. Kellogg at Lowell Scott Middle School in Meridian for reminding me of this idea!)

Q: When Mrs. Jones was a teenager, she worked at ____________.
a. McDonald’s
b. Disneyland
c. getting a tan at Newport Beach

Answer: B with C as a close 2nd!

2. Introduce the students. Allow the students to create a list of 2 truths and a lie. Using Verbal mode, use 5 or 6 student submissions per day to help students get to know each other.

Q: Choose Kyle’s lie.
a. Kyle has vacationed in Paris.
b. Kyle has a V shaped scar on his knee from skateboarding.
c. Kyle still has his 1000 Pokemon card collection in his closet.

Allow the students to guess A, B or C. I would imagine the results would depend on how well the students already know each other and how thoughtful the choices are.

3. More academic ideas include:

a. Do a learning styles inventory.
b. Do some diagnostic questions for attitudes about your subject matter or current knowledge level.
c. Develop teams, learning groups or peer editing circles around some common survey questions.

d. Practice the Student Paced Assessment mode with a quick 10-question FastGrade lesson.  Students simply guess at the answers.  In this safe, “even playing field” environment, teachers can show the kind of reporting available at the end of the quiz.  Have a goofy prize available for the best guessers (check out the Instructor Summary under the Reports tab).

            Using your InterWrite Pad or CPS Chalkboard

1.       Create a table in WorkSpace or RMEasiteach with at least one box per student.

a.      Add categories like:  skis, loves to sing, has at least 3 pets, watches Myth Busters regularly, has read the Twilight series, etc.  Use a variety of skills, interests and traits.

b.      Print and copy papers for each student.  In ten minutes (or so), students are instructed to walk around, visit with their classmates, get as many signatures as possible, limited to one classmate per box.  When time is called, student with the most signatures wins.

c.       Collaboratively, using the winning student’s paper, try to complete the displayed table with each student’s names.  You may need to pick up your eraser tool (TIP – hold down the button closest to the tip of the InterWrite pen to access a small eraser.)

2.       Introduce yourself, classroom procedures,