| Term 4 2009 Of interest in this email |
Great to see so many of you all attending these, and other, conferences which have been held lately! A huge thumbs up and well done to all of you who were brave enough to present at them too! Thanks to you brave souls the rest of the attendees had a great variety of ideas presented to them, which no doubt served to inspire and motivate them to try out some new things back in their classrooms - great work! J
Remember, anyone can present at these conferences - so next time why not give it a go! The more ideas we share with each other the better - if we teachers are motivated by new ideas then surely this has a knock on effect to our kids, so everyone benefits.
You will no doubt be aware of the Inspire Road Shows which are being held nationwide over Terms 3 and 4 this year. These are short sessions being held in schools near you to show case the new Version 4 'ActivInspire' software which was released in NZ during July this year. They basically give an overview of the software as well as highlighting the awesome new features so if you haven't already checked it out, I can highly recommend attending one of the remaining road shows. Many regions have already hosted road shows but here are the remaining ones for the term ahead:
That's right! If you are already one of our ActivBoard schools then it is FREE for you to upgrade to ActivInspire until the 1st of January 2010. Don't put it off, I know that change can be hard but you are going to LOVE this software! (Seriously, every teacher I've trained so far has liked ActivInspire -it's SO intuitive and VERY simple to use so don't be worried about upgrading!)
See the instructions below for the easiest and quickest way to upgrade from Version 3 to Version 4. If you have any further queries then please feel free to give us a call, any of our team will be more than happy to help you out! J
Well, the short answer to this question is: tonnes!
Firstly, all ACTIVBoardNZ training is now done on ActivInspire so any training courses you attend with us will give you top quality, hands on support for getting to grips with this amazing new software.
Other than this, your first port of call should probably be the Promethean Planet website:
http://www.prometheanplanet.com
Most of you are already members - if you're not then join up today! It's free and it only takes you a few minutes to join. Click on the 'Register' link on the homepage (left-hand side underneath the 'Log in' boxes).
Promethean Planet offers you a stupendous amount of FREE support for ActivInspire. I recommend you check out these places on Planet:
The Professional Development Tab:
Under the Activlearning option here, you will find the FREE on-line training tutorials. These are little interactive tutorials offering an Introduction to ActivInspire, showing you the very basic ins and outs of getting started with the software, as well as a Migration option for those of you who are already using Version 3 and want to know where to find all the things you already use now on this new version.
Under the ActivTips option you will find a variety of little videos (which, incidentally, you are able to download to your i-tunes to play on your i-pod or i-phone should you be lucky enough to have one of those!) showing you how to use the software tools to create lessons. THESE ARE FABULOUS!!!! I can't recommend them highly enough! Granted, the cheesy music and Scott Caulfield's American accent might grate a little but they are really awesome mini training sessions - I just love them!
The Resources Tab: The Professional Development Tab:
Under this tab I suggest you check out the Lessons section first and foremost. This is where you can come to browse for and download for FREE thousands of ready made flipcharts to use immediately in your classroom. These flipcharts, or 'lessons', have been submitted to Planet by ActivBoard teachers around the globe. The flipcharts have been uploaded by these teachers out of the goodness of their hearts to help create a worldwide sharing community and a bank of resources for teachers so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel! Please, please, please join this revolution and submit your flipcharts too! They ARE good enough! Kiwi teachers are some of the best teachers in the world; we have a unique, creative and innovative style of teaching here in NZ which other teachers both nationally and globally would benefit from with the sharing of your ideas! So please don't be shy - upload a flipchart today!
Remember, save the flipcharts before you try to open them. Why? Because if you open them straight off the website it only opens you the equivalent of a 'Read only' copy. Any links, actions, videos etc will not come with the flipchart unless you save them first and then open them!
The Resource Packs section is worth a look too. This is where you can download extra resources to add to your current resource library within you software.
Like the flipcharts, when you download a resource pack save it first (just to your desktop or your documents folder is fine). DO NOT try saving it straight into you library folder. Resource packs need to be imported to your library when your software is open. Here's how:
EITHER:
Main menu >> File >> Import>> Resource pack (and then chose from Shared Resources or My Resources)
OR:
When your Resource Browser is open click on the heading 'My Resources' or "Shared Resources" at the top of the word tree section of the resource browser. When the heading has been selected it will show as a highlighted bar and you will see a little note icon to the right of it. Click on this and choose Import resource pack here.
Foodsafe Freddie and his Pacific cousin Feleti present the "Clean, Cook, Cover, Chill" message promoting safe food-handling practices. The resource pack covers food safety in preparing and cooking a hangi, safe arrangement of food in the fridge, and information about food additives and food labeling as well as effective hand-washing info, and advice for a 'cool' lunchbox. Key food safety messages are also given in Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island and Nuiean languages. Finally, check out the FBI Crime Scene activity - spot the Food Safety crimes and work out who did them!
Please be advised that as of the 1st January ACTIVBoardNZ will only be providing technical support for ActivInspire software. No support will be available from the technical team for the old Version 3 software from this date onwards. (This coincides with the cut off date for the free upgrade from Version 3 to ActivInspire.) Any other technical support for our hardware, projectors, peripherals etc will remain as normal. J
Yes, that's right! The long awaited functionality of dual pen has arrived in NZ -and it has been worth the wait! Promethean have outdone themselves with ActivArena and released a very stable and fully functioning teaching and learning tool here. Collaborative learning has taken another step up!
The software comes with 2 special new, ergonomic pens (which, incidentally, do NOT roll off a table!) as well as a raft of ready-made resources and embeds easily into the ActivInspire software. The pens will work anywhere on the board simultaneously and are capable of utilising different tools at the same time (for instance, one pen might be using the pen tool and the other the camera tool).
ActivArena is available for this term only at a special introductory price of $250 + gst instead of the normal price of $295 +gst.
Most ActivBoards installed in the last 3 years are compatible with ActivArena.
Have a great term - it's not long until Christmas!
From your friendly team at ACTIVBoardNZ J
