Hello Everyone!
So I’ve been recently taking workshops to help better me as a teacher, as we all do, and I’ve been learning a lot about the Promethean Board I have in my classroom. For those of you that don’t know, a Promethean Board is an interactive white board that has more tools than you can imagine!
In short, the Promethean Board is a giant Android Tablet. There are so many tools of the board that I am going to break it down into a few parts. The first part has so much to offer, that I love, is the infinite whiteboard. Looking at the sidebar can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many tools and each one is so useful when teaching – here are five tools I can’t teach without!
ONE
Ellipsis Menu
The three dots at the top are similar to the “File” button on Word. The “Export PDF Screenshot” is one of my favorite features! As long as you have a flash drive plugged in or Google Drive, One Drive, or any email app installed, you can save what is written on the board. Any time I have the kids show work, I save it. I use the work as pieces in their portfolio, post it to our Class Dojo story, or print it to hang around the room.
TWO
Split Board Button
Fun fact: there can be up to 10 students writing on the promethean board at once! Not that there’s room for them to stand around the board, but the option is there for us! Splitting the board is my favorite thing to do with the infinite whiteboard. The cool thing about splitting it is whatever you wrote on the board before the split stays there - and student can’t erase it! This makes for fast fluency, number strings, and team games to be way more engaging. Showing multiple strategies is a key factor in Common Core Math, so I’ll split the board to have two students or groups go up and show their different strategies. Having the side-by-side visual helps students to see the connections in the content.
THREE
Paper Changer Button
Okay, so Paper Changer Button isn’t the formal name for this, however, that’s what I call it because that’s exactly what it does - changes the background. There are so many options for paper background, and you can even change the color of the background! The paper background I use the most is the graph paper. You can adjust the size of the squares to meet your needs. Helpful hint: use the ruler tool make your axes perfectly straight!
(pictures here)
FOUR
Insert Charts & Templates
This third icon down is to insert a picture or graphic organizer. The board comes loaded with a few charts and templates already, but you can look some up on the internet, upload them yourself with a flash drive, or save them to your google drive and take from there. This is great for when you need a T-Chart, hundreds grid, place value chart, tens frame, or any other math tool you may use to solve a problem. At my school we use GO Math primarily, with some Engage NY lessons thrown in there. It’s so easy for me to go on the Chrome App and save it to the gallery to use on the infinite whiteboard. This is great because you won’t have to draw the tool in every time - it’s already there for you!
FIVE
Math Tools
All the way a t the bottom of the tool bar, before the undo/redo arrows, are the Math tools. The tools are a ruler, a set square, a semicircle protractor, and a full circle protractor. Teaching fifth grade, I use the ruler and the semi-circle protractor the most, however for other grades the set square and full circle protractor are a great digital resource! The kids are always so amazed when I click the ruler tool and I can expand it or make it smaller with the pinch of my fingers.
Basically – these five tools make my life a lot easier when I am teaching. The kids are always so amazed and what I do with the promethean and when they have a chance to come up and explore the board they’re so excited.
What tools do you love on the Promethean? What tools do you wish they would add? Drop a comment below!
