School's Out For The Summer!!

I survived my first year of teaching, can you believe that?

I never knew that teaching was so difficult, but so rewarding! I have so MANY plans for the summer that I am sitting here on my SECOND day of summer break with NOTHING accomplished!

I did want to share with my fellow blog buddies that use a Promethean Board within their classroom something WAY cool!! On Wednesday our county had a Professional Learning Day that teachers could sign up for several different classes to learn new skills. One of the classes I went to was on the Promethean Board, which focused on the Promethean Planet website. We also got to visit the Promethean Bus, which was SUPER!

The other part of the class, about the website, was taught by Andrew Ryff who helps with the development of the Promethean Planet website. He went over some things I already knew, such as downloading flip charts and sorting through the files. However, I never clicked anywhere else on the site. So if you're like me- check out the Teacher Feature, which can be found under professional development or click here http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/professional-development/teacher-feature/ a teacher is featured (forgot how often) with a bio, recording of using the Promethean board and then the flip chart she/he created! It is awesome to see others using the board, and how they utilize it!! The featured teacher at the moment is the 12th grade English teacher!!

Also, there are groups that you can join and even create to collaborate with your school, district, or whomever you wish. A group that Andrew created was called Activities in a Flash, which features flash activities that can be downloaded and used on your board! He welcomes all uses to join, you just have to request. So PLEASE go join this group under the community tab and user groups, or click here http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/user_groups/flash-activities/default.aspx

After taking a look at this group I have found SEVERAL things that I can use for fun and games, but for classroom management too! For instance, a traffic light that you can just click to change the color. I plan to utilize this for my noise control next year. A score keeper to keep up with group points! A group spinner to select groups, a random number generator to select students for special privileges, and even a stopwatch to time students during clean up.

So I guess technically I have started planning and I haven't wasted two days completely, right?