5: Using the MimioTeach stylus to simply advance your PowerPoint slides—you can not only advance your PowerPoint slides but use the Mimio tools to add notes, highlight information and reveal sections of a slide.

4: Using the MimioView document camera to project your Daily Oral Language, while making the edits on paper—these changes can be made by a student on the interactive whiteboard and then saved so you can pick up where you left off for the next class.

3: Showing videos—embed or hyperlink sections of videos into your MimioInk file that corresponds to concepts within your lesson plan.

2: Just using it for large groups and not getting everyone to involved—use your Mimio interactive system as a center to achieve differentiation within a classroom. This gives students a hands-on experience using an activity created by the teacher with clearly stated objectives.

1: Only the teacher uses the Mimio hardware—get the kids involved by having them use the MimioPad to manipulate the information on the board. This allows for student participation to occur more frequently while maintaining classroom order.

The purpose of interactive teaching technology is to get your students actively involved with your lesson so they’re encouraged to participate more often. If you’re stuck in a rut with your Mimio and don’t know how to optimize its functionality, we can always give you some pointers. Feel free to call us to set up some coaching time: 262.641.0500.

Until next time,

Cat

Once a week I volunteer in the library at a nearby middle school. When I arrived this morning a seventh grade class was working at the computers. A glance at the screens confirmed that the social studies assignment was being created in PowerPoint. As the class period came to an end, one of the students asked her neighbor why she hadn’t logged out of her computer yet. The reply was, “I have to get it finished here because I can’t work on it at home. I don’t have PowerPoint.”

That comment made me think: I bet the teacher never even considered that some students would be placed at a disadvantage getting the assignment finished. If you’re lucky enough to have Mimio®, share that registration number with your students and let them have at it.

-Karen

Taking “ownership” should not become just another New Years’ resolution.  It should become your new mantra for how you will move forward in all of your endeavors in 2012.  Ownership is a complex proposition.  It will determine the overall capacity and capability that you bring to your work environment.  In order to become the owner, you need to develop the right mind set (what’s important), the right skill sets (how do I effectively do it) and the right tool sets ( what do I use to productively do it).  By you connecting, engaging and linking these three critical variables in your new everyday behavior you will place yourself on the 2012 pathway for becoming the Best Version of Yourself.

During 2012, my blog will share ideas on “how to” bring personal ownership thinking, skills and tools into your work activities and environment.  You need to play a major role in proving the supposition that people are a company’s or an organization’s most important asset.  This reality will playout if you consistently prove your value to yourself and your organization.  My next blog will focus on “You as a 21^st Century Knowledge Worker.”

Best,

Tim Larkin (Owner of Learning Exchange)

Being a teacher for four years I know there is a lot of content to cover in a short amount of time. That can quickly lead teachers to burn out while trying to keep up. My suggestion is to use what you already have: the boring worksheets. Instead of handing each child a sheet to complete, turn it into an interactive activity the whole class can complete together or in small groups. You already have the information you need and you can start out easy by scanning the sheets into Mimio Notebook for a whole class lesson. For instance, have students come to the whiteboard and use the MimioTeach stylus to circle the answer or to draw the correct shape (from a worksheet similar to this one).

Once you become more comfortable with the MimioStudio tools such as using reveals, grouping and layering, you can take that information and transform it into an interactive activity that students can complete in a small group while you work with students that need more individualized attention.

This is how you can make worksheets work in the classroom and this is how differentiation can take place each day. Need more ideas on how to use your Mimio in the classroom? Follow @LReas21 and @LE_Mimio on Twitter.

Signing off,

Lisa

Gone are the days of blackboards. Perhaps that’s an antiquated statement already but I remember when I was in school (I feel so old saying that) and all we used were blackboards. Then came whiteboards—that shiny, beautiful board that brightened up the classroom and was far more fun to draw on. Alas, we’re in the modern age of teaching! (Or so it seemed). I finally heard of an interactive whiteboard (or IWB as some call them) when I was in college; they were few and far between in lecture halls though since they were such a big investment and few professors really knew what they did or why they’d help us learn any better.

It wasn’t until I began working for Learning Exchange when I learned exactly how interactive whiteboards worked and how they can impact the classroom in such a positive way. Imagine your students getting excited because you’re using a technology that they can use, while seeing images and lesson plans come to life right before their eyes. Because more affordable options are out there (insert Mimio tagline here—sorry, sometimes I can’t resist), interactive technology is beginning to be used by the masses. Futuresource Consulting predicted that “one out of every five classrooms worldwide will have an interactive whiteboard by the end of 2013”. Clearly there is a place for interactive technology in the market and more and more schools are realizing that. Now I can sit back in envy at the kids that get to work with technology all day…whether its interactive whiteboards, iPads, individual laptops, you name it!

Until next time,

Cat