Promethean Project Evaluation

The goals of this project were to increase kindergarten students' skill level and engagement with creative writing and to introduce these students to the Promethean Board using a flipchart that featured their writing, artwork and photos.
This multi-layered project using the ActivInspire software from Promethean in a kindergarten classroom included the following steps:

• I began by telling animal riddles with 3 clues during group time in the kindergarten. I encouraged students to create and tell their own animal riddles.
• Using my laptop, I worked one-on-one with students to create their own animal riddle with 3 clues.
• I printed this riddle and worked with students to put these riddles in a bound book with flaps that lifted to reveal clues and their illustration of the animal.
• I read this book with the students at group time to talk about creative writing skills (such as which clues were more challenging and which order was best for the 3 clues)
• I created a Promethean flipchart with the student's riddle on a page along with a photo of this student showing his/her illustration in the book. (the cover page of this flipchart is shown in the screen shot above with one of the riddle pages shown on the left side. The blank box on the riddle page is the location of the student's photo and artwork. For this screen shot, I removed the photo.)
• I plan to show this flipchart to the students and have each student use the revealer tool to read his or her riddle one clue at a time (the rest of the screen will be black until the students use the revealer tool to show all of the clues and their illustration and photo at the bottom)
• I will show the students how they can use the "pen device" to move the text around and change the order of the clues on their riddles.
  
• I will pre-load the animal sounds for their riddles in the media library and show the students how to add their animal sound to the page.

Challenges to implementing this project:

• The main challenge was the lack of cords for the Promethean Boards, which meant that this project is still on the back burner until we can use our Board with the software.
• This is the first flipchart I have ever created and used with students. The kindergarten students and their teacher are new to Promethean Boards as well. The challenge will be to show the students some of the interesting features of the ActivInspire software (i.e. using the revealer tool, moving text around while editing and inserting sound clips) without trying to teach too much in their first experience with this tool. We will break this lesson up over a series of days so that it is more manageable.
  
• I have only received 1 day of training in this software and have not had additional opportunities to work with my fellow teachers on creating and using flipcharts effectively. The school administrator and tech coordinator plan to offer a series of training sessions on this tool in April and May.

Lessons Learned:

• Since I have not been able to implement this project, I don't have any ideas about modifications yet. I will post this information on my blog after I implement this project.
• One lesson I will keep in mind is that it is always important to connect every project to the NETS for students. This is harder to do with younger students, but may be easier to do when I am working with older students in the future.
  

Modifications for future projects:

• I hope that I will be teaching older students next year since I am applying for a classroom position in 4th-6th grade. With older students, I would use this format for a fun research project about an animal. I would have a partnership of 2 students select an animal from the continent we are currently studying, then they would do research (using 2-3 websites I selected ahead of time) to write an animal riddle and create an informational report on this animal. This ActivInpsire flipchart format would be used for the animal riddle. Students would have the option of choosing to use ActivInspire, VoiceThread or a podcast format for their informational report. We would repeat this process for all of the continents.