Introducing
Technology, Software, or Activities
- Small Assignments: Go
slow! When using new software in your classroom, such as KidPix, teach students
the tools by assigning small activities that use just a couple of the tools.
Gradually increase their knowledge this way.
- Play Time: Another option
for introducing new software is to give the students a chance to explore the
software before giving them an assignment to complete.
- Stamp Catalog: Copy the
stamps pictured in your manual. Paste them in colorful file folders, laminate
and leave at computer.
- Dynamite Rule: You may
explode your picture twice in one day. After that, youre
stuck with what you have (unless you want to use your pencil eraser
tool.)
Whole
Class Demonstration
- Show students the activity
as a whole class demonstration using the computer and TV before sending them
to work alone at the computer.
- The idea here is to get
the image BIG! Request the largest possible monitor your school can afford.
Also, change your font size to a larger size so students in the back can see.
Here's how to do it in Netscape
or Internet Explorer.
Connect your computer to a large-sized television via a converter just
a cable with a box between your computer and the TV that will display on the
TV whatever is on your monitor.
- What do I do with one
computer and the whole class? I can introduce a new website, demonstrate a
science experiment with digital pictures, or model a new software game. I
can take a field trip to the North Pole or an art museum without reserving
a bus, exchange information with classrooms around the world by e-mail, or
locate a picture to illustrate a fact.