Hello Friends!
After a long wait, today I bring to you – Promethean Part 2: Five Apps to Download on it Right Now! After taking a couple of workshops about the Promethean board, I have decided that there are five specific apps to download through the Google Play Store that you need. These apps will keep the kids engaged while you’re teaching and your life so much easier. Isn’t that what this blog is about? Simplifying teaching through technology.
I’m going to be honest with you – I was not a huge fan of the Promethean board in my classroom when I first started working with it. My former school had SMART Boards and SMART Technologies were all I knew. After taking some workshops on the Promethean board, I learned that it is basically a giant tablet & I now love it and all the things you can do with it!
Google Chrome
Starting with the most used app on my board, Google Chrome. I like it because I can sign in to my school gmail account and have my bookmarks already there for me. I put a password on the administrator account on the board so that no one can access my personal google account. This makes for smooth teaching and not having to worry to pull up websites ahead of time.
Google Drive
Naturally, Google Drive is a staple on the Promethean board. I plan all of my lesson with Google Slides or Google Docs. Having them all in one place is great and I don’t have to worry about signing in every time. Because I created an administrator account with the board, there is a password on it so that only I can use my account on the Promethean. This way I’m not worried about my Google account being logged in on the board when I’m absent or if someone else has to teach in my room.
Google Slides
Google Slides is what I put my lessons on to present to the kids. I prefer this because it saves onto my account and once I am signed into Google Drive on the board, it’s so easy to pull up. I use the magic pen button (on the pink home button) to write on top of the Google Slides as I am teaching. If I want students to write, I take a quick screen shot and put it on the Infinite White Board (see my post on this amazing tool also!) to split the screen and have students write. This makes it easier to save their work to Google Drive or a flash drive.
Kahoot!
My students absolutely love Kahoot! Any reason for them to use a computer keeps them engaged. Having the app installed on the Promethean is the greatest time saver! No more logging in, searching for what you’re looking for, and waiting for it to load. It’s all there on the board for you already!
Quizizz
Quizizz is a similar concept as Kahoot – students join a live game, or you can assign a game on Google Classroom. I prefer Quizizz to Kahoot only because I’m more familiar with it, but students love both! Quizizz is self-paced, so students can answer questions in as much time as they need. The program does time the students and lets me know which questions took longer than others. I love that I also can export the data from the Quizizz. Like I said, any time students get a chance to use a computer, they love it!
PDF Viewer
The last app is a Google PDF viewer. This might sound obvious to you, but I didn’t realize it was something I would need until I didn’t have it. This makes life easier if you want to pull up a part of the textbook you’re using (we use Go Math at my school) or Engage NY pdf files if you choose to use those worksheets.
I hope these apps help you as much as they help me! Any way I can save time in the classroom with trivial things (like logging in) leaves more time for students to be actually working!
What apps do you like to use on your Promethean board? Let me know what I missed that you must use regularly!
PS – have you checked out Feedspot lately? Tech About Math made the list of fifth grade teacher bloggers to follow! 🙂
☆Alexandra☆