I remember distinctly the feeling I had upon walking into my room and seeing the ActivBoard. There was the obvious emotion of excitement, but then there was complete and total fear! I mean, there it was...the ActivBoard - this would be the point where I would insert the sound clip of Space Odyssey's opening musical number to get my point across — I know you know what I am talking about.

My initial thought after the adrenaline rush wore off, was “Ok, where do I start?”. I left my classroom the Friday before feeling very confident about my lessons for the following week, but now with the board — what am I supposed to do? I have to use it, right? — I mean I want to use it, but how? Where is the manual? Where is the training? Where is the person who is supposed to show me what to do? Panic started to creep in, and I am almost paralyzed by the idea that I am now required to use this new piece of technology. I remember thinking, “Aren't these things supposed to come with instructions?” — Little did I know that it actually did come with an instruction manual, but it was stored in our school's IT person's office.

Flash forward 7 years, and I now realize that I was not alone with my questions, concerns, fears and cluelessness about the infamous “board”. In order to dispel some of the rumors and fears surrounding the board and the software, I have put together my version of ActivBoard commandments.

Commandment 1 — Breathe.

Whatever you do don't panic! It's just a board, you will be ok.

Commandment 2 — Get your hands dirty.

Being teachers, we all know the best way to learn something is to do it. When I was in the classroom, there were not online training courses, webinars and instructional videos. If you are just getting your board, you have it good! 

• Take advantage of the online learning opportunities in our Professional Development - ActivLearning section
• Find quick tips with short ActivTips videos

Commandment 3 — When in doubt, calibrate.

I know it sounds silly, but this turned into our class motto. I was in a trailer (or modular unit) and since I did not have my board professionally installed the board wobbled when the kids would change classes, so calibration was key.

Find more information about calibration below:

• Knowledgebase
• Technical Support Forums

Commandment 4 — Check for updates often.

As a pretty tech-savvy teacher, I had no idea that I needed to check for updates. Now, I know. Checking for updates is crucial to ensuring things are working properly. From software updates to driver updates…they all need to be done and checked often. 

Commandment 5 — Only use the ActivBoard pen.

However, I am sure it will happen to you at some point when you walk into the classroom, you look at your board and then "OMG! There is marker on my board!" First refer to Commandment 1, then…try these tricks from the experts to getting your board clean:

• If the mark happened recently, try marking back over it with the same color marker, then wiping it with a damp cloth.
• Clean your board with dry erase board cleaner or if you need a more thorough cleaning use ammonia-free water based cleaners.

Commandment 6 — Know the terminology.

Lesson? Flipchart? Resource Pack? I know, I know… what are we talking about? Let me simplify it for you:

• Lesson – noun 1) not a lesson plan Synonym – flipchart
• Flipchart– noun 1) complete interactive whiteboard lesson created with ActivInspire software and can contain: teacher notes, students activities, student worksheets and assessments
• Resource Pack – noun 1) downloadable library of images, video clips, sound bites and student activities used to create flipcharts, and are stored in ActivInspire’s resource library under either ‘My Resources’ or ‘Shared Resources’.

Commandment 7 — Disconnect and reboot.

Let's face it, computers can be dumb and a little reboot can really help out. Even though it sounds like the most obvious answer, restarting is actually really helpful. There were so many times when I was at a complete loss and since I was completely unaware that there was help out there, I would just run around shutting things down and unplugging cables. Oddly enough, a majority of the time it worked!

Commandment 8 — Recycle your resources.

Learning a new software takes time, but most of us have piles and piles of PowerPoint presentations we have used for our classroom or PDFs and word documents. No need to recreate, just either import them in, or drag and drop them (word documents) into your flipchart pages.

If you use a Windows machine and used PowerPoint presentations, you can simply import your presentations into ActivInspire -To do this – from your windows machine, go to File and then Import.

Learn how to import a PDF by watching the ActivTip video: Importing PDFs.

Commandment 9 — Save and organize.

'Save' is not the same thing as 'Save As'. I started my teaching career teaching science, only science…all day to fourth graders. Many times, one class would move faster along in the lesson than the other, and I liked to keep all the notes and annotations for each class. I made the mistake once (that was all it took) of 'saving' and not 'saving as' a new file, thus ruining my original flipchart lesson. Big boo on my part…I had to go back through and erase all the notes and then 'Save As'.

Then there is the organizing, take advantage of the folders inside ActivInspire. You have a 'My Resources' library this stores all your personal resources, and a Shared Resources library which should house items downloaded from Planet or elsewhere.

Commandment 10 — Find, share and ask.

I mentioned in commandment 2, but you new users out there have it easy. I know the software can be tricky, and gaining confidence takes time; but there are really so many resources out there and on Planet to help you. Stop stressing yourself out by thinking you have to come up with everything on your own. There is a community to bounce ideas off of and ask questions to; between the resources, the Technical Support forum, Curriculum forum and the Planet Guide — we've got you covered.

Meet you back here in another couple of weeks to for Part 2 of the ActivEducator Survival Guide - Taking "blah" and making "Wow!" 

Please comment with your ideas, opinions and advice.

Peace Out!

Previous blog in the series:

• New Series: ActivEducator Survival Guide

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