considering purchasing an elmo classroom presenter...

[dboling]

Any advice? Useful in a middle school math classroom? Where can I find a good deal?

[Boxcar]

Try searching for one on eBay or through Google products. You'd be surprised at some of the unexpected things you can find.

[Flipp]

HAHAHAHA! I didn't know the brand name! I was thinking 'Why would you want a Sesame Street character themed projector for use with your middle school students?'
I don't know where you can find one for a good deal, but if you find a source, please share. I'd love to have one for my class!

[Boxcar]

I thought the same thing when I read the title!

[Ima Teacher]

Mine's not an ELMO, but it's works the same way. I have a Lumens document camera. Everyone with a Smart classroom has one. I like mine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v681/ebeth_h/doccamera.gif

[jsfowler]

Ima Teacher,

I also teach in Kentucky and we also have the 21st Century Classrooms. When did you get yours? Aren't they the best?

I recommend the document camera that Ima Teacher presented. They are great.

[Ima Teacher]

I also teach in Kentucky and we also have the 21st Century Classrooms. When did you get yours? Aren't they the best?


We got ours through the Gear-Up project with Berea College. I had a mobile SmartBoard and projector that I got three years ago, but then last year they got the Smart Classrooms, and I asked for an upgrade. I got a new SmartBoard, projector, audio-enhancement, clickers, document camera, AirLiner slate, computer . . . all the cool gadgets. We have 17 Smart Classrooms.

[marie3501]

I know avermedia has a good doc camera and I hear smart has a new one too. We don't have one yet for our smart board but I used one in my previous school and really miss it

[DarrenB]

I really like the one pictured above. It's got a flexible neck and can quickly and easily zoom down really close to the pictures or text you're showing. Others require a slower zoom with more focusing time spent. Love my document camera!

Darren Barkett
Helping Teachers Grow

[sendaletterbomb]

As an English Language Arts teacher, I've been dying to get a hold of one of these for a few years now. They would be great for editing. Just grabs a kid's draft, and a teacher-student edit becomes a group collaboration.

[misscha]

I have an elmo in my classroom and use it almost all day! I actually teach math with it quite a bit. I have my students take notes in their math notebooks while I teach and just have them copy down what I am writing in my notebook. Even though that sounds kind of boring, it's so helpful for the students and their parents to have all of their lesson notes in one place. I don't get questions from parents anymore about how to do last night's homework! Students all have the algorithms in their notebooks and parents can see what they learned in class that day. I also do other types of notetaking, like making foldables, and I just have them glue those into their notebooks. It's the same thing when we do something using technology. They can print those out and glue them into their notebooks. They do all their homework in them, and then the next day I can even use a student's notebook to go over last night's homework. Usually students are shy about everyone seeing their work projected, but somehow because it's the elmo, they get really excited about it, even when there are mistakes in their work. They all beg to have their notebooks be used! I figure anything that gets kids excited, works for me. :)

[hweber]

Again, I am so jealous. Technology abounds in many districts except mine. We have one elmo for the entire school.:cry2: Are there places to get technology grants?

[misscha]

I have yet to find and apply for my own grants. We have quite a few teachers on special assignment at my district who do that for us! (Although with the proposed budget cuts in my state, that will change...) I think, though, that you can get state grants for technology. We have one in CA called CTAP (California Technology Assistance Project). You might just want to do a Google search for available technology grants. Oftentimes there are so few people applying for them they're not that hard to get. I hope you are able to get one!

[Boxcar]

Grants seem so overwhelmingly complicated to me...

[hweber]

I have never applied for a grant, and quite frankly, the process scares me.

[silvana]

I thought technology updates and equipment were now a compulsory in the education system?

[irish223]

So THAT'S why we're getting new overheads in our district!!:laugh:

We don't have any document cameras in my district, but the professor who taught one of my classes last year had an ELMO. I wish I could afford one!

[Vincent Rouzan]

I first saw it used in a courtroom last year and it was awesome. Paper editing will be much more effective in my class next year! I'm looking for other applications for this machine also. If anyone has any advice, please share.

[techteach101]

We got ours through the Gear-Up project with Berea College. I had a mobile SmartBoard and projector that I got three years ago, but then last year they got the Smart Classrooms, and I asked for an upgrade. I got a new SmartBoard, projector, audio-enhancement, clickers, document camera, AirLiner slate, computer . . . all the cool gadgets. We have 17 Smart Classrooms.
:wowee:

God I wish we had the funding for stuff like that! I Have a computer lab in the basement with no windows, one projector and 27 virus infected computers with no mouse pads!

[teacher5]

We have two portable (on wheels) Smart Boards in my school. One is in the Library Media Center, and the other is in a third grade teacher's room because she literally has no real board space. She learned the all the ins and outs of using it. She taught her kids how to use many of the functions, too. She raved about it so much that they allowed her to make a presentation to the Bd. of Ed. with her kids. It was a real show! Then the Bd. of Ed. appropriated funds for Smart Boards to be put in two fourth grade rooms and two fifth grade rooms. We thought we were getting portable ones like the third grade teacher. We were told to mark off a certain amount of space on our white boards because we were getting permanent Smart Boards which would be affixed over part of our white board and/or wall space. I wasn't too happy to hear about this arrangement because I use the board a lot for note taking and illustrating diagrams in science. I also rely on the board in math for writing formulas, sample problems, and calling many kids at the time to quickly show their work. So, today I got a memo saying the Smart Boards are on hold. We don't know if and when they are coming. Also, I would really like to be trained in its use so I can appear to be Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. Ha! Ha!