March 2008
Spotlight...

• Special pricing on eInstruction bundles ends March 31st!
  Get great savings when you purchase a CPS system bundle of 3, 5, 10, or 15 IR or RF systems with an equal number of CPS Chalkboards, plus one building license of ExamView Assessment Suite and the ExamView Learning Series. Download the PDF here!
• You may have heard about the "clicker issue" last week at the University of Kansas. eInstruction has already developed a resolution! Read about the issue and download the critical Mac update!
• Interested in keeping up with the "clicker buzz?" Check out our Clickers in the News page!

We Now Offer Interactive Whiteboards!

Our American-made boards are available with or without Bluetooth and offer higher resolution than our competitors! The formica-like surface doubles as a dry erase board, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

Most importantly, the latest beta software release has ExamView integration in the whiteboard software, allowing you to propose ExamView questions on the board with the touch of a button.

Contact us today to set up a demonstration of our winning combination...clickers and whiteboards!

1 vs 100 in a Clicker Classroom

Frank and Cary worked with a group of kids at a High School in Edinburg, Texas. As an incentive, these students had been earning play money by completing lessons in Study Island in a lab setting. They were using the fake money to purchase pens, pencils, chips, candies, etc. On this day, Frank and Cary came in for an extra special money-earning day!

Using the idea of the game show 1 vs. 100, one student would write the answer to the proposed question on a piece of paper. When they had committed to their answer, the rest of the class would click in. If the person who wrote the answer down got it right, they would receive 5 dollars and additional money for each student who clicked in the wrong answer. If the person writing the answer got it wrong, they would lose their money, and their lost money would be split amongst those in the class who clicked in correctly.

As Frank put it, "Some of these kids are from some of the roughest and toughest neighborhoods in Edinburg and were a little rough around the edges, but when the game started and that first question was done...they saw how the game worked and they all became very excited and engaged. Even the quiet ones in the back started positioning their chairs so that they could get a clearer view of the question that was being projected. As the game went on, when I pointed that out, I wasn’t the only one who had noticed...we all did. The teacher and federal program representatives fell in love with the way StudyIsland and CPS worked together."

This instance was using Study Island in conjunction with CPS. However, this could be done with any review questions that you would like to cover.

If you use this idea in your classroom or have any ideas to piggyback on this one, please share your idea here!

Next month, we'll be sharing more about using Study Island and CPS together! Until then, Kansas teachers can check out StudyIsland here!

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Quote of the Month...

Mar 6	CPS Demo - Valley, NE
	CPS Demo - Ashland, NE
Mar 11	CPS Demo - Bellevue, NE
	IWB/CPS Demo - St. Wenceslaus School, Omaha, NE
Mar 12	CPS Training - Humboldt, NE
Mar 13	CPS Training - Beatrice, NE
Mar 14	Chalkboard Demo - Lexington, NE
	CPS Demo/Meeting - Millard Schools, Omaha, NE
	CPS Demo - Overton, NE
Mar 19	UNL Technology Fair - Lincoln, NE
Mar 20	CPS Training - Elkhorn, NE
	CPS Intro Training - Omaha, NE
Mar 24	CPS Demo/Meeting - Millard Schools, Omaha, NE
Mar 25	CPS Demo/Meeting - Millard Schools, Omaha, NE
Mar 26	CPS Training - Centennial, NE
Mar 27	CPS Training - Oxford, NE
	CPS Demo/Meeting - Millard Schools, Omaha, NE
Apr 2	CPS Training - Papillion, NE
Apr 5	Science Olympiad - Lincoln, NE
Apr 17	CPS Training - Papillion, NE
Apr 18	NAMLE Conference - North Platte, NE
Apr 24-25	NETA - Omaha, NE

FYI...Most PDS trainings are open to local attendees. Please contact us if you see a PDS on this list or on our calendar that you would like to attend!

Do you have a suggestion for an education-related conference, trade show, or meeting not on our calendar? We'd love to know about it and might even be able to attend, so please contact us and tell us about it!

Using Clickers in a Station Setting...

At our Clickers, Clickers, Everyday! training hosted at ESU #3 in early February, trainees participated in a station setting involving clickers. Five stations were set up around the lab, with 2 questions at each station. Each group moved from station to station answering the questions on their clickers.

This would work fantastic in a science lab setting where organisms might need to be identified. When I taught zoology, as well as aquatic science, we often did our tests in this way. Almost all of my college lab tests were set up in this manner. Clickers would have come in so handy!

Believe it or not, I think it would even work during 1st grade stations. When students are left on their own to complete a specific task as their station, clickers can hold them accountable for using their station time wisely.

Granted, just like any of your other classroom procedures, your students will have to be "trained" to pay attention to the question numbers on their answer sheet. It is just a good practice to have them answer on their answer sheet and also enter their answer into the clicker before leaving the station.

This activity can be done with the RF remotes as explained above. However, you also can use the IR remotes by having students complete the lab on paper. At the end of the lab, using the Teacher-Led SMA Mode, students can log their answers with the teacher leading them, one question at a time.

Download a generic 5-station, 10-question answer sheet.



From the Desk of...Dustin Frank

The new year has brought about some exciting changes for eInstruction. As the industry's leading response pad company, we’ve continued to add to our solution by merging with Interwrite Learning and offering “Simple Solutions, Real Results!” eInstruction now offers a complete solution, including response pads, interactive whiteboards, and ExamView test generator software all in one. Our new interactive whiteboards are also the only board on the market that can be used as both a dry erase board and an interactive board, so no more wasted space when mounting on the walls.

Tired of piecing together programs from all over and trying to get them to communicate or share resources? Take a break and let eInstruction be your complete solution. Seamless integration of the entire package truly allows teachers all the tools they need right at their fingertips and all working together.

We understand many of the struggles facing teachers in the class...we've been there. Rest assured that while we continue to distance ourselves from the competition, our main focus is to make your job easier and more effective.

Sincerely,

Dustin K. Frank

Do you need additional information about eInstruction’s CPS or have pricing or training questions we can answer? Feel free to contact us!