Best Practices Page 2

• Technology Competition Winners

• Care of the SmartBoard

• Projector Care

• Using the Classroom Projector Effectively

Projector Care
By Peggy Steffens

Projectors are a wonderful tool for making the one computer in your classroom accessible to all students.  They are an outstanding tool that needs to be taken care of to get the maximum life out of the bulb.  Bulbs for projectors are very expensive, usually costing $200-300 per bulb.  There are several ways to maximize the bulb life:

• Use the Economy mode – check your manual; most projectors have an economy mode that runs the projector at 80 percent of the brightness.  Usually you won’t notice a significant a difference and can make your bulb last longer.

• Keep the projector clean – keep dust away from the projector and clean the filters monthly.  After you clean the filter you will need to reset the filter hours on your projector – it is a choice on the menu.  We have had some bulbs burn out early because there was so much dirt inside the projector.

• Turn off the projector when you aren’t using it – always turn off the projector when you will not being using it for more than 5 minutes.

In addition, some other features you will want to check out in your manual that are common to most projectors include:

• Freezing a picture – this allows you to freeze the current image on the screen for your students while you look at something else on your computer like grades, e-mail, or the next resource to share.

• Enlarging a picture – this allows you to zoom in to any part of the screen to magnify the image.

• Turning off the image – you can usually mute the image so that you can take the attention away from the screen without having to turn off the projector.  However, the bulb is still on when using the picture mute button, so remember to press the picture mute button again to turn the image back on.  Many people forget that they have muted the projector and  then forget to turn it off and they are still using precious bulb time.

Here are some ways that teachers in Amphitheater District are incorporating the classroom projector into their daily activities.  If you have a projector, try adding a few more of these to your daily routine.

• Scan pages from text book and work books and project them and have students explain their reasoning when they demonstrate their work

• Show United Streaming video segments to teach a concept

• Use Google image search to provide background knowledge

• Teach concepts with PowerPoint

• Demonstrate Projects

• Show what you will be doing in the lab prior to going to the lab to make better use of lab time

• Have students demonstrate information

• Show DVDs and Videos

• Display programs on CD-ROMS

• Display math journal pages and work

• Discuss samples of writing - scan and project student writing examples to analyze for 6 traits and edit as a class

• Display Daily Oral Language (DOL) on the projector and bell work and have students make corrections on the computer

• Share lessons you have created on the projector

• Use a screen timer to monitor time  - there is a great free screen timer at http://www.ncrtec.org/timer/

• Brainstorm ideas with the group so that everyone can see the ideas and they can be printed out at a later time or posted on your web page

• Create a concept map with the class using Inspiration or Kidspiration

• Use Google Earth to show geography examples

• Display graphic organizers

Many teachers share that it is important to get in the habit of using the projector every day, even for routine things. Once it becomes second nature it gets easier and easier to plan lessons using it with more depth. Many teachers take advantage of the projector in their classroom before they have scheduled lab time. Prior to going to the computer lab, the students review the lesson in class by visiting the website or activity. The teacher walks them through what they will be doing step-by-step. This gives students an opportunity to ask questions and clear up anything that they don't understand. The objectives are explained and students know what to expect when they get to the lab. This has helped eliminate the confusion when students arrive in the lab and allows them to maximize the time in the computer lab. The bonus is that they enjoy lab time more because they know what to do, they know what the objectives are, and they know how to achieve the objectives. Another classroom management technique is to tell the students that they must ask the person on the left or right if they can’t remember how to do something and when a child raises their hand, the teacher goes to the child on either side of them to verify that they could not help the child.  This causes the children to work together to problem solve and the teacher doesn’t frantically bounce all over the lab with minor issues and can concentrate on the major ones.

Take advantage of these ideas to get the most out of a classroom projector.