Abacus Evolve Foundation

[Guest Kristine]

Hello,

 

This is my first post. I am delighted to have finally found the FSF, and hope to chat with many of you in future

 

I am working to set up an Early Years class in a primary school (International school overseas) and I have been asked to introduce Abacus Evolve. Hee Hee.... I can hear you all saying... Does she know what week it is?... Yes! Yes!...

I have a few of the books and have been assured the rest are on the way... LOL

Maybe the problem I am having understanding AE is with the CD's that came with the pack??... could there be a mistake? In the planning there are ICT slides for the interactive whiteboard? Do you all have a CD with those on it?

I have the software for making my own slides - easiteach? and the planning software. I don't see anything that looks like those slides? Do you have that? Or are they online? Am I totally missing the plot? Do any of you out there know what I am talking about? Please help!!

I'd love to know:

How do you all find Abacus Evolve?

How much time do you spend on AE in total for the week approx?

How have you incorporated it into your other programmes? and how successfully?

 

thanks for your comments - Kristine x

[Guest]

Hi, welcome the the forum.

 

Not sure if I can be much help but I will try.

 

We have Abacus Evolve for Foundation. Ours comes with 2 CD-Roms. One is an interactive planning one which lets you adapt plans, and the other is the ITR (interactive teaching resources) which are easyteach activitites to support whole class and small group work. There is also a teachers guide and planning cards for each week. You can also get a photocopy masters book and children's workbooks.

 

Personally I'm not a fan at all for a number of reasons but I do like the whiteboard resources and often use these and also follow roughly the medium term plan for coverage.

 

For me it is not very flexible, relies on a book for each weeks work (which I don't have many of), and has literacy hour style activities alongside each weeks planning. Some activities are good but on the whole i tend not to use them and would use the old free abacus plans from hamilton site in preference most of the time. I think the workbooks aren't great either - lots of literacy activities in these too.

 

Thats just my opinion and others may disagree. Having said that we have it in Y1 and Y2 and the teachers reallly like it.

[Guest Kristine]

Thanks Phil,

 

I have three CDs. Two named interactive resources but seem to be the same thing? easiteach.

The other is the planning. When I go into the planning CD there is a section in there which says interactive resources. In that, is slides for each week. Where do I find those? I would imagine these are a fundamental part of the programme.

 

I see what you mean about the books. I have brought it up myself with the principal, but our primary teachers love the AE so it looks like it is staying. I plan to use other material as well - as I see you are doing too

 

Sorry Phil, I am a bit slow.... those slides in the planning cd under ICT resources... where are they?

 

thanks for your help!

 

Kristine...

 

 

Hi, welcome the the forum.

 

Not sure if I can be much help but I will try.

 

We have Abacus Evolve for Foundation. Ours comes with 2 CD-Roms. One is an interactive planning one which lets you adapt plans, and the other is the ITR (interactive teaching resources) which are easyteach activitites to support whole class and small group work. There is also a teachers guide and planning cards for each week. You can also get a photocopy masters book and children's workbooks.

 

Personally I'm not a fan at all for a number of reasons but I do like the whiteboard resources and often use these and also follow roughly the medium term plan for coverage.

 

For me it is not very flexible, relies on a book for each weeks work (which I don't have many of), and has literacy hour style activities alongside each weeks planning. Some activities are good but on the whole i tend not to use them and would use the old free abacus plans from hamilton site in preference most of the time. I think the workbooks aren't great either - lots of literacy activities in these too.

 

Thats just my opinion and others may disagree. Having said that we have it in Y1 and Y2 and the teachers reallly like it.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Kristine

[Guest Churchers]

Hi Kristine,

 

I think I can help.

 

I also have the Abacus Evolve Kit and although we don't use it much I think I understand the problem.

Once both CD's have been uploaded into your computer system there should be a number of different sections to click on which makes it a little confusing.

Our school has all year groups loaded but I am in Reception. To find my planning layed out as it is in the booklets I go into Abacus Evolve - R Planning. To find the interactive resources themselves I select Abacus Evolve - ITR Reception.

Easyteach is the one which shows the planning and interactive resources as slides as you mention. I'm not really sure why this is there at all as I don't find it useful and it repeats information while being confusing!!

 

I hope this helps

 

Rachel

 

 

 

Thanks Phil,

 

I have three CDs. Two named interactive resources but seem to be the same thing? easiteach.

The other is the planning. When I go into the planning CD there is a section in there which says interactive resources. In that, is slides for each week. Where do I find those? I would imagine these are a fundamental part of the programme.

 

I see what you mean about the books. I have brought it up myself with the principal, but our primary teachers love the AE so it looks like it is staying. I plan to use other material as well - as I see you are doing too

 

Sorry Phil, I am a bit slow.... those slides in the planning cd under ICT resources... where are they?

 

thanks for your help!

 

Kristine...

 

 

Hi, welcome the the forum.

 

Not sure if I can be much help but I will try.

 

We have Abacus Evolve for Foundation. Ours comes with 2 CD-Roms. One is an interactive planning one which lets you adapt plans, and the other is the ITR (interactive teaching resources) which are easyteach activitites to support whole class and small group work. There is also a teachers guide and planning cards for each week. You can also get a photocopy masters book and children's workbooks.

 

Personally I'm not a fan at all for a number of reasons but I do like the whiteboard resources and often use these and also follow roughly the medium term plan for coverage.

 

For me it is not very flexible, relies on a book for each weeks work (which I don't have many of), and has literacy hour style activities alongside each weeks planning. Some activities are good but on the whole i tend not to use them and would use the old free abacus plans from hamilton site in preference most of the time. I think the workbooks aren't great either - lots of literacy activities in these too.

 

Thats just my opinion and others may disagree. Having said that we have it in Y1 and Y2 and the teachers reallly like it.

[Guest]

This is the first time I have ever replied - so here goes.

We have Abacus Evolve and I agree with Churchers that it is very restrictive - the IWB screens are good for whole class teaching, but there is no flexibility in it - however there are good ideas in it and it is good as a fall back.

Good luck with it.

[quote name='Kristine' date='Mar 14 2009, 10:28' post='183267']

 

Hello,

 

This is my first post. I am delighted to have finally found the FSF, and hope to chat with many of you in future

 

I am working to set up an Early Years class in a primary school (International school overseas) and I have been asked to introduce Abacus Evolve. Hee Hee.... I can hear you all saying... Does she know what week it is?... Yes! Yes!...

I have a few of the books and have been assured the rest are on the way... LOL

Maybe the problem I am having understanding AE is with the CD's that came with the pack??... could there be a mistake? In the planning there are ICT slides for the interactive whiteboard? Do you all have a CD with those on it?

I have the software for making my own slides - easiteach? and the planning software. I don't see anything that looks like those slides? Do you have that? Or are they online? Am I totally missing the plot? Do any of you out there know what I am talking about? Please help!!

I'd love to know:

How do you all find Abacus Evolve?

How much time do you spend on AE in total for the week approx?

How have you incorporated it into your other programmes? and how successfully?

 

thanks for your comments - Kristine x

[Guest]

Right. I think the planning CD just shows screenshots of what is on the ITR CD - so that is the one you need. Easiteach is just the programme that Ginn use to display the screens. This is on the ITR disc to install if you don't already have it.

 

If you already have Easiteach installed try this:

 

In My Computer Right click the CD drive and click on 'explore...' (on the ITR disc).

Double click on 'Program Files'

Double click on 'Abacus Evolve Teachers'

Double click on 'Foundation'

Double click on 'ITR'

 

You should now be able to see all the different weeks resources. If you have Easiteach installed you should be able to double click on the one called main_menu and access them all. The setup programme there should install them to your computer if you want.

 

It is a long winded method but will at least be able to see if you have the files.Hope that makes sense

[Guest Kristine]

Thank you ALL you wonderful people!

 

I was beginning to feel a bit on my own in my concerns with AE as it is so popular in primary.

 

Phil, thanks. I will give your specific key strokes a go tomorrow when I go into school - as AE is only on the network.

 

I will let you know how I get on...

 

Kristine x

[Guest Kristine]

OK...

 

Finally, I have it working properly!

 

Thanks Phil!

 

Kristine x