January Reflection - Three and 1/2 Months with the SMART Board…

Three and 1/2 Months with the SMART Board…


Will Teaching Ever Be the Same??

1. English Language Arts: Lessons via the SMART board. The students have not lost their interest in language building lessons in this format. I downloaded a few lessons/activity question sets from the SMART Technologies on-line resource. To access these resources, go to: (http://www.education.smarttech.com/ste/en- US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/default.htm)

The following are lessons that I have used…

 Introduction to Grammar ( introduction to parts of speech)

 Figures of Speech Question Set

 Word Identity Parts of Speech Question Set (easy for grades 3-6… but a good review for grade 7-8)

 Paragraph Writing (again for grades 4-5, but a good review)

 Punctuation “Skool” Lesson (“Punk Rock” Teens and a “semi-animatronics” British voice take us through an excellent lesson. I had the students also make notes as they participated in the lesson).

Anyways, there are many others, I recommend just checking out the site.

On-line there is a plethora of resources that can aid in teaching. Being able to show students information on the Internet and discuss it or play news clips – then pause and discuss what we are seeing has allowed our class more opportunities for discussion and opportunities to make connections. Having the information on-line and visible for the whole class also reduces photocopying. Teaching students how to make jot-notes as a whole group, model effective practice with the students also has been very beneficial. Overall, it seems like the level of engagement for simple things like making jot notes or out-lines via the SMART board has also been increased.

Another practice that I have found simple, yet effective is starting my day with Daily Oral Language Lessons via the SMART board. Initially I would just type sentences with mechanical and usage issues, the students would copy and correct, then we would share our corrections and discuss the lessons behind the corrections. Now I’ve taken the DOL lessons further, the students still have sentences and paragraphs to correct, but now the passages’ topic connects to what we are studying in other subjects. One thing I love is that it beats work sheet after work sheet, and it’s far more interactive.

When we were studying Greek Mythology and students were preparing to write their own myth, we used sites like: http://teacher.scholastic.com . On this site we explored the “Myths Writing Workshop”. There were some great interactive tools for students such as the “mythmachine” or samples of other students’ myth writing. These student written pieces, were also effective for analyzing craft. Other useful sites for myth writing included: www.readwritethink.com and www.mythman.com. Some of these sites have myths online with cute eye-catching animations too. Why is it better to explore these sites first as a class? First, students have the chance to ask questions as a group while we all look at the same thing; second, students can learn to use the technology as a group, then if they have access to computers at that particular moment (ie, laptops) they can more easily navigate through computer oriented projects or assignments (modeling).

Lastly, our latest unit of study has been an exploration of issues in Justice and Human Rights. Having the SMART board so quickly accessible, has been wonderful for accessing Human Rights related videos via United Nations High Commission, CBC or even interactive games that capture the students imagination of what it’s like to be a refugee (Refer to www.darfurisdying.com and www.playagainstallodds.com for these interactive learning games). Of course it’s more than just playing games, it’s opportunities to read, view, listen and finally “experience” what it’s like to be a refugee via technology.

In this unit of study, I hope to also go further with responding to what we read, view or discuss in class through blogging at Edublogs. I have to always remember that with projects such as these, there is a certain amount of time necessary in order to implement the new project, not to mention a learning curve in learning how to use the site. But with patience, we will move towards our goal!

2. Math: Sometimes it can be difficult to have a super interactive lesson everyday for the students, but I have found it useful to just use the SMART board as the tool for recording lessons (procedures, steps and examples for solving). It’s not always “flashy”, but obviously indispensable, especially if I wish to review with students what we explored in the previous class. Reviews go much faster and if a student misses a class, they can copy anything they miss because it’s recorded!

Recently we completed a unit in percent. In this unit we need to utilize percent grids to help students understand the concept of “out of 100”. Rather than painstakingly creating grids on the white board, I just downloaded a percent grid image from the Internet and copied and pasted it into a SMART notebook page and… voila… a nice, neat percent grid that actually helped the students understand better! This strategy also came in handy when we were exploring Pythagorean relationship or measuring angles… the SMART interactive protractor was also a fun tool to use when teaching how to use this device.

3. Social Studies: Most recently we have a great deal of time viewing news clips or viewing slide shows reflecting the devastation in Haiti. As part of current events, I wanted them to learn how to write an expository essay on an issue that has impacted Canadians. Originally this essay was supposed correlate with ELA and Canadians in Afghanistan, but with the earthquake the subject matter slightly changed. For over a week, the students were able to view news clips, read blogs by famous young Canadians like Craig Kielburger, and view slide shows of distressing images. We explored the poverty stricken status of Haiti pre-disaster and post disaster. What I have noticed is that this event is really reaching the hearts of the students and this is definitely reflected in their writing. Of course, aside from the news-oriented value of having the SMART board, it has also been a valuable tool for students in terms of posting information such as the format of an expository essay, effective leads and clincher conclusions.

4. Arts Ed: Most recently we have been studying Music in Arts Ed. With the help of Michelle Richter, I learned about an amazing interactive tool on the Stomp Pulse Odyssey website (www.pulsethemovie.com). On the website I accessed a great unit plan to accompany the Stomp video and music cd (also borrowed from Ms. Richter). The best part however is interactive tools like the “Beat Chaser” or the “Sound Lab”. These tools are really best via the SMART board. Not to mention being able to access You tube to view music videos or clips from Blue Man Group.

With the SMART board, I’ve really had the chance to do many of the activities that I wanted to do, and it doesn’t take tons of photocopies or the extra time to order videos… Almost everything I need is made much more accessible!! Once again, all I need is just more time to explore the interactive software… I just remind myself, one step at a time!