Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Old Meets New

Today was pretty exciting. It is the half day before Thanksgiving and it was rather crazy how many students were absent. I had planned, as I usually do now, a Smart Board activity which I thought would be fun and engaging on a day before a holiday. I found this great page on the Scholastic Website all about Thanksgiving. My first class had 8 (out of 10) students present so they just sat at their desks but my second class only had 4 kids present so I had them bring their chairs around the board, that way each child could touch and interact with the board without waiting to be called upon or walk up to the front of the room. It felt so neat to teach this way. The site is jam packed with information too. Even I learned several new things. What I keep thinking about is how this would not be possible without the board. Sure, the kids could take turns looking at the web site on the computer but what would I be doing with the rest of the students? And when they interact with the website independently what things would they be missing that I needed to explain to them? I used to want a laptop for each student but this is so much better!

Scholastic Thanksgiving Website
http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

Thursday, November 19, 2009

First Participation Log

Lesson: PastTense.notebook lesson--adding suffix -ed, irregular verbs, doubling the final consonant.
Number of Students Engaged/Number of Students in Class
First Count: 10/10

Second Count: 10/10

Third Count: 10/10

Notes: Students were fully engaged throughout the lesson. Some were a little over enthusiastic. I think the newness of the board is still working in my favor. It didn’t hurt that the principal was in the room. Some students weren’t behaved perfectly but they were all engaged in the lesson.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Finding a Groove

We’re getting more and more used to the Smart Board in our daily routine. Instead of the kids always asking if we’re going to use the board in class they are starting to just expect it. I’m feeling some personal pressure to make sure the board lives up to their expectations but I realize that by itself it’s just a fancy piece of electronics and it’s up to me to guide the lessons to make sure they are getting everything out of it that they should. I have found several downloadable Smart Notebook presentations but the greatest find for me has been from the BBC website. It’s called “Treasure Hunt” and if the kids answer the subject/verb agreement question correctly they get to hunt for treasure. They’re actually getting pretty good at it and it’s definitely the first time they’ve ever begged me to do something this academic!

Here’s a link to the site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/verbsubjectagreement/game.shtml

Monday, November 9, 2009

In Their Own Words

I'm trying to get my data together in anticipation of what I might be doing next semester in my graduate class. I am hoping that the final Practicum assignment will be open ended enough that I can apply my work on studying the SMART Board and how it helps my kiddos. Since I already kinda started on this project during the current semester, I have an idea about where I want to go with it but what I've already done is only the tip of the iceberg. Just to be prepared I asked my students a few questions so I could record their attitudes towards the SB. Here's a record of what they said:

We have had the Smart Board for 2 weeks. What are some of the things you like about it?

It’s awesome
It can do everything.
I like touching the board
When you write it feels funny.
I like to use my finger to write on the board.
I like using the Internet on the board.
It’s more fun to do stuff on the board than in (text) books.
We had one in my old school, so it’s not that neat to me.
When I missed class Mrs. Bennett printed out the stuff I missed. That was cool!

What are some things you don’t like about it?

It’s really big. It makes the room feel smaller.
The thing sticks out funny (The projector)
Sometimes it’s hard to write on it.
If someone touches the board when you are trying to use it, it won’t work.
People get really noisy when we use the smart board. Sometimes people get out of their seats when they’re not supposed to.


How do you think this will change your learning?

It will help us understand more.
Mrs. Bennett will be able to show us stuff instead of just saying it.
We can see things right in front of us instead of having to always read it.
I think it will make learning better and more interesting than before.
Sometimes books are boring but when we use the board it’s easy to pay attention.
Everyone likes using the board because it’s the best. We’re the luckiest class in the whole school.
It might make me get all As.
I think my parents might buy me one cause it helps me learn better.

What are you most looking forward to doing with the board?
I don’t know
Playing games
Watching movies
I don’t know everything it does.
Drawing pictures on the board.
Using books less than before.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Training

Well good things have been happening! I am seeing first hand what a draw this board is in my class. On a most basic level, I can use my computer a LOT more! There are so many times that I have wanted to show my kids something and had to make them gather around my desktop. Well I have a laptop now which was good because I could bring it to them but now I find myself just saying, "Oh let me show you" and that is such a great way to learn!

Well I was still disappointed in myself because I had not really covered a REAL lesson using the SB the way it was intended. That was until yesterday. Now I was really unsure about the notebook presentation I downloaded. It was for first graders. I thought, they'll see right through this and think it's for babies. But nope-- NOT AT ALL! I made a few changes so it wasn't so babyish and they LOVED it. They were practically leaping over each other to get a chance to come up and touch the board and drag the characters across it to see if they got the right answer. It would have been a boring lesson-- I know. I've taught it for 5 years in a row now. But instead I had everyone's focus and attention and I had every hand raised. It was incredible!

So today, I tried a different lesson. I made it into a game and it was very basic but yet again they LOVED it! I also thought of ideas on how to modify it on the fly so we did that too and get this, not ONE SINGLE STUDENT told me it was getting to be close to lunch time. Usually they sit and watch the clock (well, in fairness the clock had to be moved to accommodate the board but even so) but today they wanted to keep going even if it meant being late for lunch!

Then this afternoon I had training. It was the best training session I've ever attended on any topic. I was pretty happy with myself for having discovered quite a bit on my own in the last 2 weeks but my head is now swimming with ideas on ways that I can use the SB. The trainer was awesome!

Honestly, I feel like this was just what I needed. I was feeling slightly burned out which is bad for someone only 6 years into a career. I was missing my baby boy at home. But now I am so excited to go to work every day. I hope the enthusiasm never wears off!

I GOT A SMARTBOARD!

Part of this is for my class but part of this is just for me to get some feedback and document my thoughts as I undertake what is quite possibly the most exciting thing that has happened in my career thus far. I am going to post my first three entries below and then I hope to continue adding to this blog on a regular basis! "Tech Style" is Back!

10/21/09
My SmartBoard is here! The guy is installing it in my room right now. The kids have gone home and I’m about to leave too. I wish I could stay but I don’t want to pay the nanny extra and hey, I’ve got this board as long as I’m teaching here which may well be forever. The kids are so excited. They know it will be here tomorrow and have been talking about it all day long. I am sure I won’t get much done in the morning because they’ll all want to see it. This board is requiring some changes to my classroom set up. It’s a lot bigger than I expected so I’m having to move some things around. It’s not really a big deal though. It’s worth it to have this board that I’ve been practically begging for for the last 2 years.

10/22/09
Wow that was a whirlwind day. The kids reacted about the way I expected them to. There were a lot of “woah” and “can I use it?” responses. A few of them even asked me if they could take it home! Ha! As if! Jimmy was the only one who really couldn’t handle the major change in the classroom. He got really upset and started yelling. That sort of outburst is pretty typical of him though. It is because of his disability. The rest of the responses were very positive. It took me most of the day to get it all set up. I could have set it up more quickly but I was obviously teaching and spending a minute or two here and there while the kids were working made it pretty hard to get it set up. I had to get Mr. Reed to come in and finally get the last thing taken care of and then all of the sudden it was up and running. I gave each student a chance to write on the board using the electronic pens. They were so excited. It turned out to be a good move to let them all try it out too because some of them found it was trickier to write on than they expected. A bunch of the other teachers stopped by to see what the board looked like when it was up and running. Our class was definitely in the spotlight today! Overall their enthusiasm was even better than I expected and I know they will still be buzzing about it tomorrow.

10/26/09
The newness has not yet worn off from the installation of the board. I still haven’t been trained on how to use it so I feel like I’m just on the tip of the iceberg with regard to the capabilities of this tool. It’s so exciting to be able to quickly and easily pull up a piece of information or a picture without always trying to describe it. I have a handful of kids who have auditory processing problems and they are really helped by the visuals I can give them. Today we were reading Meiko and the Fifth Treasure, which is about a girl who experienced the bombing of Nagasaki during WWII. Last week I tried to explain what the bombs were like and today I just pulled up some pictures that the whole class could see. We had a good discussion as a result and that made me feel like I was really blending the subjects and creating interest. I also keep getting a lot of questions from the other teachers about how it’s going. I still don’t know much about how to use it yet so I’m really looking forward to the training.