Christmas

What a week it has been! Our school’s Christmas play was last night—they were amazing! We have definitely gone off our normal routine since many classes were shortened or canceled due to play practice but I found it really easy to do a prepared SMART notebook lesson when the class was short. I rarely get to do whole group activities in reading so I took an opportunity to focus on some different things like cause and effect and inferencing.

I decided to sit down and write some thoughts on what is going well and what things need work still. One thing I’m noticing that is a huge advantage is being able to pull up previous lessons. On the regular board, when something is erased it’s gone but I have a “scratch sheet” set up for each topic and I add pages to it each day and save it. That way I can refer back to it when needed. I have been able to print out notes for kids who missed class and also for kids who were there in class but need review. Every teacher has that “know it all” who likes to point out things like, “you didn’t say that!” well, with that particular student in my class I’m able to pull the notes back up and point out where that information has been provided. Very helpful and saves needless conflict.

Another thing that I really like is being able to move objects. If I’m demonstrating writing a sentence and I decide to add a word, I can simply move part of the sentence over and insert the new word. Students enjoy doing this with their own sentences or helping add to other students’ sentences. I am really seeing how this is helping the writing process. Students who have trouble visualizing the structure of an essay can see paragraph structure on the smart board and I’m seeing a lot less confusion and a lot more writing.

There have been some disadvantages though and while I wouldn’t trade the board for anything at all, I do wish I could get to the bottom of some continuing behavior issues related to the board. Sometimes when kids are taking their turn they take forever to answer a question, or they will drag whatever object they are manipulating all over the screen instead of simply moving it to the correct place and answering the question. There is a lot of competition over who uses the board the most. I try to keep things as even as possible but I fear sometimes that they spend too much brain power keeping a running tabulation of who has used the board when and for how long.

Another thing is that I’m finding it harder to keep the class in order when they are using the board. I have kids jumping out of their seats and arguing over who is going to get to touch the board or write on it. I love the enthusiasm and I’m not one of those teachers who insists on perfect hands-folded-on-the-desk behavior but I can’t have chaos either, it’s quite frowned upon. So one of the ways I’ve found to keep things even and orderly is to come up with a random but set order. For example, one class we might take turns by alphabetical order or sometimes by birthday or age (since it’s a multi age class). Other times I’ve passed out president cards and whoever had the older president gets to go first and so on. We’ve had fun thinking of creative ways to take turns and it definitely helps but it also takes some of the spontaneous fun out of things. I think there must be a balance and I’m still looking for it.

Fun with MadLibs

Another great find—funbrain.com! They have this section of Mad Libs stories. The kids not only get to think about parts of speech but they get exposed to a variety of random and sometimes unusual words. The colorful words bounce across the screen and the kids work together, shouting out their word choice as another student chases down their selection. In the end, one student reads the story to the class. I think this is helping kids see how different parts of speech are structured in a sentence and also places where descriptive vocabulary can be used. We used to kill time at the end of class being not so productive but now I have a quick easy and educational filler lesson for those times when we get done a little bit early.

Second Participation Log

Lesson: The Special Verb “be” using http://www.funbrain.com/verb/index.html
First Count: 7/7 (Students absent or at speech)

Second Count: 6/7

Third Count: 7/7
Notes: I had decided to do the log today and I thought maybe I shouldn’t since so many kids were out but it went pretty well anyway. Only one student was off task today. He was playing with something inside his desk and I had to go over and remove the item (an eraser). After that he was involved in the lesson. They really seemed to like the game on FunBrain.

Just Chatting

Well we’ve been trucking along and things are still going well. Of course we had a shortened week last week with the holiday but now we’re back to work. I still teach grammar. I’ve heard a lot of public schools no longer teach grammatical conventions and parts of speech. Wow that is somewhat shocking?! How can kids learn how to write if they don’t understand the basics of a sentence? Well I guess I’m feeling “old school” but I’m teaching verbs right now. I have found dozens of good pre-made SMART notebook activities that I can download but I’ve practiced making a few too. Yesterday I gave a lesson where I used the textbook (oh how ancient) as a guide. I used it for the questions and then I made a word bank. The kids got up in a line in front of the board and I set the timer for 2 minutes. They had to silently answer any question they could and then go to the back of the line. When it was the next student’s turn, he or she had the option of answering their own new question or correcting someone else’s mistake. The goal was to silently answer all the questions correctly in under 2 minutes.

Well can you believe THEY DID IT? This group seldom can get a pencil and paper out in less than 5 minutes and most of the time, working independently from the textbook they don’t come close to finishing the lesson. So this was GREAT! I think a big part of it was that they didn’t get bogged down with the mechanics of writing because they could just drag their finger across the screen to answer a question. Another thing was that they were working together and so one wrong answer didn’t fall on that one person who made the mistake—everyone else had a chance to correct it—so it was a great group activity. Finally, I think the fact that they had to evaluate all the questions AND the answers and were able to complete the activity in a game like setting was a key factor for making this lesson work. I will definitely be trying something like this again in the future.

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/

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.

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

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.

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.