Changing Practices

I'm reviewing some notes for my class which is what this whole blog is for... I had written down a question that I was supposed to ask myself.

"How am I changing my practices with this technology?"

Well I've been thinking about this a lot. Because it's a multi-layered answer. Obviously the SmartBoard changes how I teach dramatically. From a physical standpoint, most of my regular white board is covered with the SmartBoard so I no longer teach using a regular white board. Beyond that basic change, I have changed how I teach lessons. Part of this change comes from how I prepare. After teaching the same thing for now 6 years, I don't need to put much direction in my lesson plans. "pg 16 verbs" would suffice (We mark benchmarks differently for anyone who reads this and wonders why my plans don't include benchmark notations). But now it takes a lot more than that. While the written plan might say "verbs.notebook lesson" instead, I also have to make sure that lesson exists and if it doesn't or I don't like the pre-made ones, I have to make it myself. And that takes more time and effort. At the same time, this time and effort is worth it because I know I'll be able to use it again and again. I feel like I'm dedicating more time to planning and preparing and that extra time reflects well in my presentation.

Another way the SB has changed my practice is by allowing me to integrate web based materials. In the past I had a couple of lessons where I would pull up a web page and then have the students gather around a computer 3-4 at a time. This severely limited my use of the internet and the valuable resources available there. Now I think nothing of pulling up a website and letting the kids go to town exploring and learning.

My classes are now more interactive. I used to spend 10-15 minutes at the beginning of class introducing the concept and reviewing the previous lessons. Then I would put the students in pairs and have them answer questions from the textbook. I knew that this was not the best approach. The kids liked my "lectures" (at least to a point) and I did my best to make them entertaining and memorable. But they were purely auditory and that in and of itself made the lessons less adapted to visual students. Now it's completely different. We've used the textbooks maybe 3 times since the board arrived last October and we used the books WITH the board, not instead of. The students work together using the board. My class is more unruly. They are more talkative and out of their seats. They communicate with each other. They think more. They reason more. They explore. We have broken out of the Catholic School mold of children sitting row by row with their hands folded neatly on their desks and I love it! I am happier with how I teach. I feel more effective as a teacher. I feel like no matter how boring my topic is (and let's face it, most people don't LOVE grammar) my kids will leave class with a smile because they got to answer their questions by dragging something with their finger or clicking on the right box and making it change colors or some other more enjoyable task than sitting and writing with pencil and paper.

And it's not just language arts that receives this benefit. I can show them everything. There hasn't been a time yet where I wanted to show the kids something that I couldn't find available on the Internet. In social studies, we still use textbooks but the kids have developed a sense that the book doesn't have everything in it. Last week we were studying the early Floridians. We were making a chart of the different tribes and one of the questions was about whether the tribes were mound builders or not. Well the book didn't say and that led me to think the answer was no. That answer wasn't good enough for my students who immediately directed me to Google, where they typed in their search terms and discovered that the book had not in fact included the information that the tribe were actually mound builders after all. I get the feeling every day that I use the board that the possibilities are endless. The learning is deeper and more lasting.

I can't really say enough good things about my SB. At one point this year I was getting very frustrated with school and working and being away from my toddler and it was hard and then this board arrived and it changed everything. Has the board changed my practices? It's changed my life :)