We’ve been in a rush to get the speeches done so we can start practicing them. I like to have the students practice for at least 2 weeks before giving their speech before the judges. I bet this seems like a really long time to an ordinary classroom teacher who would probably send his or her students home and tell them to practice it there. My kids need to feel comfortable in the environment where they will perform so we practice a LOT. It’s also neat because the repetition helps the other kids learn the facts of all the speeches. If they only heard it once or twice they would not process the information but after hearing each other’s speeches several times they start to learn new things. I guess there is not really a whole lot about Smart Boards in this posting but I guess what I’m trying to explain is why we’re not using it as much for writing these days.
Here’s what I’ve learned from this speech process:
The Smart board helps kids understand—
Paragraph structuring
Outlines
Search techniques
Editing
I don’t even have to compare one year to the other to see that these speeches are the best written I have ever seen. I’ll freely admit that there were times in the past where I had to essentially write the whole thing for students but this year EVERY single student had something written down, even if it wasn’t a complete essay it was far more than just a start. I have many of the same kids I had last year but I also have new kids. I have some very talented writers but I also have kids who struggle severely. The only change has been the Smart Board so I have to conclude that these positive changes can be attributed to this new technology. I can’t wait to crunch the numbers.
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