custom google search for lincut

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Using Smart Board to create Lessons

Last week in week 4 we looked at creating lessons in smart board using the gallery and the tool kit.   I am impressed with the lessons that you came up with and I think your comments on using the toolkit were valid.  It might have been overkill to ask you to look at premade lessons and to create 3 lessons with 10 pages each at different levels but if we do not practice using something how can we get a feel for it.  I appreciate that most you you were willing and able to accomplish this goal. 

My reasoning behind having you do this was to give you and authentic experience.  Most of you are not in a classroom yet and I am sure that the tools that I am sharing with you this term seem useless and pointless.  But I absolutely believe that the use of smart board in the classroom can enhance most lessons.

By creating lessons I find myself reordering how I want to teach something in the classroom.  I am able to see the flow of information that I want to present to the students.  It makes me present the information in smaller pieces, with constant review and reinforcement.  Plus I see the lesson from the perspective of the students and so I can hopefully see how they are going to be able to interact with it.  Not every lesson that I present in using the toolkit is exemplary and some may seem repetitive and tedious but I see the value of the lessons when I am able to engage my low level learners at the same time as my TAG students.  I know that I am on the right track when I see the student that never participates waving his/her hand to access the board or use a computer to complete a project.

I am reinvigorated as an educator when I know that I have engaged and promoted learning for a short time in everybody that day.  I know there are days that I am a boring, homework giving, droning, and another rule creating individual for some of my students so when they are smiling and engaged in learning (which is the norm in my classroom) then I am a ‘happy’ teacher.

18 comments:

Mrs. Tenkely said...

I find the same thing when I use my Promethean board, any time we can engage those kids who would normally slump down in their seats and pretend to be invisible is a win!

kdonnell said...

I have enjoyed learning about smartboard and how benefical it can be in a classroom. However I feel making my lesson plans was a big struggle. First of all it was somewhat frustrating coming up with a topic. Then as I tried to make different pages interactive and technically advanced, I found myself having to look up and re-learn some of what we did last Wednesday. While I enjoyed making my lesson plan I wish we could have spent more time really learning how to use things from the gallery.

See you in class. I will try to stay positive so you can be that HAPPY teacher that you want to be.

Caitlin Castonguay said...

I have also enjoyed learning about smartboard. I think it is a classroom tool that will be used a lot when I eventually have my own class. Making the lessons plans was difficult because I didn't feel like I knew what a proper lesson plan should look like or be. However, I liked using the lesson tools on smartboard because they are fun games, while being educational.

Mary P. said...

I agree with Caitlin. Making the lesson plans has been challenging to me. On the other hand it is really cool to make them and pretend for 10 min that I am out of college. I am getting used to the tools and games and some are pretty cool.

Anonymous said...

I like using smartboard to creat lesson plans, it has so many materials that are available to you, it makes it very easy. As far as the actual lesson planning goes, I found it difficult to make a lesson plan because I wasn't sure what one really looked at. But after searching the web, I was able to figure it out.

Unknown said...

I am so excited that I now know how to use smartboard. You have given us the tools and knowledge to be beneficial and effective in the classroom and I definitely think that in order to be able to have the students understand and engage with the material it is important that we first practice and master the material ourselves. Smartboard is an amazing tool for the classroom but only effective if you know how to use it. I really appreciate the tutorials you have given us, they have been extremely helpful in "mastering" this advanced tool.

ducks1 said...

i enjoy using smartboard and I think as an educator you need to find different ways to present information to students. not every student is going to take in information the same and i think with smartboard it allows students to engage with the lesson. I find smartboard very beneficial.

tmdmacdonald said...

I am excited to learn how to use the smartboard tools more effectively and quickly. I struggled with my 3 lesson plans and spent 3 solid hours (not even kidding)working on one and having problems with the text animation and games not working properly. I feel as though I learned a lot and will continue to play around with it to learn more and be more adept at creating lessons with smartboard. It has a lot of great tools to offer and helps inspire new ideas with activities/games they provide.

It does take practice though, that's for sure.

katelyn said...

This past week's homework assignment was a lot of fun. I enjoyed creating my own lesson plans and felt like I was preparing for a real life class, rather than just finishing up my homework. Learning how to effectively use smart board will definitely benefit me in the future because I have already had hands on experience with making my own math lesson for first graders. The tools you have taught us so far will be so beneficial for my future classes and I really appreciate all your hard work so far!

joann zhang said...

I thought making the SmartBoard lesson plans were fun and interesting. I think as we enter into the school systems, more and more schools will be using smart boards, therefore, I think it is good that we are learning how to. However, after making the first lesson plan, I thought I already had a good grasp on how to make a good lesson, therefore the other two lesson plans seemed unnecessary.

Overall though, I thought it was good, and very useful!

Allie Cook said...

I liked learning about smart board. I didn't realize that a program like this existed and I could see myself using this in the future in my own classroom. Playing around will all the different tools and gallery items helped me to learn how to use the program. The only down fall is how much battery and power it takes from my computer. The program would also force quit a few times and I made to make sure to save every couple of minutes. But overall I think it's a useful program.

Jen said...

I am thrilled that I now know how to use smartboard. It is the greatest tool that I have seen as far as technology in the classroom. I think that this is a great resource for educators and allows for much more student interaction. Because I have learned to use smart board early I feel as though I am better prepared for my future in the classroom.

ashmm said...

I really liked learning how to use smartboard. I can really see myself using it a lot in the classroom. I loved finding all the different tools avalible pre-prepared for me. It did take a really long time for me to make a quality lesson which was a good wake-up call as to how much time a teacher has to put into the lesson plan.

Anonymous said...

Creating Smartboard lessons was a great experience for me, I really enjoyed learning how to use this tool. I could see myself using it to create more visual appeal and engage the students more actively in their own learning. I did feel like three lessons was a bit much for one week, but I felt really good about my first lesson I made. It was one I could actually use in class right now if I were teaching.

Kristi said...

I had a lot of fun working with this new tool but it was very time consuming and slightly out of reach for my age groups but the fun thing that I feel I could use for with this tool is playing jeopardy via math and alphabetical things. I love the idea of games and learning co-in siding together.

Loretta said...

Doing lesson plans was very challenging.. I am fairly impressed with how teachers can integrate the knowledge they have to teach and make the lessons fun at the same time. SmartBoard is a very advancing technology tool that save the teachers a lot of time from creating materials from scratch...Truly amazing.

Hannah Ross said...

I have really liked using smart board, I think its a great way to have a more interactive classroom environment.

CareyCarr21 said...

I liked smart board... Did we have to submit all three? I thought you would only want to look at one from each of us since there is only so many people in the classroom....