To carry out my GAME plan, there are
three questions I need to ask myself:
1.
What resources will I need to carry out
my plan (media segments, reading, experts or colleagues, etc.)?
For my first goal, I simple need to use my SMART board more.
I have this amazing piece of technology, been in my classroom for almost a year
now, and I still only use it to show the objectives of the day, vocabulary, and
examples of mathematical problems. Some resources I would like to have are “ready-made”
math lessons that incorporate the SMART board, especially if the lesson plans
are interactive. Ideally, I want to have the students get up out of their seats
and come up to the board to participate in class discussions. To gather
information like this, I would need someone to help point me in the right
direction. Where can I find such resources? I am the only math teacher in the
building, so do I ask other buildings in the district? Do I find local math
teachers who also have SMART boards and see how they incorporate it? I have
already attended an “Intro to SMART board” professional development course at
the end of last year. Having one day of note taking and reading a manual is not
going to cut it for me! I need an expert in this field to come into my
classroom and show me how to use and incorporate the board into lesson plans. So
if anyone out there has some material they would like to let me “borrow” or if
you know of someone who can navigate me in the right direction of locating some
material I can “borrow” that would be greatly appreciated!
For my second goal, I will continue using our local
Intermediate School District and the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service
Agency to locate workshops for outside professional development opportunities.
Between these two locations, they offer an overabundance of seminars and
courses that I can attend. The problem is finding the right workshop on the
right day at the right time that works for every one! After gathering all of
this information, the last item I need is permission from the administration to
attend. I need to accumulate a total of 15 days of outside PD before June 30,
2013. I have a scheduled meeting with our district’s curriculum director to
help me gather all needed material. This is my first step to getting all my
ducks in a row for my teaching certification renewal!
Mandie,
ReplyDeleteI teach math too! Which grade do you teach? What are some of the topic you are on?
Just a heads up, you could search for Smartboard activities online on any math topics you wish. Also, Easiteach has similar activities. This may be helpful to you. If you let me know what topics you are on currently or ones you will be getting to soon, I can try to help you find some! I think it is wonderful that you are so enthusiastic about getting started! I too took professional development courses on the Smartboard, but it was much more hands on and beneficial then what you described. We actually were able to practice some activities on the smartboard, search for others lessons and activities, and make ONE for ourselves! Then...we got Polyvision boards in our school. HaHaHa. Don't worry, Smartboard activities work on Polyvision boards, so the professional development day did not go to waste!
On a different note, does your district pay for any professional development workshop you wish to attend? Documenting these courses does not add to your professional development hours? A new professional development opportunity my district has been found of is their own teachers setting up workshops to share information, lesson plans, activities, or their knowledge on technology with others within the district. Perhaps this is an idea you could put forth in your school :)
Mandie,
ReplyDeleteIt is very exciting that you have access to a SmartBoard. I have had mine for about a year (it came in January of last school year). At first I was dreading it's arrival. I felt that my PowerPoints and what I was able to write on the whiteboard were more than enough and that having to deal with the technology involved in the SmartBoard would be too overwhelming (especially in my first year of teaching!).
Now, I do not know what I would do without my SmartBoard. There have been a handful of days over the last year where for one reason or another, a glitch occurred and I couldn't use the SmartBoard for that day. I, like you, teach math. I teach 11th and 12th grade and by no means do I consider myself an expert. I also make no claim of using all of the features and advantages that my board offers. The best advice that I can give you is simply to mess around with the different options. It is unfortunate that you are the only math teacher in your school because other teachers can be a huge resource when it comes to the SmartBoard.
I wonder if you have a local community college that offers technology education courses for students in their education program. Almost everything that I know about my SmartBoard I learned from a course that I took during my undergrad. I think a course like this could really benefit you because it is geared toward using the SmartBoard in a classroom.
Good luck! It sounds like you have plenty of energy and motivation to be successful in reaching your goals!
Mandie,
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about incorporating a Smart Board into my content delivery. This would appear to be a great means by which to conduct kinesthetic interactive experiences with my digital art coursework. Students could physically or digitally, diagram photographs for aesthetic value, present critique of the image development process, and more. The device could provide students with not only an individual use device for demonstration but also provide the students with a collaborative tool for learning. This would provide the student with an opportunity for a whole group learning experience, within the physical classroom environment and as well beyond the walls with access to social networking. The possibility for a distance learning situation could also assist students that are homebound, or in distant classrooms. This raises exciting possibilities, and a desire to obtain one for my classroom.
Jim
Mandie,
ReplyDeleteThe smart board is an amazing tool in the classroom. Students get very excited when they are able to go up and complete activities on the board. It also makes my job so much easier than writing on a regular whiteboard or chalkboard. I do not know what brand your board is, but I use a Promethean board in my classroom. Promethean offers a website with lots of pre-made activities that you can download. The website is www.prometheanplanet.com. I use material from this website a lot, but the kids also just simply like coming up to the board and writing out math problems and solving them. The amount of volunteers to answer a question always goes way up when they know they get a chance to come up to the board. The possibilities with smart boards are endless and I have found the best way is to learn by doing.
Eric
Thanks Eric!
DeleteHi Mandie,
ReplyDeleteI am also a new beginner with my Promethean board. I have the same experience with you about using my board. I also use some resources that are made by other teachers and are free. Some are interactive that my students are enjoying it. Sometimes I made my own slides and I also included video clips or pictures. I don’t know if you use EduTube Educational Videos (www.edutube.org). They have also tons of videos that you can show to your students using your SMART board. They have Math, Science, Technology, History, Arts, and etc. I used it in my Social Studies and Technology classes.
There were teachers from other Catholic School who went to our school and observed us how to use clickers (a digital tools that can be used for assessment/quizzes at the end of the lesson) because they just bought them. No one from their school knows how to operate the clickers, so their principal asked our principal if they could take a visit in our school and show to them how to use the equipment. Maybe that would be a great idea if you can visit to other school in your area and observed them how they incorporate SMART Board to their lesson. Sometimes googling also helps me how to integrate my lessons using my Promethean board. I hope this information will help you a little bit. Have a great night!
Ruel
I know exactly how you feel, but it will get better. When I first got my Smart Board a few years ago I wasn’t in to it. But now, I love it and I can’t teach without it. I had to become familiar with the websites that are available and ready-made for me to use. The students love to use the Smart Board with the interactive games they even love to calibrate the board when it needs to be. These interactive lessons make learning more fun in my classroom for my students. Maybe you should try adding an interactive lesson every other week, then every week, and then increase accordingly. I think by doing this you and your students will begin to enjoy teaching and learning even more memorable. You and the students will begin to love it and can’t live without the Smart Board.
ReplyDeleteJacquelyn, Colleen, Jim, Eric, Ruel, & LaToya,
ReplyDeleteI want to say how amazing and supportive you all are! I appreciate all the resources, input, comments, and motivation you have given me! I had a week off of work due to snow/ice days and now I am ready to head back to work tomorrow with full force!
Thank you so very much,
Mandie :)