Small World...

...yes, that is kind of how my world is these days...

Things on my mind? In a nutshell: my students, learning about my Smartboard, tomorrow's huge district-wide disaster drill, my nephew and the next time I get to see him, the election, and the approaching holidays...

That's pretty much it. I need to expand, don't I?

So, since this is the first full week with the Smartboard in the classroom, I'll show more pictures. The more I learn about it, the more it becomes useful. I like how durable it is. I don't feel like I have to worry too much about how hard the kids tap on it (within limits...)

I had a meeting with the emergency committee after school today, but before that, I had 45 minutes for any of the kids who desired to stay and spend some time with the board. 6 of them did and we had a fun time. Thanks to a board trainer who found my blog yesterday and showed me a site he has, we have discovered a virtual treasure trove of new activities. The kids who stayed had a wonderful time using it, learning, and stayed engaged: (click to see full-sized)

We found an activity where they had to match equivalent fractions. They were working against the clock, which they always like...

Another activity had them naming state capitals and finding states sandwiched between other states. They were running back and forth between the board and the map. It was a lot of fun just to watch them. I look forward to doing this one with the entire class, since this was after school...

Some new adventures on the Smartboard...

When technology and I come in contact with each other, I become a little obsessive. I become determined to know how something works and I want to learn everything I can about it and be an instant expert.

And so it goes with the Smartboard...

I can see why some teachers have become very anti-Smartboard. It does take time and preparation to load something into the computer and get it set up. You need to be very knowledgeable to use it to its full advantage. As of yet, my school has not scheduled any formal trainings, so I'm lucky that I'm pretty technologically adept, but what about those who aren't?

Yesterday I decided to give myself some one-on-one time with the darn thing. I stayed after school for 2 hours working with it and then spent another 2 hours at home going through software to see what would be useful (or not) to use in the classroom. In the room I discovered that our entire math book and social studies book and all of their respective worksheets are on CD-rom. Cool. With the Smartboard you can project a worksheet and then either you or a student can "write" on it with the Smart markers.

I also created some Language Arts activities on the "smart" software that we could do today. Creating them on the board's software made it possible to be able to write on them with the "markers." I think. I haven't tried other word processing software, but I'm starting to get the feeling that it would be possible to write on them with the markers too.

At home I went through all of the math CD-roms. There are 4, and I wanted to see what would be useful for our everyday routine. The most useful is that all of the workmats are on CD-rom, so I can use those for demos, and all of the homework pages are there too.

This morning I felt confident that we could really put the Smartboard to use, so I missed the staff picture because I was setting things up. We corrected the math homework using the board. We did several language arts activities using the board. At the end of the day we did a Social Studies activity using it, and then--because my kids need SO much help with geography, we projected different maps from our text on the board and did a review of the difference between continents, countries, states, cities, etc. Last week I asked the class about a certain city and someone answered "Canada." If that isn't enough to scare a teacher, I don't know what is! 5th grade!

But aside from the cool visuals we were able to use all day, I was impressed with the kids' response. They were engaged, they were excited, hands were raised...this is NOT my class! So, obviously, there is something to this. And in an age where school has to compete with all the digital fun the kids go home to ("video games are evil"--that's my motto) school often falls short no matter how many cartwheels the teacher turns. It isn't enough anymore. Sad, but true.

There is still a lot to learn, but today was a good jump forward.

Here are some bad pictures I took with my cell phone. I need to take my camera and make a little video...I highly recommend clicking on the pictures so you can see them full-sized...

Working with sentences and identifying simple subjects and predicates and complete subjects and predicates. See that gray area at the bottom? That's called a shade, which can be raised or lowered to reveal one question at a time...very cool...

The kids worked in groups and came up with singular nouns to "stump" the rest of the class when we made them plural (some were better than others)...then they took turns coming up and writing the plural...a good opportunity to practice writing on the board...


Some geography review at the end of the day--much needed and very productive! This is a map from their books. They have little white boards and markers at their desks and we talked about different elements on the map, oceans, continents, and some longitude and latitude questions. They like those...

I finally have a Smartboard...

About a year ago we had a staff meeting at my school that was an introduction to the Smartboard. We were all very excited and wondered when they would be distributed around the school. First we had only 2, then 10, and then 2 weeks ago we saw 20 of them in boxes outside the computer lab.

Our computer aide came to each class and asked if we wanted our Smartboard mounted on the wall or in a stand. I chose a stand because I wasn't quite ready to sacrifice wall space. Then one of my colleagues reminded me that when a Smartboard gets bumped it has to be realigned. That thought, plus the size of the stand when they finally delivered mine on Monday, made me rethink my decision.

Yesterday we had our computer lab time and I told our aide that I wanted it mounted on the wall instead. No problem. She also downloaded the software into my school laptop (I nicknamed it "little Mac,) and we got the projector. Before leaving yesterday, I left instructions on the white board about where I wanted the Smartboard mounted and the new places I wanted my maps moved. I need my maps.

This morning I was thrilled that all of my instructions had been followed to a tee (how often does that happen?) and I was very happy with the placement.

Now all I had to do was hook everything up. The computer aide offered to come in at recess, but I was getting impatient to get the blasted thing running and so were the kids.

I got it all hooked up except...I could not figure out how to connect the projector to the laptop. After popping nextdoor, my very helpful neighbor Ramona told me about a little adaptor that came with our laptop. I knew exactly which one she was talking about, it was one that I've been tripping over for the past 3 years and finally took out of the case. It was at home.

Mom to the rescue. I called her and she agreed to bring the adaptor. (I repaid her with a gourmet dinner from In n Out...)

Yay! We were up and running! The kids were so excited. We went onto Starfall.com and practiced manipulating the images on the screen. We can even use it to watch a DVD, and with a set of speakers I have in the room for my Mp3 player, it is like having our own movie theater.

While the kids were in the library later on in the afternoon (teacher planning time) I sat and worked with the software a little. There is, undoubtedly, a lot to learn, and my school currently has no trainings planned, so this is definitely going to have to be a do-it-yourself venture. That's OK. Most of my computer training has been through trial and error and it helps me retain the info better. It is just a little slower.

Still, I'm happy that, after all this time, our Smartboard is finally up. I'm looking forward to using it in the classroom...

Here's a classroom demo I found. Mine is mounted similarly to this one...: