Year End Reflection
I began the 2010-2011 school year overwhelmed since I was starting a new grade so everything I had created last year with the SMART notebook, I was unable to use it again. So my goal that I had set for the 2010-2011 school year was to just get create more SMART notebooks for that coincided with my new grade level as well as set up a school blog that I would use as my main means of communication with parents. It was difficult at first because I was learning new curriculum. As I became familiar with new curriculum, creating notebooks and integrating technology became easy again. I started on day one with blogging with parents and updating my blog on a daily basis. There were days when it was hard to update it as I had to leave right afterschool for coaching extra-curricular but I was able to make it work. Many positive comments have been made by parents that the blog is a useful communication tool. Therefore I would say my technology success this year was creating a classroom blog and creating SMART notebooks for Language Arts, Science and French curriculum. I would also like to say that another technology success for me this year was moving on the “Technology Integration Matrix. I would say that I am at the “Infusion” stage with some “adaption” still.
Another area that I feel I had success with this year was in the area of mentoring. I have had the opportunity for mentoring with the other Grade 8 teacher at our school. We do a great deal of sharing between subjects. It has been quite funny because many times when I would be teaching her students, I needed my own room to use the SMART board. The problem was that she had also planned a lesson with my students and needed the SMART board too. So I guess that is a good thing that we were fighting over who was going to get to use the SMART board. One of us would then run down to book the other SMART board in the school to book it, but it too would be in use by another teacher. So the SMART boards are getting used in our school. It would be nice to have time at a staff meeting or on a TPD to get a few minutes to show the teachers in our school some of the neat pieces of technology that are out there. There have been many teachers at my school asking me if there is going to be more teachers that can apply for the SMART project so it is obviously something teachers find value in!
One of the experiences that I value in the SMART program is the opportunity that we are given for PD days. I believe it is so important to continue to provide SMART teachers with PD opportunities like the ones we had this year. I am able to accomplish so much when I have these days. Learning about Twitter and iGoogle was an eye opening experience for me. PD days give me the opportunity to explore and learn when regular school days are so busy. I also like the personal PD day that we get as well. This year I spent my day planning and creating SMART notebooks for a Greek Mythology unit. It was nice to just explore and play with SMART notebook, knowing that I would be providing my students with unique learning opportunities. The collaboration with other SMART teachers is rejuvenating and exciting. We can bounce ideas off each other and learn from each other. This is such a valuable tool that I would hate for these days to disappear. I also believe it is important for the SMART teachers to have an opportunity to show teachers in their own schools as well as other schools the value of SMART boards.
I have two areas of focus for my goals for next year. I will continue blogging with parents on a daily basis to keep them informed of what is happening in the classroom. I would now like to add blogging with the students. This will be through students blogging with each other and myself as discussion pieces through assignments and I think it would be very cool to blog with them about current events using kidblogs. The second area that I would like to continue to develop is creating more SMART notebooks especially in Mathematics. I didn’t teach my own my this past year but will be teaching it in the upcoming school year so I would like to use the SMART board as my main teaching tool in Mathematics. I am looking forward to being able to work towards my goals in the SMART project next year.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Discussion Session for Feb SMART PD
Modifications and Recommendations
Sessions for the serious in the summer and pay us the sub wage…. It saves money overall, and teachers would be refreshed and have time to plan further beyond their day.
Could there be another initiative to set up data projectors and mounting systems in classrooms. Schools could fundraise for themselves, just we would appreciate the IT help with mounting and troubleshooting issues.
I know that there are many teachers that would be interested in another roll-out of technology. But again keep the application process in place with the yearly checkpoints to ensure professional accountability to the board.
ONE MAJOR RECOMMENDATION… teachers who go on maternity leave or who are asked to move schools should either be placed with their Smartboard or have their Smartboard moved with them… Otherwise, where’s the motivation??? We have all composed many documents that we would like to use again – and it would probably be incredibly deflating to have the technology that has become essential to teaching disappear…
Where would we like to go???
I would like to get to the point in being either Transformation or Infusion area of the Matrix. I also want to continue to get the students involved in technology in all subject areas as I find that I focus on some subject areas more than others.
Year 1 Goals:
Initial Implementation
What worked…
We were able to use the Smart board in daily lessons, tools such as:
• Smart software (linking videos, webpages);
• assessment tools (Senteo Assessment tools to enhance formative assessment process in classroom);
• Wikis and Blogs for student, parent, teacher and administration communication;
• Off-site tutors (hospital tutors or traditional tutors) using teacher wikis and blogs; student publishing using classroom blogs;
• Interactive for students – increase student participation;
• Teacher accountability – the ability to save and print what we discussed during the class;
• Good for students who cannot copy notes from board (or even jot notes) or for students who miss classes.
What didn’t work…
• Transforming the documents from Word or Powerpoint into Smart board documents – Unfortunately it takes so much time to do this well;
• Smart software takes a lot of time to put together nicely. (a couple teachers say they prefer Powerpoint);
• Teacher assignment changes (ie subject, grade level) really impacts how much you can use from year to year;
• Wireless slate is not as interactive for students in the classroom, smart boards are better… however a wireless slate is better than nothing;
• Sometimes can be difficult when you have a sub… you have to print off the Smart docs for class, because no one wants to leave their computer for a sub.
• Not having our teacher laptops over the summer.. .this was a MAJOR CHALLENGE for planning for the following year.
Year 2
Collaboration
• Teachers are learning how to make wikis and blogs and how to use some of the Web 2.0 tools. In each school our group members have taught others to learn how to blog;
• When we were given the Smart Collaborative PD day – teachers were able to collaborate and teach each other how to use the different tools in various lessons.
• Confidence to share and collaborate with all teachers in the school to integrate different forms of technology –the school PD days are good for sharing time.
• The Smart board teacher sessions that we have each year allow for great time to collaborate… then in turn we go back to our schools and share what we have learned.
Benefits of Technology in the Classroom
• Having the Smart board has renewed our energy and enthusiasm – Having the technology whether it’s a Smart board or an airliner… has propelled us into constantly looking for ways to improve our teaching. Whether it’s learning how to integrate another form of technology that captures our students interest or ideas for planning.
• After the Smart board PD sessions we all felt renewed and energized to try out another innovative tool with the Smart board to capture our ever technology driven students.
• Students are way more enthusiastic about “handing in assignments” which can be turned in via e-mail or just posted on the site (ie: glogster, kidblog, voki avatar links)
• We love the idea of purchasing teacher laptops, but everyone wants IT support… This was stressed by all members of the group as being quite essential.
Sessions for the serious in the summer and pay us the sub wage…. It saves money overall, and teachers would be refreshed and have time to plan further beyond their day.
Could there be another initiative to set up data projectors and mounting systems in classrooms. Schools could fundraise for themselves, just we would appreciate the IT help with mounting and troubleshooting issues.
I know that there are many teachers that would be interested in another roll-out of technology. But again keep the application process in place with the yearly checkpoints to ensure professional accountability to the board.
ONE MAJOR RECOMMENDATION… teachers who go on maternity leave or who are asked to move schools should either be placed with their Smartboard or have their Smartboard moved with them… Otherwise, where’s the motivation??? We have all composed many documents that we would like to use again – and it would probably be incredibly deflating to have the technology that has become essential to teaching disappear…
Where would we like to go???
I would like to get to the point in being either Transformation or Infusion area of the Matrix. I also want to continue to get the students involved in technology in all subject areas as I find that I focus on some subject areas more than others.
Year 1 Goals:
Initial Implementation
What worked…
We were able to use the Smart board in daily lessons, tools such as:
• Smart software (linking videos, webpages);
• assessment tools (Senteo Assessment tools to enhance formative assessment process in classroom);
• Wikis and Blogs for student, parent, teacher and administration communication;
• Off-site tutors (hospital tutors or traditional tutors) using teacher wikis and blogs; student publishing using classroom blogs;
• Interactive for students – increase student participation;
• Teacher accountability – the ability to save and print what we discussed during the class;
• Good for students who cannot copy notes from board (or even jot notes) or for students who miss classes.
What didn’t work…
• Transforming the documents from Word or Powerpoint into Smart board documents – Unfortunately it takes so much time to do this well;
• Smart software takes a lot of time to put together nicely. (a couple teachers say they prefer Powerpoint);
• Teacher assignment changes (ie subject, grade level) really impacts how much you can use from year to year;
• Wireless slate is not as interactive for students in the classroom, smart boards are better… however a wireless slate is better than nothing;
• Sometimes can be difficult when you have a sub… you have to print off the Smart docs for class, because no one wants to leave their computer for a sub.
• Not having our teacher laptops over the summer.. .this was a MAJOR CHALLENGE for planning for the following year.
Year 2
Collaboration
• Teachers are learning how to make wikis and blogs and how to use some of the Web 2.0 tools. In each school our group members have taught others to learn how to blog;
• When we were given the Smart Collaborative PD day – teachers were able to collaborate and teach each other how to use the different tools in various lessons.
• Confidence to share and collaborate with all teachers in the school to integrate different forms of technology –the school PD days are good for sharing time.
• The Smart board teacher sessions that we have each year allow for great time to collaborate… then in turn we go back to our schools and share what we have learned.
Benefits of Technology in the Classroom
• Having the Smart board has renewed our energy and enthusiasm – Having the technology whether it’s a Smart board or an airliner… has propelled us into constantly looking for ways to improve our teaching. Whether it’s learning how to integrate another form of technology that captures our students interest or ideas for planning.
• After the Smart board PD sessions we all felt renewed and energized to try out another innovative tool with the Smart board to capture our ever technology driven students.
• Students are way more enthusiastic about “handing in assignments” which can be turned in via e-mail or just posted on the site (ie: glogster, kidblog, voki avatar links)
• We love the idea of purchasing teacher laptops, but everyone wants IT support… This was stressed by all members of the group as being quite essential.
February SMART Professional Development
WOW! It's always amazing how after we have these PD days I always leave with so much more knowledge because of the collaboration we are doing! Today, I just created an avatar and added it to my blog! So cool! It is nice to meet with colleagues and finding what works for them and how to make it work for my classroom too!
My SMART journey is going well. Now that I am feeling comfortable with teaching Grade 8, I am beginning to develop cool SMART lessons. My goal was to create SMART lessons in the areas of Science and Language Arts. I have found that I've created some but not as many as I would like so I will continue to work on this as a goal. I have found the SMARTBoard very useful in Core French because by Grade 8, let's face it, French is not that enjoyable. By making Core French more interactive, the students tend to forget that they are still learning the vocabulary.
Again, I must stress how important it is to have these days for PD!
My SMART journey is going well. Now that I am feeling comfortable with teaching Grade 8, I am beginning to develop cool SMART lessons. My goal was to create SMART lessons in the areas of Science and Language Arts. I have found that I've created some but not as many as I would like so I will continue to work on this as a goal. I have found the SMARTBoard very useful in Core French because by Grade 8, let's face it, French is not that enjoyable. By making Core French more interactive, the students tend to forget that they are still learning the vocabulary.
Again, I must stress how important it is to have these days for PD!
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