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.

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 Project Goals for This Year

This year I’m teaching a new grade so all of my notebooks that I created last year are now not helpful. So one of my individual goal this year is to start over and create notebooks for my new grade level. Last year my focus was using the SMARTboard on a daily basis in math. This year math is not a subject that I teach so my goal is changing. Another goal for this year will be to develop SMART lessons in Language Arts and Science. I have already started by using it on a daily basis with DOL sentences. My last goal for this year is to continue to blog not only on my school website for my parents, but also on Smart project blog too.


I feel that I have grown in many ways with my technology use. With every lesson that I plan now, I constantly ask the question, “How can I incorporate the use of SMARTboard into this lesson?” It is becoming increasingly easier to do this too.

In order to continue in my own professional development, I feel that it is important to continue to have our collaborative meetings where we can discuss what’s working and what isn’t and share websites and lessons. I feel it is important to continue to provide us with the PD day so that we can use it just to explore all the ways we can incorporate technology.

I plan on accomplishing these goals by using my PD day with other colleagues in the project. Last year I found that so helpful and useful. I also like that you are combining the first and second year participants together because we can use their expertise and look to them for guidance.

Reflection on First Year: Action Research Summary

For some reason as I looked at my blog today, I noticed that my summary of my first year was not on it.  So here it is now!  The first year of the SMART project went by very quickly.  I went from not being a blogger to successfully creating two: one for the SMART project and one for my classroom which I will be implementing in the 2010-2011 school year. 

I have really enjoyed learning more about technology and implementing the SMART board into my daily teachings.  My goal for my first year was to use it on a regular basis in Math and Language Arts.  I feel that I was successful in using it on a regular basis in math and developed some great lessons to help support Math Makes Sense program. 

As for Language Arts I did use it but not as regularly for Math.  It seemed quite easy and natural to use it regularly in Math.  I went from students not volunteering at all in Math to 28 raised hands wanting to answer the questions!  In Language Arts I used it more for showing them clips and such but felt I did not make it as interactive as I would like it to be.

What I really enjoyed about having the SMART board in my room is that I was able to have technology at my fingertips.  If I wanted to show the students something, I could do so very easily.  If we were learning a new topic and had some questions, a few clicks on the keyboard and voila...the information was there so quickly and easily.  Gone are the days of having to book out the room that has a SMART board in it, and hoping that it isn't double booked.  Gone are the days of having students line up and take them to the room, wasting time on task.  It is quick, easy and accessable right in the room! 

Thus brings me to my project goal for year two (2010-2011).  I have a grade change and so I will be starting from scratch and new lessons using the SMART board for my new grade level.  Since I will not be teaching my own Math, I have decided to make sure that I'm using the SMART board  on a regulary basis in Language Arts and Science.  Of course, I will still use it in the other subject areas but I would really like to focus on those two subject areas.  I would also like to focus on using my school blog on a daily basis to keep parents informed of what is going on.

I used my SMART PD day in May which I felt was a great time to use it as it gave me the opportunity to set up my school blog and network with some of the other teachers that were also using their PD that day. 

It was a great first year and I look forward to my second year in the SMART project!

SMARTBOARD JOURNEY -MAY

I used my PD day today and it was awesome.  The only glitch I had was that I had to re-do my blog as my original blog with eduperience is no more.  I learned a valuable lesson though,  always save your blogs as a word document first then post!  I didn't save my big long reflection from December in a word document and no matter how hard I try to access it, I cannot see it.  What is so frustrating is that I know the exact title and so when I type that into a search engine it comes up but of course when I click on it, it doesn't show me what I posted.  Oh well, a lesson learned indeed.  So I feel my blog is a bit incomplete without my December reflection!  My reflection on my first year with the SMARTboard is still to come! 

SMART BOARD JOURNEY- FEBRUARY SMART BOARD PERCEPTIONS

Parents have been very receptive about the SMART board. During Education week, we had an afternoon open house where parents could pop in and see their child in action at school. I choose to use the SMART board so that parents had an opportunity to see how it works. I had many positive comments about how engaged the students were. Parents have said it would be great to see this in every classroom.




Students really enjoy using the SMART board in the classroom. They like to "brag" a little to other students in other classrooms that we have a SMART board in their classroom. I find that students are very eager to come up to the front and use the SMART board (even the shy ones). It is a great motivating tool for the students.



I have found that the SMART board has been influential in all areas but especially in Language Arts and Mathematics. It is so helpful to bring up manipulatives on the SMART board and all students can see them on the board and they can come up and manipulate them. We just finished an angles unit in math and I found it so useful to be able to show how to use a protractor on the SMART board and manoeuver and manipulate it. All the students did very well on the test and I attribute that to the help of the SMART board.



I have found that the teacher laptop, data projector, SMART board and student cart of laptops have increased accessibility. Before to drag out the SMART board, set it up orient the board, make sure the students didn't move the data projector or the cart for a 45 minute lesson was a lot of work. It would take at least 20 minutes to get everything set up and then sometimes that didn't even work. NOW, it is so easy to bring something up because technology is always right there. I love the laptop carts as well. It is so nice to book out the cart and have all of my students together in one area instead of running around to the various classrooms to help them out.