Interactive Whiteboards/Smartboards

Interactive whiteboards/Smartboards are absolutely an asset in the today’s classrooms, in my opinion. I am presently working in a middle school classroom with 7^th and 8^th grade part-time learning support students. We will be moving into our “New” school right around the holiday break or the Christmas break as some call it. Our new and improved school will have more state of the art technology than our old school. As I hear our district is on the cutting edge regarding technology. Yes, some of our middle school classrooms have Smartboards now but only a handful. Our elementary schools and high school have them in their classrooms and soon we will too. Presently, we are NOT one of the “lucky” classrooms that have a Smartboard in the classroom. I see many advantages of having an interactive whiteboard/Smartboard in the classroom. There are many different ways to expand the traditional textbook lesson by using the Smartboard. Being able to access the Internet capabilities is just one way to expand a lesson. By using the Smartboard, teachers can insert videos (United Streaming), music, link to other educational websites, and show podcasts to their students. Student interaction can take place immediately since students can write directly on (over) the Smartboard. Camera shots can be taken of the page to preserve information for future use. Again, normal everyday lessons (math, science, language arts, health, social studies, consumer economics, etc.) can come alive or be given a new dimension just by sprucing the lesson up by using some Smartboard tools or items from the gallery. I believe all students would be more engaged if the interactive whiteboards/Smartboards were used for teaching and learning.Tests and quizzes can be taken on the Smartboard. Review games can be played and learning can be fun. I like the interactive whiteboard because many different learning styles are tapped into. Visual, tactile, and auditory learners all benefit. Students with learning differences and those who don’t have learning differences can all learn and learn differently using the Smartboard. Technology can even out the playing field or classroom for learners. I can’t wait to practice, learn, and experiment with lessons on our new Smartboards. This will help me for student teaching and future employment, I hope.

psa project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?V=Ap4iKrOHQPg
Are they going too far?

PSA Video Blog

Our project topic was child abuse and reality TV. We wanted to raise awareness of a new form of child abuse, parents using their children to promote their own fame on reality TV. The news has covered three “well known families” regarding this topic as of late. The three families that I am referring to are the balloon boy, Octo-mom, and John and Kate plus eight. All three of these families sought fame by using their children to do so. We do not feel that is appropriate. The children do not ask for this life style.

As far as the project goes, I always enjoy doing projects where creativity is key. The filming and the project topic was the easiest part for our group. The hard part for our group was pretty much the rest of the project. We spent many hours working on editing clips, finding music, etc. We had fun and laughed a lot but we also experienced some frustration too. Some of our frustration came when the computer froze in the library or we couldn’t log in because the computer would not take our passwords. We also became frustrated when we edited clips and thought we lost footage. Saving is definitely a blessing because it would be totally devastating if we lost our video after putting in all of that time and hard work. A positive was that our group was able to meet and work in Lititz. We were thankful that we didn’t have to meet in Reading since we don’t live near by. New projects and experiences definitely enlighten you and help you grow. Boy, did we stretch and grow! I think this is like learning a second language. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. I guess I will need to do this again soon.