home

= =

===It is a truth universally acknowledged that a teacher in possession of a Smartboard must be in want of some training and ready-made resources! ===

According to a SETDA 2010 report, 'Marzano warned that technology is not a silver bullet and that teacher training to address quality integration is essential in seeing gains in student achievement'.

Most teachers in schools do not receive Smartboard professional development yet according to Curwood, (2009) “If you are an American teacher, chances are one in five that you do (have one). For British classroom teachers, it’s seven in ten”. So much money is being spent on these ‘digital teaching tools’ although without training they are what Zhao (2003) would label ‘artifacts’, not used to ‘solve teachers' problems in education.

This resource is meant to help ease the pain! Its primary purpose is to improve our own skills using the Interactive whiteboard but it is also for our colleagues, within our schools and throughout the ‘wikisphere.’ We hope this resource will provide not only lesson plans and ideas across the curriculum K-12 but also provide some professional development opportunities for teachers to watch videos, and have handouts to help them in their efforts to ‘teach themselves’ on the job. Trained teachers will obviously teach more effectively and facilitate learning of a higher standard.

We will focus on the following areas: · Language Arts (Allyson) · Math (Ashlee) · Science (Ashlee) · Social Studies (Chloe) · Professional Development (Sarah) · General Resources (Chris)

Most of us, who are fortunate to have this wonderful teaching tool in the classroom, have not had the luxury of having any training on how to use it effectively. Most of us are good at using it as we have fumbled our way through, learning little tricks along the way. These are the moments where we say to ourselves, "Oh, that's what that does!" when we stumble across a new function. However, this does not replace, nor compare to the proper training required with such a powerful tool. Hopefully, these resources will give you, your teaching partners and colleagues more confidence in using a Smartboard, and the desire to continue to explore the benefits of it.

Our purpose is to provide interactive sites to help you use in your lessons on the Smartboard with whole class or small groups, as well as materials to help you understand the tools in Notebook (SMART). Hopefully this will enhance your teaching and the student learning in your classrooms. In trained hands, the interactive whiteboard is a powerful tool, which has the potential to cater to a variety of learning styles, and be a highly motivational teaching tool.

For our own professional development, we will not only be finding out more about interactive whiteboards, but will also try and use new technology tools in our wikispace and embed videos and podcasts. Here is an introduction to Smartboards to whet your appetite:

media type="youtube" key="0U05WeXPGlk" height="385" width="640"

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments or would like to edit and add to this wiki. Allyson, Ashlee, Chloe, Chris, and Sarah

Curwood, J. (2009, May/June). Amazing whiteboards. //Scholastic Journal//, Retrieved from http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751711

SETDA, (2009, November 11). //Renowned education researcher, Robert Marzano, touts the potential of technology to magnify good teaching practices, student engagement and teacher creativity//. Retrieved from http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Renowned-Education-Researcher-Robert-Marzano-Touts-Potential-Technology-Magnify-Good-1074792.htm