Interactive Whiteboards
From RE 5532: Technology-Supported Literacy
Ways that We've Used Interactive Whiteboards
If you already have an interactive whiteboard in your classroom or school, tell us about how you use it, issues you had in learning how to use it, and anything else that you think would help us understand interactive whiteboard use.
I am a lucky teacher who has had access to a SmartBoard for 3 of my 4 years in the classroom. In my second year as a teacher my principal chose me to represent our school as our Tech Savvy teacher. Part of my responsibility as the Tech Savvy teacher was to attend a workshop on SmartBoard usage, fulfilling this requirement supplied me with my very own SmartBoard, Elmo and laptop computer. During our week long workshop I worked with other Stokes County teachers to develop a Wiki page full of resources for teachers. I don't know if teachers from other systems are allowed access to the wiki page but if you would like to try, here is a link to our wiki page: Stokes County Wiki. Some useful resources on this wiki are lesson plans for K-12 for most subjects. One of the most useful resources is a "lunch count" template that you can use for your daily lunch count. You can find the lunch count template under the "Daily Routines" page. Other ways that I use or have used my SmartBoard are to view online videos and books through websites like Brain PopBrain Pop JrBook Flixall of these websites are instructional websites that our school has purchased a license to use. Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. provide humorous lessons on all subject areas. Book Flix is a website that presents books online, this website is hosted by Scholastic and pairs fiction and non-fiction books about the same topic. Book Flix provides a video of the books, and then has extension activities that accompany each text. I also use my SmartBoard daily during our Kindergarten calendar routine, morning message and predictable chart. Using the SmartBoard saves me from having charts taped all over my classroom. I love to use the SmartBoard during our writing mini-lessons as well as ourLetterland practice. My children love to illustrate the Letterland characters on the SmartBoard. Anytime I use a worksheet, I always display it on the SmartBoard with my Elmo. My children can see an enlarged version of their worksheet as I explain the directions. I am constantly finding new ways to use the SmartBoard. I love the idea of using Photostory to create books and other documents for my students use. I think the most important thing about using interactive whiteboards is that teachers share their ideas with one another. There are so many valuable resources out there, why reinvent the wheel?--Brandy 02:21, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I've had my SmartBoard for a little over a year. It was installed at the end of that school year and my class and I got to learn together. Luckily one of my colleagues already had one and had been through some training. She helped me with the basics, but I really did just have to take time to play with it and learn how to use it. Since then I have come a long way but am still learning. Just last week one of my students taught me how to change the highlighter color on the smart tool options tab! I use my smartboard all the time. I pull up text from our reading series, highlight important info in text(including word problems in math), play interactive games i have made or games online. My students love Hangmouse on [1] Spellingcity (just program their spelling words and choose a game)and literacy games and stories on starfall.com. Our school also has a subscription to and Education City which has lots of interactive games for lots of subjects. I don't know what I did before I had my SmartBoard! --Smithmk1 05:04, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
This is my third year with a SmartBoard but my second with a lower grade. To be honest by the second year with my board I couldn't imagine how I got by without it. I used it daily in every subject and my kids did alot of independent activities on the board. I created games for grammar, downloaded activities for my language skills, displayed classscape test for whole group work, produced student created power points and stories for my math goals, and used it to quick search anything my class might have a question about. When I moved to first this year I wasn't sure how I would be able to use it with the younger student. I was afraid that their lack of experience with technolgy might prevent what we could do. The opposite was true. I use my Smartboard every morning to do calendar math. The students explore, calendar, graphing, tally marks,patterns, weather, and standard and expanded number forms. We are still using our board for research I just spend a little more time deciding which sites are best for first grade. My children love to do interactive games to work on our language arts skill. I have created spelling games and word family games that they ask to play again and again. The nice thing about creating a game is taht with just a few easy changes a new game can be made with a focus on a different goal.--Candy Mooney 22:32, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
I have a SMARTBoard and I absolutely love it! There are some game templates on it that you just click and add your own information. The kids love it. There is one that looks like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". I make comprehension questions that go with our basal readers. The kids play that game during centers. There is also one called "The Vortex". This one has to be used when there are only two possible answers such as true or false, or odd and even. The kids LOVE this one. I did until I realized that the kids purposely put it in the wrong vortex because it spins and throws the item back at you. If it is correct it spins and goes away. I also do my daily math routines on the SMARTBoard that matches our Math Expressions curriculum. It saves me from putting up the many posters involved. I also put my word sorts on there. The kids think it is much more fun to do them on the SMARTBoard then on a pocket chart or paper. Many of my posters have been transfered to the SMARTBoard. I can make them look better and write all over them! I am excited to do some research and find some pre-made lessons, as it time consuming to make everything from scratch. Our 1st and 2nd grade teachers are working collaboratively to make all of our math lessons on the SMARTBoard. I haven't been assigned which lessons I am to do yet, but when it is done it will be nice to have them all at the touch of my finger. It is not that hard to figure out how to use the SMARTBoard. My main problem was that I was trained over the summer and then didn't use my board for another 2 months. I am horrible at retaining information. I would like to be retrained now that I know how to use it well. I know there is still a lot out there that I don't know how to do. Many of our teachers also have an elmo document camera. I am not one of the lucky ones. Sometiems I am able to scan items in and use them, but they always turn out a bit fuzzy. I don't know that I could go back to teaching with out an interactive board at this point! --Ressler14 22:54, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
When I began teaching 4 years ago I was very envious of the other fourth grade teacher. Fortuantely, we team taught writing which gave me access to the smart board. We did mini lessons that were interactive in writing. This helped keep the students attention longer than a regular lesson and exercise type activity. That same teacher created many lessons in math, reading, science and word study that is interactive that I use with the students as well. Stokes County schools has adopted a new math text series this year Math Expressions [2]. I use their website for the entire lesson to pull up the pages that I am referring to in the students text to solve problems. They also have sites that are interactive for the students to use when introducing, teaching, using for enrichment activities, or intervention activities. Students really enjoy this and it helps them see the problem in other ways that are fun. When I introduce new topics I try to find videos on United Streaming [3] or Teacher Tube[4] for the entire class to view together. During read aloud or during my shared reading time if I have a text that not all students have I will use my Elmo doucument camera [5]to display the text so the students can follow along with me. I really enjoy this wonderful piece of technology. I am sure my white board is jealous, I hardly use it compared to the Smart Board!--Tonna216 00:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
I have had my smart board for 2 years and I love it. I use it every morning for the children to make a lunch choice. I teach in the same county as Amanda so I to am using smart board lessons to teach my Math Expression lesson. This really helps to make the children more engaged in the lessons. I also use my smart board to show the children pictures and videos of things we are studying, for example I showed the children pictures of owls and had them listen to owl sounds. I also use my Elmo document camera to show the children a book I am reading or to go over the directions for an activity. This helps the children follow along and know what to do. I also use twitter [6] on my smart board. We make a tweet daily. We have also used skype on the smart board. I also have made some students guess the covered word lessons for the smart board. I will make a slide show of our field trip and show them to the children. I also let the children listen to celebrities read books at story online [7]. I am thinking of trying to make the smart board one of my centers. I have found several games that I think could work for a center. Last year on Fridays we had math centers and I would use the smart board. The children really enjoy using it and I think it makes my lessons more interactive and interesting. I am lucky and thankful to have my smart board. --Ashleycaldwell82 00:04, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
Finally! The discussion I've been waiting for! I had a SMARTboard installed about a month ago, but the projector wasn't aimed properly so I couldn't use it. They came back last week, moved my SMARTboard and projector and computer and desk and basically my whole room arrangement without me knowing what was going on. I can adapt. But, I haven't had time to figure out how to use the SMARTboard yet. Everytime I start to play with it something gets in the way and I don't get the opportunity. I was really looking forward to a SMARTboard workshop at my school this week, but it was cancelled. Darn! I look forward to finding the time to start playing and using my SMARTboard. And I can't wait to see what everyone else has done so I can steal their ideas. --jennifer wagoner 02:01, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
All my experiences with a interactive whiteboard have been unsuccessful. Our school has 1 board on wheels that's usually housed in the music room. I have taken my class to do activities and it not work, even after the media specialist and tech facilitator worked on it. So after repeatedly watching my class go nuts waiting for the activities, I gave up. So I am excited about building my own interactive board and teaching successful lessons. --Melissa graham 01:04, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
I have had an interactive white board on and off for three years. I post our plans for the day on the board and when I tell them they will lose their "board" time they straighten up. I allow them to use it while waiting for the buses, they think they are playing and I know they are learning, of course I monitor where they go. The most fun we have had with our white board is at the Garfield site we use for sequenceing here is another site that has games etc., I use it for my lower group so the kids can see each word as the story is read aloud to them. This interactive site is good for 5th grade studying ecosystems. Good practice for the EOG vocabulary in game form.There are so many good sites out there for whatever you want. I have typed mini lessons for synonyms/antonyms where the students must go to the board with the "magic pen" and replace a "dead" word with a better choice. This is saved as a document not a site. After reading enties here I went back and we visited author's purpose that Sefeinman mentioned.--Grandmacunningham 15:46, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
I use my SmartBoard in almost every single class period every day. It would be impossible to even provide a list of things I use it for. I begin the morning with it by providing a digital clock and a list of morning things for the students as they walk in. Then, I use it in science to spell words they are unfamiliar with, create graphic organizers of information, post notes for them to copy, and show electronic demonstrations of processes, which can be found online at websites such as [BBC Kids like the movement of the earth, moon, and sun. This is great because students can come up and start and stop the movement at a certain time. I have also used it in science to allow the students to sort objects into boxes, such as conductors and insulators. They can drag the pictures of items and place them into the corresponding box made on SmartNotebook. My teaching would be completely different without my SmartBoard. --Brittanyjguy 02:05, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I don't have an interactive whiteboard in my room, but I do have an Airliner and a projector, and the two together function similarly to a SMART board. I create all of my lessons using Notebook Software now. I have created flag matching activities, map puzzles, review games, research assignments, Venn Diagrams,notes, and I am still exploring the possiblities. Before each student had a laptop to use, I would pass around the Airliner and each student would have a turn. Now, they simply download the presentation to their own computers and each student can participate in the activity simultaneously. Student engagement has increased dramatically. In a way, it has eliminated the need for me to have a SMART board. I still use my Airliner to model what I want to students to do before they do it, however once I have explained the task, I monitor what they do on thier laptops and help with trouble shooting and other questions that they have. I often try to create activities that also incorperate the textbook and other reading passages, so the students are not just interacting with the computer, they have to use multiple sources to create thier products. It has become easier for me to create interactive lessons with the Notebook Software and show students websites that they will enjoy. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 18:20, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I have used the SmartBoard a few times, primarily for PowerPoint presentations that my students created and shared. We had one to share on the hallway last year & the math teachers pretty much kept it busy. This year, my classroom is being outfitted to be a "21st century classroom". So, I have an InterwriteMobi in my tech cabinet. At the moment, we are waiting for staff development on how to use the device. I've looked at it and think it will likely function much like a smart board. It has at least a dozen icons/choices on each side that will aid in using it for multiple functions. The tablet is made by eInstruction--the same folks who make the CPS system. The two are designed to function together, so hopefully I can step up my CPS skills, as well. If you want a quick overview of the product, here's a pitch from the company at a tech conference.
eInstruction provides a lesson library that is not extensive, but is better than nothing! I found a wiki that has an extensive list of hyperlinks for teachers who use the Interwritemobi. This isn't totally related, but there seems to be some good debateabout whether SmartBoards or Interwrite Tablets are the way to go. Interesting.--Rjohnson 19:14, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I use my SmartBoard everyday with all of my subjects. With our new math adoption, there is a wonderful program where students can work with manipulatives. Pearson. It is called eTools. I frequently open this program when I am teaching a new concept in math. I also let the students manipulate it. Last year, I did not let students use the SmartBoard in centers. But this year, I decided to be brave! I spent several days talking about the rules and expectations. We also practiced an awful lot before I let them work with it on their own. Now that we are 10 or 11 weeks into school, the students are pros at using it! I also make sure that I have paired or grouped students that I can trust with those that I know will need some guidance. --Sefeinman 20:24, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
Like several of the others have mentioned, I do not know how I could get by without my SmartBoard. While teaching Social Studies, I used it for everything from interactive work with Maps and 3D civilizations to reading Yahoo news articles. Our school recently adopted new Social Studies books from Holt that come with a ton of online interactive resources. Even though they are for the textbook, anyone can use them for free. As I have stated before, I make an effort to use it to support reading comprehension. While analyzing an article or text, I model the entire reading process (pre, during, post) using the various colored pens. We are constantly using it for PowerPoint presentations and "thinking map" brainstorming. What is also neat about Smart software, is it allows you to save and print all work that you do on the board. Therefore, if you have a homebound student (or one that is absent), you can email them what they missed in class. --Heatherscoe 22:08, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I could not imagine my day without the smartboard being part of it. Since I teach at a technology school all of our classrooms were already equipped with smartboards when I started teaching. No matter how many training classes I went to I still had to sit around and play with the different resources and tools myself to get used to it. I use my board every single day for everything possible you could think of. I use it during math for my students to come up and work problems out on or for interactive math games. When I choose to read a story from our Harcourt reading series we use the flipcharts that are provided on promethean planet. Each flipchart comes with vocabulary practice for students and a activity for a comprehension skill for our story. I love use Discovery Educatoin during Science and Social Studies to show videos of concepts that I am teaching. I love to use the smartboard with my students and they enjoy it as well!--Hetilley 01:27, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I've had a SmartBoard for the last year and I use it for everything! When the students come in each morning they make their lunch choices on it. Throughout the day I visit various interactive sites that apply to topics we are learning about in class. I frequently use Pete's Powerstation to find powerpoints and interactive sites related to a subject. I also like to visit BrainPop to find videos and related activities on virtually any subject. I also use the SmartNotebook software to create customized lesson plans. I love using the Activity Toolkit to create games to accompany lessons. I have found that there are endless resources that can be used on the SmartBoard! I'm constantly searching the web looking for interactive activities to connect to what we are learning. --Adover 02:34, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I use my SmartBoard for so many things every day! We use different videos on several of the sites already mentioned, and also create our own interactive reviews for subjects like science that we will be able to revisit to study for the EOGs. My students are more willing to do ANYTHING on the SmartBoard because they love to actually use it themselves. It is way cooler than just writing on the whiteboard, which they like to do as well. One thing I would like to do more often is create our anchor charts in Smart Notebook so we can pull them up as needed, and print copies for students to keep in their reading notebook. Now I just need to perfect split screen so we can look at two things at once!--Stacy Cabeen 15:45, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
When I first started teaching three years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a SmartBoard in my class. The down side to this was that I had absolutely NO idea how to use one. A few of my colleagues taught me the bare basics such as turning it on and writing on it but I found myself learning the most about SmartBoard by playing around on the internet myself. During my first year (which was very overwhelming by itself), I occasionally used my SmartBoard with my class but found it to be very time consuming because I was not very knowledge about SmartBoard. Since that first year, I have found myself using the SmartBoard more and more. Now, I rarely teach a lesson where my SmartBoard is not incorporated. Colleagues have created lessons, I have scanned documents that I want to share with my class, I have found lessons online, and I visit websites that I want to share with my whole class. In the beginning of my teaching, I looked at my SmartBoard as a burden but now I couldn’t imagine teaching without it! I only wish I had an Elmo, but hopefully I will get one soon. --JenLawson070 17:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Davie County had a challenge from a generous local philanthropist who wanted to make a difference in helping our school become technolgically advance. All schools collected, raised and donated money to match up Mr. Mebane's challenge. He matched it a hundred times over donating millions of dollars to our county so every classroom has a Smartboard. I recieved a SmartBoard my second year teaching. Little did I know that I would not be able to live without it. It is part of everyday use in my classroom.
I present my lessons using SMART Notebook, easily copy notes for students who are absent, create games from jeopardy to a fun vocabulary game with wordle as of most recent. The toolkit within Smart Notebook has allowed me to do amazing things. Daily my students come up to correct with daily language, writing, vocabulary, and grammer that I use with my Grammar with a Giggle Book. It makes it so much more fun for them to work with and see. The colors and highlighting pens help them view the corrections more clearly. We create webs together to plan writing using either SMART Notebook or Read Write Think. We can shift things around and really see the parts of a piece of writing, mark it and analyze it together. It is definitely effective for visual learners which most of our students have become. And students love changing writing to text. We highlight and work through papers together using the floating toolbar as way to mark and edit word documents. It is far more than a glorified projector and screen. SMART Tech even provides lesson plans. I found one on tragedies that would tie in great with a unit I created on Wednesday Warsby Gary Schmidt that connected with Shakespeare. This one is a concept map to download on elements of tragedies a question that relates to the reading of Shakespeare that connects within that book. The SMART Board is a hands on way to get students involved with literacy and grammar. My students are more motivated and willing to learn as a result. More hands go up when they get to use the interactive technology. Not to mention the smartboard allows me the opportunity to demonstrate how to use technology with during different assignments. This is essential for us since so much is technology based. Not to mention it saves on paper. Students have created their own Smartboard presentations for projects. Weekly we are trained on various way to use the Smartboard as an instructional tool. As of most recently I just learned how to make a templet for a magic cats eye. This is a way to use interactive multiple choice to answer a curriculum related question. When a student drops their answer in the center where the magic cat eye is there is an interactive box that pops up with a response based upon the answer choice submitted. It is just another hands on way to use it to evaluate reading comprehension. It maybe even a more fun way to review for those pesky EOGs. --Amy Hardister 03:24, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I love using the SMARTboard and my kids love it too! I teach in the old one room grade level setting. We now have temporary walls up, but no doors. Between our 4 classrooms there is a large tile area that we use for gathering, grade level activities, etc. Our SMARTboard is our there in the middle mounted to the wall where all 4 classes can use it. We really like it this way because when one of us comes up with a SMARTboard activity that connects to something that we are teaching we all rotate through the activity. We love to share good SMARTboard activities. I frequently use the SMARTboard with the document camera to "write" on pages of a book, circle high frequency words, etc. I also like to use it to expose my students to Discovery Streaming videos, and stories from Storylne Online as mentioned in earlier posts. Recently I found a website from Rockingham County Schools that has some good links to activities that help my students learn skills that we are working on. I enjoy looking for sites that have activities already made, but if I cannot find one that suits my needs I enjoy making them myself too. One drawback to SMARTboards at our school seems to be getting working projectors. We have had trouble with projectors recently, and we do not have funding to fix them when the break. A SMARTboard is no good without a projector! My students love the interactive nature of learning with the SMARTboard. I have been known to just pull up the clip art piece and let students go to town making patterns that we can then name, translate, etc. The sky is the limit with SMARTboards! --Jessicajackson52 03:48, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
I use my Smartboard daily. I love it! I was ecstatic to get it at the end of last year. The only problem was it didn't have the notebook software loaded on to it and I didn't get that downloaded until the beginning of October. So, we have really been putting in overtime using it in my class ever since. I use it in the mornings to put up the morning assignments. Our county has awesome teachers that have completed lessons for the Smartboard for math and put them in a public file for all the 2nd grade classes in our county to use. These lessons have proved to be a lifesaver, since we adopted a new math series this year. I created one lesson to use in math and it took me about 2 hours, so I know how involved it can be to create one. I am new at it, so I am sure with time it will not take that long to create my own lessons. I went to the source/Lesson+Activities/Notebook+Activities/Browse+Notebook/United+States/Elementary/K-3/Language+Arts/Verb+or+Noun.htm SMART education site and found a lesson about verbs and nouns. It was a simple lesson that used mainly pictures to show what verbs are and what nouns are. I was please with the lesson and it was easy to follow. It also had a complimentary quiz to go with it. I was able to pull up the quiz, but I could not use it interactively, because it said I needed to download the Senteo software. I am not sure what that is exactly. I went through the quiz with my students regardless. I also use my interactive whiteboard to pull up important websites, we play games on it, and last year I used it as a center.--Oscales 00:35, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
I DID IT!! My BlancoBoard (my name for the whiteboard) was a success. Check out my slideshow. I began by visiting the whiteboard website for detailed information. It was very helpful. A trained monkey could have possibly been successful with their directions! There was no doubt in my mind that I did not want to tackle the IR pen so I found a couple of places to order them at [8] and [9]. Fortunately, my computer was equipped with Bluetooth so that was one less thing I had to purchase. At first, I had a hard time getting my computer to recognize the Wii mote. Evidently, I wasn't holding my mouth right because once I had a connection it has not been a problem since. Once the connection was made, I tried to calibrate. I think I must have had the Wii remote too close to the screen because I could calibrate one corner but not the others. So, I move my tripod back and things took off from there. I was able to calibrate. Then I searched for interactive websites to demonstrate my new toy. I found one particularly interesting to my students. It was a map of Europe and they had to drag and drop the countries into their correct borders. I can't wait to play with my BlancoBoard and discover new activities for class. There is a site [10] that I was able to visit as a guest. My maps are at [11] I am usually not very helpful to anyone when it comes to technology but I would love to tell you about anything I was able to learn in constructing my BlancoBoard.--Carol Sherrill 00:49, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
What We Tried with Interactive Whiteboards in Our Class This Week and How It Worked
Tell us about what new idea or activity you tried with your class and an interactive whiteboard here.
Last week I used the Venn diagram template to create a shape sort for my students to complete by dragging geometric shape names into the correct section on the venn. After dragging the names students transferred that information onto a paper copy of the venn. This was not as much "fun" as the shape recognition game we played on Education City, but it was very helpful to give the students a model that was wasy to manipulate during discussion then as reference when writing the names on their papaer. --Smithmk1 03:56, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
Our system (Stokes County) is using Math Expressions as our new math basal series. We were recently trained to use the website Think Central. This website is only available to systems that have adopted the Math Expressions program. This website has interactive games for K-5th grades. The games are organized by topic. This week was my first week using the website, so to pilot the website I decided to use it during my center time. My usual routine is to model our weekly activity for the SmartBoard on Monday and then to allow each student to explore that activity throughout the week. Usually, this requires little time and attention for me becasue I chose activities that students can complete without my assistance. For example, I used the interactive Jack-O-Lantern carving site that was suggested on our threaded discussion. However, with this website, I opted for a more individualized approach. For each child I chose a math game that would meet their instructional math level. Some of my kids are still mastering numbers and amounts from 0-5 and others have advanced to numbers 20-30. This center required much of my time and attention but because it provided individualized learning for each child, I feel it was worth my time and attention. I plan to continue using this website as a regular part of my routine, either by using it on the SmartBoard or by using it at the computer center in my classroom.--Brandy 01:53, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
One of my students favorite activities to play on the SmartBoard is Hang Mouse. this can be found at[www.speelingcity.com] . It's free and there are many activities on the site. We have an 80-20 rule in our county that encourages us to allow students to spend the majority of the time using the board. I love this rule but to be honest at the beginning of this I was a bit overwhelmed with how to make this happen but surprisingly my students are very proficient when using the board. After six weeks several students assist in setting up the game and managing its play.--Candy Mooney 06:05, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
My 6th graders like to use spelling cityas well througout the week. This past week we used the Speedy Speller activity to review for the spelling test. The students had to use my computer keyboard, but the rest of the class could see their mistakes and study at the same time. It is interesting to see how students work through spelling words. We also played a vocabulary review game with the words up on the SMARTboad. Usually I have to write the words three times - once for each class, but this week I was able to save the words and just project them. I still have a long way to go, but I know I'm going to love my SMARTboard.--jennifer wagoner 13:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I found a smart board lesson for first grade that was on syllables. First graders have to be able to count the syllables in a word. I started the lesson out by counting the syllables in each child's name. We clapped for each syllable. The lesson I found had the children sort words by one, two or three syllables. We said the word and clapped it. Then I had a volunteer come up and move the word to the correct column. The next part of the lesson had pictures of objects and the children had to say how many syllables the word had and then click on it to see if they were right. The last section had a word generator and they had to say the word and then sort it by the number of syllables. The children enjoyed this and were actively engaged in the lesson. This lesson made the children take what they had learned and put it into practice. --Ashleycaldwell82 00:20, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
I did another lesson with my second graders. The lesson dealt with using more interesting verbs. The first section used the vortex, which Amanda mentioned in the early section, they had to sort more interesting words for happy and walked. THe children love the vortex. I have used it in the past to sort word that contained long and short vowels. This lessons helps the children distinguish between overused words and more interesting words. They repeated the vortex again. Then they had to come up with a new word for an overused word. This lesson went perfectly into our curriculum because I recently taught the children how to use a thesaurus and the importance of not using overused words. Children love anything that they think is a game. --Ashleycaldwell82 00:20, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
I liked this assignment because I always wanted to look for pre-made lessons and never got around to it. I didn't realize so much was out there! I found a lesson that has a bunch of SMART Board activities that go with Each Peach Pear Plum, which some of my first graders are reading in guided reading. Of course I had to let all of them be involved with it. We did it together yesterday, but I will let them use it on their own during centers next week. I am glad I looked at each page first because some things I had to figure out. It had hidden characters, rhyming activities, guess the animal, short vowels, beginning consonants,and make your own "I spy" stories. The kids loved it. I will definately use this activity again next year when I read this book. If you use it, make sure you look at the activities ahead of time so that you are prepared.--Ressler14 19:59, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
I have experimented with a few sites this week,some are very annoying with ads! I thought this one was good for my lower performing children including my ELLs. verb tenses are difficult for many of my students and this was a quick easy lesson/game. Everytime someone sends me a new site I add it to my folder for future reference, this class has had a great impact on my stockpile of places to go for help.--Grandmacunningham 16:20, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
I used the SmartBoard to do a short assessment of my students' knowledge on topics covered thus far in our studies of space. I had them come up and sort facts into a Venn Diagram. They had to decide whether the fact was true of the Sun, the Moon, or of both. This was a great activity that was simple to create. I just made the Venn Diagram shapes and locked them. Then, I created the facts and left them movable. My students enjoyed the activity, and I got a better understanding of what they were still having problems understanding and what they had mastered. It could have been done without the SmartBoard; however, it only made the activity better and kept the students engaged longer. --Brittanyjguy 02:23, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
This week, I created a Notebook presentation called Comparing Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. I created a triple venn diagram in SMART for the kids to complete after watching three different video clips; one covering each location. Students worked individually after they had downloaded the presentation into their social studies folder on their laptops. Each was then given a pair of headphones to use to watch the videos. I encouraged them to take notes on paper as they watched each video clip, so it would be easier to put the information into their triple venn diagram. I attached each video to a picture of the country or countries itself. I also included comprehension questions with a few other video clips on colonialization and the diversity found in the region. I was pleased with how the activity went because each student was able to watch the videos at their own pace and rewind when necessary, which is not easily done when doing a whole class video. Also because they I uploaded each video into the Notebook presentation the students have these video clips until they delete the presentation. When I asked the students if they liked watching the video clips this way, they said yes. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 18:32, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
This week, I used the SmartBoard in my room as a tool for word sorts. I opened two documents in word. and split the screens so both were showing. On one screen I had "ot" and "op". On the other screen, I had pictures of things that fit into these word families. I showed students how to "grab" a picture with the pen, and move it to the correct spot on the word sort. Each student got a turn to come and move the picture. The next day, I had students work independently doing this. I quickly learned that they grew bored of this. So I went to using just one screen with "ot" and "op". They could then write words in each column with the pen from a list I had given them. The students were highly engaged in this activity. They even pulled out some of their books to look for more words that fit the word families. I found this great link if you use Appleworks 6 to do this exact activity: Word Sort. --Sefeinman 20:17, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
In my elective course--Creative Communications--I try to spend some time talking about propaganda. Not only do we discuss present day propaganda in campaigns, for example, but we also talk about historical propaganda campaigns. Undoubtedly, the most famous example of this was its use by Hitler during 30s and 40s in Germany. Therefore, to fully investigate Hitler's use of propaganda, we used the Holocaust Museum's Website. They devote an entire section to propaganda--breaking it up by theme. I assigned groups in my class to each theme--some examples include, "indoctrinating youth" or "defining the enemy." I gave the groups a day to explore their topic on the web. The following day, they would come up front and use the SmartBoard to present their form of propaganda (using the Holocaust Museum website). Part of their presentation included them analyzing a poster and, using the pens, marking certain features that explained how their propaganda was used. I think that the lesson went well. The kids learned a lot, and, by analyzing the art themselves they really had to use some higher order thinking. They had a lot of fun researching and presenting. --Heatherscoe 22:57, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I use so much with my smartboard but one of the most fun and exciting things for my students is to use it for math games. We are trying to remember our multiplication facts right now so we have been using interactive games at Multiplication.com. Students love this and they can continue working on this site at home as well. When I use math centers in my room the smartboard is always a center so each of the students get a chance to interact with the board. I also used the smartboard for my students to really look at and understand our vocabulary words through other context that went with our story. --Hetilley 01:34, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Each month in our county we focus on a specific comprehension strategy. This month's strategy is Inferencing. After introducing the strategy whole class, I found some websites with interactive activities that went along with inferencing. One of the sites we used was Quia which had an inferencing activity. I also used some websites from StudyZone and their Test Prep zone. I found these activities to be the perfect follow up to my lesson and after using them, I found that my students seemed to have a better idea of how to infer while reading. --Adover 02:42, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I tried part of this lesson today on Author's Purpose. Author's Purpose I liked the question used to introduce the lesson. I let students brainstorm in pairs and then they could write on the board. Then I went over the three reasons an author could write. I choose this lesson because it seems to be one of the higher level questions that my students are having trouble with. I think this particular lesson would be good to use mutliple times with different texts. --Sefeinman 15:29, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
My students love using a word sort activity based on their spelling words. I have two columns of words this week, and they sort them into the proper column based on principals that we have learned through our AppState classes. I'm posting several of my sorts on MediaFire for your access.--Stacy Cabeen 15:42, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Everyday, I use my SmartBoard for math. Our school system adopted a new textbook program called Math Expressions and I go to Think Central [12]every day to assist with my math lessons. I pull up the childrens' textbook pages on the smart board and can even show mini video clips where a cartoon character teaches the math skill that we are practicing for the day. I have a child who “tweets” everyday about what our class is doing. [13]At the end of the day, we take a minute and look over our tweets and what people are doing who we are following. I find myself using my SmartBoard everyday for writing. Either I am modeling writing on the SmartBoard or we are going to various websites such as ReadWriteThink [14]. When we are learning about new places in Social Studies, we will often google these places or look on google maps for the exact location. I used various website for reading. This is a great literacy website full of games [15]. I’m constantly using my SmartBoard! --JenLawson070 17:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Today, I also used the SmartBoard to work with Glogsters. Our class is creating glogsters as interactive posters and embedding them into our class wiki. The SmartBoard pairs nicely with this because the glogs can be easily shown and students can play media when it is embedded. I think this will be a lot of fun. --Brittanyjguy 21:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Today I used the Interactive Smartboard to present a lesson on commercials and types of appeals-emotional, logical, and ethical. We watched several different commercials together and discussed how they appealed, persuasive techniques, and discussed a plan for them to create their own commercials using Animototo create their own commercials. I shared with them my own commercial that I created last week called the choice relating to environmental concerns. I am currently working on creating a SmartNotebook to guide the students to create their own commercials. I plan on using the smartboard to present their commercials to the class. --Amy Hardister 04:20, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
This week I created two activities on my own for the SMARTboard and tried them out with my kids. The first activity that I designed was a Cloze activity using word family words that we have been focusing on. My activity was a fill in the blank activity, but I put the word choices on infinite clone so as to not make the activity a game of narrowing down the choices. In a workshop recently I was given a template using something called the magic tunnel. It is designed to start on one side, look like it goes through a tunnel, and come out on the other side with the answer to the problem. I used this template to make a compound word activity. It started with sun+shine= after going through the tunnel sunshine came out on the other side. The kids loved both activities! I also used an activity where students look at a picture of a cvc word and then try to spell it on a line under the picture. After attempting to spell the word students move a "magnifying glass" under the line and the real spelling of the word shows through. The kids love using the SMARTboard. This technology makes learning fun for students!--Jessicajackson52 03:59, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
I went to theSMART education and found a lesson about verbs and nouns. It was a simple lesson that used mainly pictures to show what verbs and nouns are. I was pleased with the lesson and it was easy to follow. It also had a complimentary quiz to go with it. I was able to pull up the quiz, but I could not use it interactively, because it said I needed to download the Senteo software. I am not sure what that is exactly. I went through the quiz with my students regardless. I just asked them the questions orally, but I couldn't touch the answers to see if they were correct. I like the site because it gives some good lessons on different topics. I will continue using it.--Oscales 00:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
This week as well as every week I use Think Central's website which goes with our math text - Math Expressions. There are sites that relate to the lesson that are interactive that the students use as a tutorial, a review, and a practice. I also use this site to go over homework and to present lessons. There are manipulatives that can be used to help them understand the lesson better. Students love this new math text adoption!--Tonna216 02:00, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
Great Teaching Ideas and Teaching Resources for Interactive Whiteboard Use
Tell us about great uses for interactive whiteboards in the classroom and share great sources for classroom ideas here.
I love using my SMART Board for review games with my children, as well as teaching every day. ReadWriteThink has several writing maps and other interactive online tools to aid children with writing, and I used one just today to help model the DARE essay they are getting ready to write. We called it a "brow" (pronounced bro) map, because it was like a flow map and a brace map put together. Our county uses Thinking Maps to aid student understanding, and they really liked this combination.
We also use Mr.Nussbaum.com to review lots of different concepts in a variety of subjects. His math games are wonderful, and my students love the game where they must identify as many states as possible in one minute. I'm sure I'll be adding more to this list; these are just two of my favorites.--Stacy Cabeen 20:18, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
I found a website that has a lot of one to two page activities involving different topics such as rhyming, prefixes, ing, etc. They are listed so that you can find a skill easily. I used the prefix activity with my second graders today. It is not self-correcting, but they can do it on their own. I also let them have a free for all and pick a different activity to do on their own. It doesn't have the exciting pictures and animation, but they still seem to like it.--Ressler14 20:13, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
I use my Smartboard with my document camera. Using SeeII program, you can place a text under the document camera, and ask students to come to the Smartboard to underline key ideas and add to the discussion. These practices can be saved as a pdf on the computer and teachers can refer back to the information later. --Burchamal 20:15, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
Another tool I like to use with my class on the SMART Board is Scholastic Book Flix. You do need to pay for it, but it has fun interactive books. The kids enjoy using it individually on the computers, but it also works very well on the SMART Board for whole class activities.--Ressler14 22:02, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
Here is a link our school media specialist passed on to us. http://mail.surry.k12.nc.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://technology.usd259.org/resources/whiteboards/smart-lessons/elementary_lessons.html%23SocSt.Hope you find something you can use!--Smithmk1 05:26, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
The page Dr. Koppenhaver mentioned on the assignment page from Smart Technologies is excellent for help with pre-made lessons. It is the Smart Education Website. It provides ideas for several types of lessons sorted by grade level and subject. I have found a few of these very helpful! --Brittanyjguy 02:15, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
As I was searching I stumbled across these interactive games from PBS based on some of kids favorite cartoon characters. It includes games for Language Arts, Math, Art, and Social Science. It is mostly geared towards Pre K through 2nd grade but some of the Science games are geared to Middle Schoolers. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 19:10, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
Another website that my students love to play that could be fun for kids on a SMART board is freerice.com. For every questions that is answered correctly 10 grains of rice are donated to help end world hunger. Students can choose from geography, vocabulary, math, art, foreigh languages, and others. --Melissa Martin Whitfield 19:10, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
This is a wonderful resourceful for ALL teachers. There is a template for every subject and level of teaching. There are not many templates to choose from, but when I started using it, it gave me ideas to go on. SmartBoard Templates--Sefeinman 20:28, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I found this link which shows how music teachers can even use SmartBoards. The music teacher at my school actually uses one with the software that he has for teaching piano. I was looking at the picture of the girl, and wondering how often the smartboard is too high on the wall. I wonder if there is a way to put a riser under it, so students don't have to reach so far. Smartboard Revolution--Sefeinman 20:38, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
On the same website mentioned above, I found this this picture of a kinder student using a tennis ball to grab objects and move them. That is genius! I know of two students in my class that could really benefit from using that (they slam the pen into the board). --Sefeinman 20:42, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I do not have an interactive whiteboard. I did just receive a projector and active slate, but I am waiting to get it hooked up. Once it is hooked up I would like to start using some of the flip charts from Promethean Planet. I found some flip charts that could be used for mini lessons during writing lessons. I downloaded these flip charts onto my flash drive, so I can use them once I am all hooked up. I found flip charts on Common and Proper Nouns, Capitalization and Main Idea and Supporting Details.--Patricia Edwards 20:50, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
This is a link I found with a wealth of ideas and resources for Smartboard users. List.--Sefeinman 20:53, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
AS I have been researching SMART Boards this week, I have found some great stuff! I am in the process of creating my own Whiteboard. When it is up and running, I have some cool options. I will be using an activity on adjectives. I also like several interactives options at Scholastic. They offer a SMART Exchange as a resource center for teachers. It gives a chance to share ideas with other educators. Ehow.com was also a lot of help for me because I am so ignorant on SMART Board use. They have great ideas for Language Arts and the best part is they make the directions easy to understand.--Carol Sherrill 01:13, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
This is an interesting multimedia timeline of United States history that would work well with a SmartBoard. --Heatherscoe 01:23, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Here is a site that provides different sites for different subject areas with using the smartboard Activities.--Hetilley 01:46, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
The Smart Technology Siteis one of the best sites I have found. It offers activity ideas, demonstrations, amd tutuorials. I frequently visit this site for ideas. --Adover 02:52, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I was so excited this year because I was told I was getting my own smartbaord. Then I found out that due to budget cuts I would not be receiving one. I used one last year in a math inclusion setting. I enjoyed using brainpop and making jeopardy games on it. [16] I researched several of the sites and really wish I was getting one now. One of my favorites listed was a site to tach grammar. Grammar is so boring to teach that the smart board would be the perfect interactive way to teach it. [17] One way I try to make grammar fun is by using Mad Libs in class. Kids love them! I found the following site for whiteboard Mad Libs [18]. Another great way to use the whiteboard would be to model writing. One great site would be [19]This site has several different types of writing such as brochures and leaflets. I am in a classroom without any technology other than my 3 computers, CD player, and overhead projector. --Cajones51 02:09, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
Another website with lots of good SmartBoard lessons is a Virginia schools website. Although all standards do not line up perfectly, the materials can be used. It provides materials in the form of lessons, powerpoints, Smart Notebook, and even more. Click here to check out the Rockingham County Schools website. --Brittanyjguy 21:50, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I found a great site called [http://wwww.sqooltools.com sqool tools ]that provides free workshops for teachers if you sign up on intergrating technology in your classroom. They provide detailed handouts on SMARTBoards and how to integrate them in your classroom. As I was looking around more, I found an awesome video that can inspire us teachers out there taking a first step with technology and really working hard to integrate technology in our classrooms. Get inspired and be a leader in technology! I also found Smarter SMARTBoard that has everything from web resources, ideas to SMARTBoard templates! --Amy Hardister 04:40, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
Here are some helpful links for SMARTboard lessons [20][21] and [22] --jennifer wagoner 21:44, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
Here are some sites from the Museum of Natural Science, [23] in Raleigh, great sites and even better educator field trips. [student page]--Grandmacunningham 15:00, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
Interactive Whiteboard Information Links
Share links to information and issues pertaining to interactive whiteboard use in the classroom here. If you are new to an interactive board a great place to pick up lessons for the Smartboard is Edcompass. I posted the link below. I can honestly say that most of my smartboard activities started on this site. The nice thing about this site is you can tweak activities and make one work for lots of different goals [24]--Candy Mooney 05:36, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I found this when we were researching twitter. It is 'twibe" for smartboard users. People tweet about how they are using their smartboard. Did you know there is an app that lets you control your smartboard from your phone?? One of the guys on the twibe uses Air Mouse to connect to his Smartboard through his laptop. Smartboards Twibe--Sefeinman 20:35, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I looked up the price range of a smartboard and that they are pretty pricey. They range from $3400-$10,000.--Patricia Edwards 21:17, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I found when using your smart board you can go to a web page and make notes and then they can be saved. A tutorial can be seen at Touch, Write and Save. Later you are able to pull up the screen page with your notes. This would be great to do when you are showing students how they can do research on the internet. For example, my second graders are going to be learning about Africa. I am thinking about having them choose an African animal, answer some questions about their animal and make their animal in it's habitat. So, this would be a great way to introduce the research project.--Patricia Edwards 21:35, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
I found this eduwiki that provides a great deal of helpful information on SmartBoards--videos, links, news, etc. --Heatherscoe 13:14, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
Believe It or Not, I Made My Own Interactive Whiteboard, and Here's How It Went
Be our model of daring and make your own interactive whiteboard. Tell us all about making and using your personal board here.
When I first read that I needed to do an activity on a smartboard, I thought oh no. I am not moving the giant smartboard from the 5th grade building to my tiny room to have it not work. Every time I have every tried to use that piece of equipment it has not worked. Then I saw where you could make your own. So I talked nice to my computer guru husband and our school librarian and they both agreed to help me. The librarian let me bring home a projector and she had an extra pen I could borrow. We will get the wii remote and blue tooth adapter and put this together tomorrow. More to follow...--Melissa graham 00:52, 7 November 2009 (UTC) I was unable to get a bluetooth adapter in a store so I had to order it. My husband was not interested in making an infrared pen so we ordered that too. The parts were to be here today, however it's a holiday so they will be here tomorrow. My class is taking a field trip to the NC Zoo on Friday so it looks like it will be Monday before I actually use this with my class. More to follow... --Melissa graham 22:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC) I am making progress on my journey to create my own smartboard. I am in possesion of a wiimote. The activepen the librarian let me borrow only works on a promethean board.A promethean board is another brand of smartboard. In order for my homemade board to work I will need an infrared pen. I ordered one from penteractive.us. I also ordered the mini bluetooth adapter.(Note: I've learned the hard way my computer does not have the bluetooth software so we're off to find this needed piece of the puzzle.)--Melissa graham 01:38, 14 November 2009 (UTC)) I located the bluesoleil software. It was a little pricey, $29, but I had to have it. Using pentabulous software from www.penteractive.us to calibrate the range of the board for the wiimote to pick up, I was in business. This was easier to download than the Johnny Lee software. I was so excited that it worked when everything finally came together. But the real test would be using it in the classroom. On Monday morning I hooked it up at school and IT WORKED!! My class took to it like a duck to water. We went to one of our favorite sites, spelling city and played Hangmouse and learned to play Unscramble together. My students didn't have any problems using the infrared pen or dodging their shadow as I had feared. They did a much better job than I did. Though the project was frustrating at times, it was so worth it to see my students so actively engaged this morning. Our new interactive board will become a permanent fixture in my classroom.--Melissa graham 01:42, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
I am in the process of creating my own whiteboard. I ordered some of the parts this past week and I am waiting on them to arrive. Unfortunately this week, I have to be gone for training for 2 days and then we have Wednesday off. So hopefully, I will be able to report back on Thursday that I am the proud parent of a new whiteboard!--Carol Sherrill 01:21, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
I'm going to attempt to make my own over Thanksgiving break when my technically inclined oldest son and his equipment will be home to help me. Seems like a good father-son project that will provide a portable tool that I can use in my teaching at Appalachian and elsewhere. I'll post an update after we give it a shot.--Koppenhaverd 19:15, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
I am also going to attempt to create my own interactive whiteboard over Thanksgiving break. I find that the interactive whiteboards at school, while useful, are very hard to maneuver in the classroom and are sometimes not available. I look forward to working with my boyfriend to get one up and running to use with my students. --Burchamal 20:17, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
Okay, just because I can make a WhiteBoard doesn't mean I can tell you about it in the right place! My story is at the top where I was supposed to tell how I use a Whiteboard in my classroom. I thought I was doing really good there for a minute.--Carol Sherrill 00:54, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
