IWB Challenge #7 - Finally

Wow - I finished the great IWB Challenge Set just in time for Christmas! Sure hope Santa finds it in his heart to leave a cool techie toy at my house this year. Santa, I promise not to light the fireplace on Christmas Eve.

In this, my 20th year of teaching 3rd graders, I've learned more this semester than I have in any other year. Each year brings new challenges and successes, as well as a sprinkle of regrets. However, I've not regretted completing the set of 7 challenges. Analyzing my SMART Board use and technique, reflecting on best practices, and taking a risk with new ideas have been a few rewards of this endurance test.

An iwb lends itself well to group discussion, collaboration, social learning, and modeling best practices. On the other hand, it doesn't work well for individual expression and polishing the skill sets. Informal assessments at the Board are great, but formal assessments must be done by the individual student. There is still a place for student desks in the classrooms. My kids call it their office. Sometimes they enjoy working in their office after being in the theater (gathering as a group at the iwb). After all, I have an office desk.

To give you a little background before you read my observations, I've been using a SMART Board for almost 5 years, using it every opportunity I can. I've written over 400 Notebook lessons covering most everything I'm expected to teach. My Board is mounted on the wall in my classroom. I'm not a SMART Master's Certified Trainer yet, but I've attended the SMART Teacher Conference in Calgary, presented with SMART at South Padre Island, been a SMART trade show teacher at NECC in San Diego, NSBA in San Francisco, TCEA in Austin, and done presentations in San Antonio and other points around Texas. In other words, I love using my Board to teach and showing others the power of SMART. So it is with a measure of experience I offer my opinions on when to use and not to use the Board.
Introducing the concept of multiplication vs. memorizing the facts.
Practicing reading strategies vs. independent strategy practice.
Background science information vs. hands-on labs. Nothing beats wearing safety goggles while creating a chemical reaction in a test tube!
Reading stories together online vs. writing your own stories.
Computation demonstrations and practice vs. computation comprehension.
Informal assessment vs. formal assessment.

In my district, the policy has always been if you want some piece of hardware or software, it will be bought for you if you'll use it. Most of the time, the funds are available. However, mandatory technology use is not forced. Whether that's good or not is not my call. I believe that day is coming as teachers are held more accountable to state standards. As teachers realize how engaging and motivating iwbs are, more teachers are open to trying it out. So many of our students have to power down when they come to school. Teachers must be trained to harness that energy for learning. Repeated training is necessary for successful technology integration. We didn't become great teachers after one college class.

SMART Board Flashing Text Challenge

Wow! Teachers Love SMART Boards, Jim Hollis, has done it again! Where does he get these great ideas? By capitalizing on the new features of SMART Notebook 10, Jim keeps designing challenges that features the amazing capabilities of Notebook software. Last week's challenge was to create a lesson activity that gave immediate feedback to the student by flashing text if the answer was correct. Watch the challenge and solution here.

IWB Challenge #5 - Sort and Classify

Coming up with a theme for this week’s IWB challenge to incorporate sorting and classifying using containers in a lesson was not the problem. The problem was choosing which one to do since there are so many subjects and topics applicable to that skill. I finally settled on creating a noun and verb sort because that is a current topic in grammar. Using the Vortex Sort activity in the SMART Lesson Activity Toolkit enabled me to design the activity quickly. To the right is a table with some additional ideas for your own sort and classify activity.

The students always enjoy having their lessons on the SMART Board because it’s engaging, entertaining, and memorable. They thought the Vortex Sort/Noun and Verb activity was fun and wanted to do it again. Of course we did it again. One smart student remarked during the lesson, “Oh, I remember doing this in second grade. We did odd and even (numbers).” I rest my case.

SMART Notebook Tables Activity Challenge

Keeping up with both iwb challenges and the third grade curriculum keeps me hopping! I do heart a challenge, though. Last week's challenge from Teachers Love SMART Boards involved using the table function from Notebook Software. Okay, I'll admit it, I had to get a hint from Jim, but I'd like to think it was because it was Monday all day long. (It really was Monday.)
I created a 2 x 4 table from the insert menu in Notebook to use with a plural nouns lesson. In the first column are the singular nouns. Around the edges are the plural nouns grouped with matching clip art. They are ready to be dragged and dropped into the second column once the student correctly spells the plural form of the noun. Witches is shown as an example. Since this challenge entry, I've expanded this activity to include other nouns and the third rule about changing the y to i before adding es. The students enjoyed spelling the correct plural so much, they begged to do it again the next day. There's just no pleasing students these days!

Voice Thread Challenge 4

Awesome, terrifying, amazing, challenging, and frustrating: All are words that could describe the completion of this challenge. Having participated in several Voice Threads through my DEN network, I was familiar with the process. Setting up the VT was easy, once I figured out that my SMART recorder .wmv files were not going to load. So it was back to square one using SnagIt screen capture software. I also added an identity for my students which was easier than I thought. All the background work was completed at home due to T1 line construction at school the past 2 days. Today the internet was back and the students were able to record their responses during the math lesson. Not all students were willing to participate. They're very talkative during class but didn't allow themselves to take a risk and record. Go figure. Above is the link to my voice thread. Enjoy :)
After all the hurdles, this challenge is one I will use again with my students. Learning goes so much deeper when students think out loud.

Hall of Fame

Last week another whiteboard challenge launched on the Teachers Love SMART Board blog. I love a challenge! Who would have known I would win? But then, I have a pretty good track record of winning when it comes to SMART things. Who knows - that might be another blog post.
Allow me to encourage you join the Challenge. Jim has just posted a new challenge for week #2. See you in the Hall of Fame!
http://smartboards.typepad.com/smartboard/weekly-challenge-results.html

IWB Challenge #3 - Transparency

Before I begin this latest post, I thought I'd give an update on how well my students have remembered how to create fact families after doing the lesson using the infinite cloning technique. Unlike last year, not even one student has forgotten how to make them when it's paper and pencil time. I think that's amazing!

I've always been a fan of cool SMART Board tips and tricks, so using transparency to make the lesson come to life was no exception. As the protractor was introduced last week, I thought it would be a good example of transparency. Here's how I did it. First, I found a picture that had obvious angles. I chose a red stop sign to insert on my Notebook page. Next, I pulled in the interactive protractor found in the Gallery. After the student found the angle with the protractor, I then instructed him/her to make the background image transparent, so that the remainder of the class could easily see. They thought that was a great trick! "Let's do that again, Mrs. Reed!" was the common echo within the class. As you can see by the two pictures included here, this boy had no trouble making the stop sign totally disappear! No doubt he wishes he could do the same to those real life stop signs in his driving future!

Classroom Cloning Challenge #2

Conquering the bimonthly iwb challenges ignites the spark that contributes to more engaging lesson activities for my students.. The current challenge is to use the infinite cloner tool to create engaging learning opportunities. It does just that and more.
As I assemble my thoughts for this post, many lessons come to mind. One of the ways I've used it the past two weeks in my third grade class has been to have students illustrate equal groups story problems using gallery clipart. For example, on the Notebook page, I inserted text: 3 groups of 4 and made 3 large circles with the shape maker. I inserted the first group of 4 objects in the first circle. Next the student was directed to turn on the infinite cloner and drag a group to each of the other 2 circles to complete the picture. The next student came to the Board and wrote the matching number sentence: 3 x 4 = 12. More pages were set up with other multiplication facts so that each learner had an opportunity to participate. Using pictures helps the multiplication concept come to life in the students' mind. Of course, they'd love to be able to do the same type pictures to create their own equal groups back at their desks. They have to satisfied with drawing their own sticks, circles and squares to create their picture. I plan to have students make their own presentation using Notebook software with the computers in my classroom in the near future when the larger facts (6,7,8,9s) are introduced.
Another math lesson found us reviewing "some and some more" and "some and some went away" type story problems. What better way to add a little fun to the lesson than to drag out some clip art and use the infinite cloner to set up the picture for solving. Much collaboration and many suggestions came from the students themselves as they directed their classmate at the SMART Board. They wanted each other to succeed. Once the picture is made, the matching number sentence was written on the page. After a bit, instead of cloning one object at a time, I showed the students how to group several at a time and then use the infinite cloner to create sets of 2,3,4, etc. They loved to skip count as a group as the student at the Board does the work. Here's where knowledge of the skip counting songs came in handy as they actively constructed their learning.
Last week the math lesson covered fact families. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, it's simply creating 2 addition facts and 2 subtration facts from 3 different numbers. Before the lesson, I inserted a 3,4, and 7 and changed the font to 72 before turning on the infinite cloner. Students would then drag out each of the numbers and write in the proper signs on the Board. For example, they would have completed
3 + 4 = 7
4 + 3 = 7
7 - 3 = 4
7 - 4 = 3
Many other opportunities were provided using several different numbers so that several students could participate in the lesson either by themselves or with a partner. Using the infinite cloner in this manner reinforced the pattern by allowing them to use only the designated numbers. I plan to use the same strategy when we cover multiplication and division Fact Families after Thanksgiving.
When we created pictographs after this week's Math test, individual clip art was used to record responses. Students could then drag the correct number of pictures up to the table to record the responses. I used this same technique with creating a table activity in SMART's Back to School contest entry, Great Beginnings. Unfortunately, I didn't win the giveaway but I have the satisfaction of knowing my lesson activity has been downloaded nearly 3,000 times and hopefully has helped many teachers with the first day of school.
The infinite cloner was used over and over again and will continue to be a favorite of mine as math patterns are learned. I can't wait to figure out how to use it in the other subjects I teach each day. To everyone who is participating in the challenge, keep those ideas coming.