Jennifer+Benn

I have had a SMART board in my classroom for just over a year now. Last year I only used the board to show websites to the students and only used a few tools in SMART notebook. This course really taught me how to dive into SMART notebook and use the tools to create exciting, interactive learning activities for my students.

My Reading Lesson Objective – Students will be able to read first grade high frequency words within three seconds. I created two activities that would help students learn to read and spell their first grade high frequency words. Before using the SMART board, students would work in an independent learning center while I was working with a small group of students on a guided reading lesson. In the independent center students would practice reading cards with the high frequency words listed on them. Then the students would practice spelling the words using chalk and chalkboards, and sometimes they would also spell the words out of clay. This is a fine independent center, but the students would often lose interest over a short period of time. It was hard for me to monitor if the students were really on task in the center. After creating the “Memory Game” using SMART notebook, students did not lose interest during their independent center time. They worked in pairs and together practiced reading the words out loud while playing the game. Using the SMART board for this activity is also a great way to make sure the students are really reading the words and staying on task.

For my second activity, I wanted to explore the teacher tool box kit to find ideas on activities that would help students spell their high frequency words. I found an awesome game that the students love! I plugged in ten of our high frequency words and saved them. Now students are able to guess the letters and practice spelling and reading their first grade words. Again, students are engaged in this center and you can tell they are learning because they are discussing which letters might be in the words and how many letters are needed to spell the words. For my last two lessons, I created two activities that would allow more students to take part in active learning during our morning calendar. The two SMART notebook activities focus on math and science. Every morning, students discuss the number of days we have been in school. Then the students need to think about how to show that same amount using coins. Only two students are the calendar helpers, so during this time I often see students not watching the others count the coins. The coins are on Velcro and on the wall, but it is hard for some students to see from their seats. I wanted to give the students a chance to count coins using the SMART board. Using the board to count coins has kept students more engaged during calendar, and has given me a tool to easily assess who is proficient at counting coins. For my fourth activity, I wanted to help students have a better understanding of temperature which is one of our goals in science. Every day during our morning calendar routine students discuss and graph the weather. We discuss the temperature outside and before using the SMART board the students did not have a visual thermometer to help them understand the concept of temperature. The interactive thermometer on the SMART board is great because students can actually see the temperature. In the spring, we will work on an Einstein Unit called Weather. This activity will fit in perfectly.