Ann+Ecker

Lesson #1 - Getting familiar with the SMART board. My first lesson was similar to the introductory activity at the training/class. As a warm up to the March staff meeting, I had the teachers sign in and write the title of their favorite book. What I liked about this activity is that there was an opportunity for staff who have never used the board to try it out, and then unexpectedly, I was called away from the meeting, but the staff was able to "page through" the information without me. Prior to using the board for staff meetings, I felt as though I had to record information after the meeting. What I like about using the board is that I feel though I can "share" the activities and information as well as interact more effectively with the staff. Since I greatly dislike typing up minutes, this is also a way to more quickly produce the minutes.

Lesson #2 - Student Scheduling. I decided to work with my secretary to put the list of students for each new grade level into a SMART page. We will then identify the students with a different symbol to represent reading levels, accommodations, etc. When the teachers and I get together to work on class lists, we will have a visual representation of the students and then "move" students to different teachers. I am excited about this way of arranging student lists because I feel it is more versatile, more visual, less labor intensive and also a way to make notes that can be easily recorded and transferred. I am interested in gathering teacher input on this process and see how it differs from past experiences.

Lesson #3 - Literacy Notes. At one of our recent staff meetings, I was interested in gathering information from the staff on their knowledge of students' literacy data. Since a great deal of other student "test" data is linked to PowerSchool, I thought it would be interesting to organize this information in a SMART document. However, since the SMART software was not playing nice with my Mac, I was not able to fully implement this activity. However, had I been able to present the activity, I think the board would have changed staff's perception of "filing" date and using PowerSchool as a tool to track student data. I have found that effective utilization of the board is as important as the technology itself. At the March faculty meeting when I was struggling to pull up information using the board, when Dylan helped me the activity went more smoothly. I know I need more practice with the board before I feel more comfortable presenting in front of a larger audience again.

Lesson #4 - REACh grant review - I have not yet completed this lesson. I intend to use the SMART board to compile and share information from a wide range of sources that I accessed throughout the year. At the May building level inservice, I plan to work with my REACh team to review where we have come throughout the year and how focusing on our goal has improved instruction and learning. In thinking about why the interactive board will help with this activity here are my thoughts: direction interaction with the information via fingertip will help highlight the relevance; faster connection to the internet through direct links will save time thus increase attention; I need to model stretching myself both professionally and with technology. Since I am not as proficient with the SMARTboard as I would like to be, doing this type of presentation/interaction requires more preparation time. Also, I am anxious to develop this skill however, my frustration with how the Mac differs from the PC lingers on my mind. Finally, I would like to see more SMART lessons from administrators. I am sure there are other adminitrators out there effectively using the SMARTboard. I would like to see some examples. Hmmmm, maybe I should tweet about this. 