First Day Back and an IWB question
Yesterday was the first contract day back at school. We had a meeting until 9:45 and were then given the rest of the day to set up our classrooms. Does anyone else spend a lot of time on these days doing nothing of any great value? Not that I was totally unproductive, but I have to remind myself that investing in relationships with other people and helping others is productive–even though not much changed or happened in my classroom.
With the advent of SMARTboards in 20 rooms, there were many questions to be asked, and since I’m one of the few who feels comfortable enough to really use mine starting the first day of school, may were directed at me. I’ve read several articles that talk about teaching differently with an Interactive White Board and that if we continue to teach exactly the same way, we are negating the value of the software. I get this, and I’ve planned lessons, but I’m not totally convinced they are truly “taking advantage” of the technology. So the question to end this post is as follows: What makes an IWB lesson AMAZING?
August 9, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I’m in a similar situation with my (new to me) interactive white board. Here’s where I’ve gotten: We get a lot of value out of the interactive part when we do math on top of a video or image. I keep picturing John Madden’s annotations of football games.
I figure that if I’m not drawing on top of something — right there during class — I might as well have a powerpoint show on a regular projector and screen.
What have you seen that’s truly awesome?
August 11, 2009 at 11:53 am
All the reading I’ve done says that if you don’t teach differently with an IWB, you might as well have chalk and a chalkboard. However, I haven’t seen much on specifically what makes teaching on an IWB different. I don’t just think it’s using all the flashy toys, but rather an increased amount of student engagement. I’m hoping to train my students so well that they can run the board on their own. It is their classroom and their learning tool. I exist merely to facilitate. That’s what I’m saying now anyway. Ask me in a week when 150 12 year-olds want to start playing with the piece of equipment worth thousands of dollars. I’m nervous about this, but I’m willing to try
August 16, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I agree completely. Last week was my first with my IWB — it felt more like a traditional LCD/whiteboard combo that costs thousands less.
What if students explored quadratic transformations using Gizmos @ ExploreLearning? Eh, it’s not that *interactive*.
I like Dan Meyer’s push for teachers to use more media. I imagine playing video or showing a picture. With the IWB, the students & I can annotate all over the thing (still, that’s no better than an LCD projected onto an old fashioned white board).
Clearly there’s an advantage to being able to save your annotations right on top of the slide — potentially useful for distribution to students later.
Is it possible that the IWB really is barely better than an LCD image projected onto a white board?
August 16, 2009 at 3:19 pm
[...] been in school, I already realize I’m using the board as a plain old LCD projector. I’m not the only math teacher wondering how to use the Promethean for all it can [...]