Plog Post 5: Interactive Whiteboard

1. Interactive whiteboards are becoming more common in the classroom. How do you feel they enhance teaching and learning? Was the technology difficult for you to use? What are the pros and cons to having them installed in your classroom? Think of some lesson plans you wrote in the past. How would you incorporate the smart board when teaching that content?

     I found the interactive whiteboard technology a little bit difficult to use. The lesson that I just taught was the first time that I had every written a lesson based around a smart board. This was also the only time that I had ever used the smart board software. The only other experience that I have had with the smart board is using it for basic internet links, using it almost as a computer screen or a projector. I believe that the software is a little temperamental to use, however I became more and more comfortable as I used it. If I were to make another lesson using it I think I would be able to finish it more efficiently.

     Interactive whiteboards are becoming more common in the classroom and I believe that this is a positive change. I think that these whiteboards are enhancing teaching and learning. With this new technology students can participate and visually see new information. This technology allows teachers to pull from outside sources to enhance their lessons. There will be many pros if I have the opportunity to install this new technology in to my future classroom. Some pros include being able to show the students maps, videos, and internet sources. This will help the students to interact and will enhanced student participation. This technology will make the students feel comfortable and will help students connect to their daily lives with technology; many will know more about it then the teacher.

     Although there are many pros there are also some cons, such as, overuse. While I was observing Thirteenth and Union my cooperating teacher was forced to use the interactive white board every day in her math lessons. Since the third grade teachers rotated who wrote the lessons each week there were many days that she didn’t even look at the lessons before she taught it. Since the students saw the same thing every day they seemed to be a little bit bored with it. I also think that it is important to use this new technology to ENHACE the lessons, and to be sure that the lessons are not based off the interactive whiteboard but rather the content.

     None of the lesson plans that I wrote in the past incorporated the SMART Board. If I had the opportunity I would definitely revise them add incorporate the SMART Board. I may use it to bring up internet sources or show the students pictures of the content. I may also add it at the end of a lesson to review, and have the students interact and play a game or answer questions.

Blog Post 4: Software Skills

1. Reflect on the software skills we learned and the project you created. Was it beneficial to take the time to learn them? Which do you think will be the most beneficial for you? How do you think they will help you as a teacher? Be specific.

  I believe that the software productivity project was extremely beneficial and worth taking the time to learn. It showed us how to work with three different programs, not just one. I learned so many new techniques that i will be able to use for my future classrooms.

I think that the most beneficial was the news letter that we created in Microsoft Publisher. I really enjoyed learning how to use this program. It has endless possibilities for creating newsletters, flyers, and many other useful items that will help me organize my classroom. I think that understanding how to make a news letter is important because there will be many times I will need to send a letter home, this is a great way to let parents know what is coming up. 

Learning how to use these programs will definitely help me as a teacher. I had to make quizzes for many of my methods courses, and it took me a long time to create it, and none of them were as well organized as the one I created for this project. Learning how to create boarders and tables will really benefit me in creating and grading tests and quizzes in the future. I also believe that I have a much clearer understanding of Inspiration, before this class i only saw inspiration as a tool for teachers. I no understand how to use it as a teacher, and how to incorporate it into the classroom for students to use. These programs will help me organize my self, my students, and their parents. I will not only be able to use them as an organizational tools, but also as teaching tools, for the students to use.