SmartBoards

As our school went into the 10 day count at the beginning of the year, we added teachers. One of those teachers was Rebecca Roberts, an experienced first grade teacher, who had recently moved to the Jacksonville area. Rebecca is doing safety net work in the mornings in first grade but in the afternoons she has joined our classroom for Math and Science. Rebecca had SmartBoard training at her previous school where she used the Board daily. We only have two SmartBoards in our building. One was part of a technology package that was a gift to each of the state Teachers of the Year during my reign. While the technology package was given personally to the teachers, I decided to have my technology housed at my school. I can't imagine what I would have done with it at home! I did have enough professional development with the SmartBoard to have a good idea of how engaging it could be to children! Since returning to Chets, I haven't had my own classroom so the SmartBoard has been housed with several different primary teachers, but no one, except maybe the Media Specialist, has actually had training on the ways that a SmartBoard can be used in a classroom. When Rebecca came into our room, it was the perfect opportunity to see the SmartBoard in action. Today was our first lesson as Rebecca taught our Calendar Math lesson on the Board! As predicted, the students were glued to the screen! I can't wait to see this piece of technology actually used on a daily basis. I've followed the pros and cons of SmartBoards in the classroom, so it will be a nice treat to actually see for myself. Are they worth the money? We'll see...