Week 3: Smart Board Enhances Students' Learning

I talked about my CT using her Smart Board to play a "Clean Up" song but I want to delve deeper this week on how she uses it with her lessons during the day. Teachers can use Smart Boards for a lot of smaller things but it can be a challenge to create an interactive lesson with a Smart Board that doesn't take away from the students' learning. They can be easily distracted by the Smart Board and miss the entire point of your lesson.

With that said, I'll show you two different ways that I saw my CT use the Smart Board effectively (there were more occasions that just these two):

1. Learning words with the short "u" by playing the game, "Make the Box"

If you aren't sure what that game is, here's the original version of it. Excuse my drawings, they can be lacking sometimes but I think you'll get the point:

The game is comprised of a grid of dots, this game can be played with another person or with multiple. You draw lines between the dots and try create as many boxes before the other person (people). You can only draw one line per turn! 

This was utilized as a game for children to learn their short "u" words. The teacher placed short "u" words (example: gum, run etc.) between the dots and when the child drew a line they had to say the word and sound it out on their arm and then blend. The kids absolutely LOVED the game. We played teachers versus students. We tied! 

It is hard to see, but this is an actual photo from the game. The kids were loving it!

2. Teaching Kids How to Vote

The kids were voting on their class' favorite book. We had been reading a book a day and they would vote at the end of the week which one they thought, as a class, was the best. My CT went through the process of how to vote using the Smart Board. She explained that they would vote similarly as people who are 18 and older. They would each fill out a ballot and submit their vote. She would count them up and they would have a winner! The kids were enthralled with the process. She utilized the Smart Board to have a bigger version of the children's voting ballots and filled out an example ballot for them to look at. 

It is very dark, I apologize. She is writing her name on the top of an example of a voting ballot. Below her name would be a picture representing each book and the child would circle which one they liked the best. 

If you're curious, the book called, "Cinderella and the Incredible Techno-Slippers" won by a slim margin. ;)