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Learning To Love The Interactive Whiteboard by Bridget Mccrea 05/15/13

Rocchetti is a fifth grade teacher who has embraced the use of interactive whiteboards in her classroom. She finds that the smart board keeps students engaged and wanting to learn. It allows her to display lessons, videos, and student work digitally for the class to see. The smart board is particularly useful for teaching math and science concepts, as it allows students to interact with problems and simulations. While there are occasional technical issues, Rocchetti has found the smart board improves students' learning experience by making lessons more visual and interactive. She advises other teachers to have backup plans, learn tricks from colleagues, and experiment with technology in their own classrooms.

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36 views2 pages

Learning To Love The Interactive Whiteboard by Bridget Mccrea 05/15/13

Rocchetti is a fifth grade teacher who has embraced the use of interactive whiteboards in her classroom. She finds that the smart board keeps students engaged and wanting to learn. It allows her to display lessons, videos, and student work digitally for the class to see. The smart board is particularly useful for teaching math and science concepts, as it allows students to interact with problems and simulations. While there are occasional technical issues, Rocchetti has found the smart board improves students' learning experience by making lessons more visual and interactive. She advises other teachers to have backup plans, learn tricks from colleagues, and experiment with technology in their own classrooms.

Uploaded by

Sheryl Dela Rosa Reyes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Learning to Love the Interactive Whiteboard

By Bridget McCrea 05/15/13


When Holly Rocchetti started teaching fifth grade at Mount Vernon Community
School in Alexandria, VA, about six years ago, she relied heavily on textbooks,
Xeroxed handouts, and a chalkboard. These traditional methods may have worked
at the time, but over the next few years they gave way to an array of technologybased educational solutions. Among them is a SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard
(aka, smart board) that Rocchetti uses to teach across all subjects.
Rocchetti used her first smart board two years ago while working at a city charter
school that had bought several of them with an educational grant. I immediately
saw how it kept students engaged and on task, I was sold on using it, she
explained. They were involved, out of their seats, and wanting to learn more. It was
life-changing.
When she accepted a position at Mount Vernon Community School in 2012,
Rocchetti began looking for ways to get a smart board for her classroom. As luck
would have it, the schools Parent Teacher Association (PTA) obtained one that she
uses on a daily basis. Rocchetti, who has used both SMART Boards
andPromethean interactive whiteboards, connects the equipment to document
readers that are located at the front of her classroom. Using that setup, Rocchetti
can display handwritten student work on a large screen and/or utilize the smart
board as a large, touch-screen display.
Ubiquitous Tech Tool
Rocchetti said she uses the interactive whiteboard in various ways. Every morning,
she creates a PowerPoint presentation containing her class agenda for the day. Its
up and visible as soon as my students walk into class, said Rocchetti, so everyone
knows immediately what the deal is for the day.
After posting the days objective on the smart board, Rocchetti reviews it with her
class and then makes assignments, shows YouTube videos, or gets students working
collaboratively on projects. Her interactive reading program, for example, revolves
around students coming up and writing on the board, says Rocchetti, who can
then save that work for future assessment.
Rocchetti said the smart board is particularly helpful when teaching math and
science points. For example, she can show math problems on the smart board and
encourage students to manipulate the numbers, move the shapes, and attempt the
calculations. Rocchetti takes the same approach with science. Using Internet
research and videos, for example, she can more effectively articulate biology,
chemistry, and physics topics that arent always easy to convey using traditional
textbooks.
Rocchetti said the interactive tech tool has improved the way her pupils tackle
difficult problems. Its not like a chalkboard that gets erased. I can keep all of that
work and use it for reinforcement. She said keeping students engaged has also
become easier. In the past we had to be more creativeparticularly when lessons

revolved around textbooks, she explained. Theres something to say about using
booksand we are still using pens and paperbut when you add technology to the
mix, the whole educational experience changes.
Rocchetti said the interactive whiteboard has been especially useful for her
institutions significant English Language Learner population. Just today we were
look at the root word of sealing something, said Rocchetti, who initially tried to
explain the concept by comparing it to the licking of an envelope before mailing
it. The class looked at me like I was crazy. To get her point across, Rocchetti fired
up her smart board, Googled the word seal, and showed the classthrough
images and a concise web definitionexactly what she was talking about. They got
it instantly, she said.
The same approach worked during a recent class lesson about King Tut. When I
realized that they didnt get what I was talking about, said Rocchetti, I used the
smart board to show my class a three-minute video about Egypt, pyramids, and
mummies. It grabbed the students attention and got them engaged almost
instantly.
Learning From Other Teachers
Rocchetti, whose other favorite classroom technology tools include iPads and
Kindles, said the only challenges she has dealt with when using the interactive
whiteboards were technical in nature. Sometimes the machine doesnt turn on and
I have no idea why, she said. If a cord comes loose, for example, it shuts down the
class for 10 minutes as I try to find out what the problem is.
To other teachers who want to incorporate smart boards into their own classrooms,
Rocchetti said its always good to have a backup plan in place, just in case the
technology decides to act up. Keep an ample supply of textbooks, pencils, and
paper on hand, she added, and always be ready to shift from a digital mindset and
back to more traditional teaching methods.
Finally, Rocchetti advised educators to learn from one another during this age of
technological experimentation. There are a lot of tricks and tips out there that you
can share with each other, said Rocchetti, who recently learned from a peer how to
more efficiently erase content on her smart board. Vendors offer training, but its
not always differentiated. Sometimes its better to learn from those who are already
using the equipment or software.

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