Prac

How wonderful can a IWB be?
(practicum)

I just finished my prac and I had a Year 1/2 class. I had a fantastic cooperative teacher that was happy to share her teaching techniques and knowledge with me. I had a wonderful experience but did I incorporate technology in my lessons?

The answer is yes and as much as I could. As wonderful as my cooperative teacher could be, she was an older lady and was not confident with technology. The huge interactive white board (IWB) in her classroom was left untouched most of her lessons and her lesson in the computer room was mostly researching information on Internet. This meant that as soon as I started using it, students were very excited and motivated to participate in the activity. I used some PowerPoint slide to introduce some of my Maths lessons. With the help of PowerPoint 2011 I could create very interactive slides using different colours, images and information. Moreover, I was using the IWB program to create fun activities where students could actively participate in the lesson. Furthermore, I used the IWB to show videos to illustrate my instructions. For instance, during a visual art lesson on Eric Carle, while the students were creating their artwork, a video of Eric Carle's art techniques were shown on the IWB. This simple illustration helped the students to remember the simple steps to create their artwork.

I also used a website presented by one of my classmate. It was a wonderful website on the use of adjectives and adverbs that make a doll sentence more lively. As the students were changing the sentence, the image illustrating it was changing as well. Even though my class was a Year 1/2 and the activity was more directed towards a year 3 class, I chose to use it as a simple introduction to adjectives and their use. I showed the students a demonstration of how the website works in class using the IWB and wanted them to play with the website on their own in the computer room. After having all the students really excited at the idea of using the website, I brought them to the computer room. Students could wait to start, logged in, looked for the website, found it and....The website was BLOCKED! That really disappointed everyone, but super Miss R. (me) found a simple solution to the problem: We will all use the website on the IWB in the classroom. In the end, the activity worked even better! the students were helping each other, harder words could be explained and students actively participate. At the end of the lesson, I took a few minutes to review what was done and what was learnt. They all came up with wonderful explanations. A big success. Here is the website. Use it with your students, but check first if it's not blocked (I still wonder why it was blocked!)

I think I made as much use of technology as I could in my prac... If i had a bit more time i would have been interested to create a blog with my students for them to write down their learning experiences as i really think that it is a wonderful way to realize what have been learnt or not understood. I simply fell in love with the IWB for its numerous qualities (and also with my gorgeous students)!

Thanks flickrcc: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/flickrCC/index.php?terms=IWB&edit=yes&page=1