The last one about IWB's... for now!!

So the thing that I have really enjoyed from my course work in IDE is that every class opens my eyes to something that I didn't know anything about, that kind of consumes my curiosity for that semester. Interactive WhiteBoards is that thing this semester. I am planning on extending the collaborative project from this class into a year long alternative evaluation project through my school. I was interested in continuing this blog topic so that I could have a forum to present weekly lessons and sites that I will use with my students. I have decided to allow someone else to pick up the topic of IWBs for the second half of the semester. I have really gained a lot of knowledge and excitement from creating this blog. I am so grateful that after 10 years of teaching I am able to discover something new that will improve my teaching abilities. I am eager to collaborate with other educators who are more proficient with IWBs so that I can use them to their fullest potential.

Just today, the entire 2nd grade team gathered in the library to learn about a pen-pal project that we are going to be doing with Van Dyne School. The students watched a BrainPop video about friendly letters and then wanted to take the quiz. Another teacher was sitting at the computer and using the mouse to manipulate the screen. So I stood next to it and just tapped on the answer and the kids went wild. They did not know that it was a touch screen. I told my class to get ready because we are going to be doing a lot of work with the SmartBoard and they will have plenty of chances to touch it once they are taught how. It was a pretty sweet moment to see how excited they got. I hope that it carries over from week to week as we continue to develop lessons that use the IWB as an important teaching tool.