The school year just started and I am awash not only in the usual busyness, but also in adjusting to our newly "emptied nest" -- my son lives in a northern suburb about 10 miles from here and my daughter started college three weeks ago.
But perhaps just as unbalancing has been the fact that I am in a research study using a "new" (remember that schools are typically a bit behind the "new" curve!) technology called a SmartBoard. One of my colleagues asked to if I would be interested in volunteering for the study with her and I said "yes". Got the training -- it's a MARVELOUS TOOL! -- and am now busy integrating it.
I am something of a fossil as this is my 28th year of teaching and I remember using MIMEOGRAPH dittos to do lessons and having to use a calculator to hand-add grades then fill out bubble sheets to get the grades into the computer that did little more than print report cards and store the data.
At any rate, in my classroom I have been VERY slowly turning my "hand printed" worksheets and acetate overhead presentations into PowerPoint presentations. My colleagues gently rib me because of my "fossil" status.
With this training to use the SmartBoard and its accompanying software, I've SUDDENLY leap-frogged over them and *POOF!*, now I'm ahead of the technology curve -- as our school has only two mobile SmartBoards in addition to our two mounted SmartBoards...
All this to say that I am scrambling to change from overheads to SmartBoard, I am WAYYYYY behind on writing and I will get back to my regular posts this Sunday!
Guy
September 11, 2009
Skipping From the 1980s to the 21st Century in One Long Leap!
Guy Stewart is a husband; a father, father-in-law, grandfather, friend, writer, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS
that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has almost 70 publications to his credit including one book (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMER'S & BREAST CANCER!
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4 comments:
yippee for you for agreeing to be the guinea pig! It's all good....
Oh yes, I remember purple ink all over my fingers much of the time I taught school. Now I would like to learn more about Smart Boards!
The Smart Board looks great, even though the concept seems pretty simple. I found a YouTube video of a teacher demonstrating one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdNPMZJbLs . Anything you particularly like about using yours?
Your blog conjured up two memories for me... one of me in 6th grade helping our teachers in the office use the "reisograph" (sp?) (which was cranked by hand) to make multiple copies, and the other was our TIES testing cards from either jr. or sr. high. Now my children have more technology in 3rd grade that NASA had for the Mercury program. Congrats on embracing the new stuff, but it is your obvious love of teaching that will touch those lives around you!
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