La pizarra electrónica

In my school each classroom has a SMARTBoard. For those who are not familiar, the SMARTBoard is an interactive, electronic white board. A LCD projector projects the computer screen on the SMARTBoard, and you are able to touch the board as you would navegate a computer screen with a mouse. There are several brands in addition to the SMARTBoard. Below is the link the the company's website if you are interested in finding out more.

http://smarttech.com/

I have been lucky enough to have been working with a SMARTBoard in my classroom for the last five years. I do not claim to be an expert with the SMARTBoard, but I have become pretty saavy at using it in my classroom. I realize I only use a small percentage of the features on the SMARTBoard, but I use it to fit my needs.

I did a presentation for a professor about the SMARTBoard a year ago, and here are some of the ideas that I presented.

Benefits of the SMARTBoard:
1. Saves time
2. Able to have a lot of visuals that come from a variety of sources in one place
3. Unlike Power Point, you can write on the document and save it
4. Allows for teaching to different learners
-Visual
-Auditory
-Kinesthetic
5. Able to print off slides
-use for lower level classes
6. Helps for classroom accomodations for students with IEPs
-written directions already prepared
-guided notes already prepared
7. Can flip back to notes while doing an activity
8. Can use lessons year after year
9. Showing DVDs- wide screen TV
10. Do not have to deal with AV equipment and cords
11. Can save notes for absent students and post online
12. Can post agenda

Here are some ways that I use the SMARTBoard in the classroom:
1. Dice--This is a great way to review verb forms. I use two dice, and I assign one die to subject pronouns and one die to verbs. You touch the dice, and conjugate the verb based on the numbers that appeared (this is a great idea I got from my fantastic colleagues). Another way I use the dice is to choose who is going to present a conversation or something of that sort. I assign students numbers. If their number appears they have to present their conversation.
2. Clock--I use the clock when we are learning how to tell time.
3. Saving pages into Gallery--There are some pictures or graphics that I use frequently. I save these items to the Gallery, and it is easy to pull them up into a new document. I don't have to spend time recreating the graphic or searching for particular pictures.
4. Connecting vocabulary to pictures-- Students come up to the board to connect the picture with the vocab word. They love interacting with the SMARTBoard.
5. Senteo (student response system)
6. Insert a link (connects it to the webpage you want to look at)
7. Taking "pictures" tool--This is an easier version of copy and paste, and you can take a screen capture as well.
8. Shade for taking notes
9. Shapes- speech bubbles--Sometimes I will put speech bubbles in a picture, and my students invent what the people in the picture would say.
10. Showing answers to homework--I just copy and paste from the CD-Rom that goes with my textbook. This is especially helpful when it is simple homework, and it saves time.
11. Timer--I use this sometimes if I want to time students doing an activity. They can look up at the SMARTBoard to see how much time they have remaining.
12. Insert activities from textbook (lower levels)--I find this helpful because so many students forget their books. I just copy and paste the activities into the SMARTBoard handouts that I give to the students. I get fewer "can-I-go-to-my-locker" questions.