Smartboards

For me, it was not hard to learn how to use the Smartboard because I have been using on in a classroom setting since my sophomore year in high school.  My school received a grant that allowed the district to put a Smartboard in all of the math classrooms.  We would often have to go and work with the Smartboards during class.

In college, I had used the Smartboard in one of my method classes during a lesson.  It was for Social Studies and I had used different websites with interactive games that the "students" were to participate in.

I was also fortunate enough to be placed in a classroom with a Smartboard during my early field.  My cooperating teacher used her Smartboard every day, especially during acceleration where the students would play different reading games.  My cooperating teacher had shown be a little bit of the Smart technology as well.

I think that it was really beneficial when we went through all the different Smart technology, because although I have had many experiences using a Smartboard, I was never taught about the Smart technology.  I think that the technology is really useful to teachers when creating lessons because our society is so technologically based that it helps the students in the classroom to connect with what they are learning.  One thing that could be an issue with having a Smartboard in the classroom is having teachers who created lessons based off what they want to do with the Smartboard instead of using the Smartboard to enhance their lessons.

I personally think that Smart technology is something that should be incorporated into all classrooms because allows students to be engaged into the lessons.

Software Skills

I think, for me personally, it was very beneficial to take the time out to learn about the different software tools because I do not know much about technology.  I know that I had used publisher in high school to make a newsletter for my child development class, but I had no idea that you were able to change to color schemes on the different templates which was nice.  I think the lesson on how to create tables in Microsoft word was the most beneficial to me because I always try to use tables but often get frustrated with them because I am never able to figure them out.  Once it was shown to me, working with tables was made a whole lot easier.  I was even able to use what I had learned and applied it to my science methods class to create my health assessments.  Tables are nice to use for quizzes and tests because it helps the organization of the test or quiz and makes grading them a whole lot easier.

As a teacher, technology is something that will be used on a daily basis.  It is important to have backup plans in case some of the technology in the classroom does not work.  Having us put our projects onto transparencies was a good experience because it taught us how to make them in case we teach in a classroom that does not have a smartboard or projector system.  Also, the tips and tricks we learned in the class made creating the projects easier, which will allow us to have more time on preparing more important things, like lessons.