Technology

Post **use of technology** that you thought worked well here. Try to add your personal experience observing or using the strategy.

If you have the opportunity where there is a SmartBoard in the school which has not been installed yet, try to see if you can assist or lead in building and installing the SmartBoard. It is an interesting process to be involved with and gives you experience in setting up technology with schools.
 * Putting together a SmartBoard** - Chris Nelan

Even though I didn't have a SMART board to use in my classroom, I used SMART notebook to plan some of my lessons and displayed it on the projector. The kids were still engaged since they thought it was neat to see things disappear on the screen such as revealing hidden equations. It was also easier to put math into SMART notebook than it is in powerpoint. I used clickers in with my SMART notebook lesson for minds on and consolidation.
 * SMART notebook on the projector - Amy K.**

**Technology - Rubina:** So my school did lack technology, or consisted of very hidden technology. In my classroom itself, my teacher didn't take the students to the library very much (smartboard and computers), so they were lacking that stimulation. However, I noticed there was a projector which the school owned for assemblies which was not being used often. So 2-3 times a week I would bring in the //**projector**//, attach it to my //**laptop**//, and project my lessons on the screen. Sometimes I would use //**clickers**//, sometimes I would show //**videos**// which I would record off youtube on camtasia, and I also purposed a //**tablet**// to add to my math lessons. The tablet was good, but very difficult to use. It was supposed to be easy for the students to come up and use, but instead, I felt it was difficult, so I had to rethink its use in the classroom.

So I asked them questions and just wrote the answers on the board and have them vote for each answer (there needed to be short answers) Yes, although technology would have ensured a better overall learning experience for the students, I found using what you have in a creative manner will go just as far. For instance, I went out and bought shiny chalk holders and overhead projector markers, and I used these tools to not only facilitate my teaching, but to also stimulate their learning. For instance, many of them loved coming up to the overhead and writing on the transparencies or the board with these simple tools that their regular teacher wouldn't normally use. **(Christe M.)**
 * No technology (Doina)**

I used the clickers today with my grade 8 core class. I used a form with their names so I knew which number clicker each student had, however I stressed that I wouldn't know what their responses were. I did a couple questions with them to review terms and concepts for the Pythagoras Theorem. They loved using the clickers!! I would suggest having a fun question at the beginning that you're not interested in getting the results for because the first thing they did was start clicking away which skewed the results for my first question. I also noticed but didn't use the timer for allowing responses to come in. I will use it next time since they seemed to try to prolong each question so that they could use the clicker for longer. Finally, I collected the clickers as soon as we finished rather at the end of the period! Altogether clickers were a hit and I'll be using them again!
 * Clickers with Grade 8s (Hailey) **

Students love clickers (Grade 8's). Every time I have the media cart in the room, someone asks "Are we doing Clickers today?". I've used them 3 times so far, mostly to get quick feedback or informal assessment on the topics we've covered. I've given more time for assignments, gauged interest in presentations, and moved the desks around based on clicker responses. Last time I asked the question "Do you enjoy music while your work?" I heard someone in the class say, "Everyone click yes, he'll let us listen to music!". I thought this was nice, as they feel like they have input into the class environment. (The overwhelming answer, btw, was "Depends on the music." which also shows you the power of Clickers and non-conformity). I haven't gone overboard with Clickers, I think they're nice in small doses (no more than 10 questions). I often start with a warm up, e.g. "How are you feeling today?", end with something that leads into the lesson, e.g. "Do you understand what urbanization means?", and have humour interspersed throughout the questions. I always tell them second last question, and last question, so that they are prepared to relinquish their devices. *See the lesson plans I've posted for sample Clicker questions, and their results! I like that you tell them the when you are at the second last and last question. I have to start doing this because they're always disappointed to be done with the clickers. (Hailey)
 * Clickers (Nathan) **

I am lucky enough to have been talking to Chris Nelan on Tuesday night. He was searching for a fun game to play with his students using the smartboard. He came across this [|website]. On it there are many cool things you can do on your smartboard. I found a ridiculously fun jeopardy game that is very easy to use and installs in less time than you can say "It's really late and I have been lesson planning for 6 hours and now its 4 am and should probably get to sleep!" The link to the specific page is [|right here]. I tried it out on my class today and found that everyone really enjoyed it! We read an article about the common wealth games and the students then proceeded to answer the questions in small groups. I was able to work in higher order questions as well versus simply knowledge recall. This is a fun time for a rainy day! Thanks so much Julian. Although I personally don't have a SMART board in my class, there are a couple in the school, and the teachers are having troubles using them to their full advantage! That' a great website, and I'll be sure to share that with the other teacher's in my school! (Heather) Julian, I totally agree! I also think SMARTBOARD Jeopardy is brilliant! I used Jeopardy as a review twice in my math class. I used it once for our quiz review and then again for our test review and the class totally loved it! However, my one caveat was - it would not be the fastest group that would be given a chance to answer a question; but it would be the group that worked best together that would get picked to answer the question. (Eddie)
 * Jeopardy with a SMARTBOARD? good idea! (Julian)**

I am using Smart Board everyday to do attendance(the balloon thing showed in the math camp, yes, I made my own version and it's pretty useful, students like it and are eager to touch their name at the beginning of the class) and Power Point presentation(of course include a lot of interactive activities); I also use Clickers to check their understandings often. I find that Smart Board and Clickers are so powerful and involving that every student loves them and likes to touch and see. I love Camtasia too, because the school doesn't have wireless internet connection, I like to record my lesson first with Camtasia if the lesson needs a lot of online searching. The students asked if the videos are done by myself, yes, they are :-)
 * Clickers with SmartBoard (Yana)**

I made a jeopardy game to review data management unit in grade 8 math (mainly graphs). I found the powerpoint jeopardy template on this website []. I didn't play in the jeopardy format but asked everyone a question, they had the right to pass and in that case it was taken up a volunteer who knew the answer. Students enjoyed it and it was a fun way to do the review with them. Here is the link to the jeopardy I made [|Jeopardy.pptx].
 * Speaking of Jeopardy (Samina)**

My school did not have anywhere near enough computers for the whole class to use at once. There were a number of computers in the library, but still not quite a class set. So when I was teaching I tried to use the projector in the classroom to include a number of videos or to illustrate examples with Geometer's Sketchpad, apps from the web, etc. When possible I got students to manipulate them using my computer. I think that the inclusion of technology helped keep students interested.
 * Powerpoint + Other computer technology (Lisa)**

Although my class didn't have much technology, I made the most out of what I had. For instance, I based all my lessons on the overhead projector. Basically what I would do is get several blank transparencies and start my lessons with them. I would write on them similar to how I would write on a sheet of paper and it would get projected on the board perfectly fine. Students loved it and liked it better than when I used the chalk-board, which mind you, strains your wrists because you have to write so big and erase virtually a thousand times - no pun intended.
 * My class didn't have a smart-board or any form of technology more advanced than an overhead projector (Christe M.)**

The one technology area my AT used well was the school website and email; these are two areas everyone has access too. My AT would send an email to the parents every Friday reviewing the week and documenting what was coming up in the next week. She would also post all assignments and tests dates’ online (using Google calendar) so students could check from home their responsibilities. To encourage involvement she would post a bonus question online in the calendar for every quiz and or test. It was a great tool to get students involved online. Also to give feed back to the parents on class activity and workload.
 * Email (Brian)**

**Technology (Michelle K)**

I used clickers several times with my grade 8 class and they loved them! Each day students would ask if we were using the clickers that day. It was great to see their excitement and to see everyone getting involved in the lesson and answering the questions. The one thing I found, though, with using the clickers, especially the first time, is that because the excitement was up, classroom management went down. Thus I learnt that it is important to discuss with the students your expectations, in regards to noise level, when it comes to using something new.

**Technology (Michelle K)** I used the reaction time Gizmo with my class when doing an activity for mean, median and mode (catching a ruler activity). Unfortunately, the computer lab was unavailable during the time the activity was conducted, thus we could only use the two computers in the classroom. As students were doing the activity with an actual ruler, a group at a time had the opportunity to conduct the same experiment on the computer. Although the students were not able to get the full effect of the Gizmo, they still had an opportunity to use it and quite enjoyed it.