I created a lesson at a work day that was on fractions. Students had to use pattern blocks to determine the fractions. What fraction of a hexagon is a small triangle? What fraction of a large rhombus is a small triangle? Students did the manipulating at their desks while I demonstrated and guided them at the Promethean board. By the end, students were coming up to the board to demonstrate their understanding. I did the lesson several weeks ago, and when we did a review yesterday, students seem to have retained the information well.
Another lesson that I thought went well but wasn't planned ahead of time was one where I used the board to help kids plan a project they were doing on our ecosystems unit. I took all of the required documents they needed and made them into a flipchart. We reviewed, they with highlighters and paper, me with the Promethean highlighter. I then imported all of the pages as .jpg files and put them on our class wiki. I was amazed at the number of students who told me that they accessed the documents online to show their parents or to work on the projects over the weekend. I thought it was very effective to have the exact documents on the wiki that we did in class. It wasn't fancy or pretty, but it seemed to be very effective.
3 comments:
I've also had fun using the board for spontaneous flipcharts created during class, sometimes by the students themselves. I think it's quite valuable to use this technology not just to present information, but to record the students' ideas and work. Thanks to the recent addition of a document camera in our classroom, they love being able to put their writing up on the board and highlight, revise, and analyze it--and save it for later. It's great to hear about students being so proud of their work.
I have done some work with the students when they can use a flipchart to plan a project. We didn't get as far as I would have liked--time is always an issue as a Specials Teacher but it was great because a group of kids could all work on it at the same time. I will definitely use this next year.
It is a great motivater for the kids to use the board to plan a project. I am also trying to have them use it to present their projects for the year but time is running out--I can't believe it is almost May!!!
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