SMART Goals: Principal Jessica Johnson

Reviewer: Jessica Johnson

Position: Principal

District/School: Dodgeland School District/Dodgeland Elementary, WI

Number of Students in District/School: 820/375

Products : SMART Board 680, SMART Slate WS200,  Scholastic's READ 180

Goals:

Our school district goals are to increase student engagement and increase student learning. SMART Boards are a classroom tool that helps us achieve both goals. 

Response:

3 years ago, our first SMART Board was  on a stand and portable so all teachers could try it. At first only a couple had interest, but it didn’t take long for several staff to ask for more to be ordered. We purchased 6 additional SMART Boards and placed them in 4th/5th grade classes for teacher collaboration.  We purchased more with ARRA Stimulus funds. Teachers love having a SMART Board with the height adjustable wall mount .

Learning Curve:

Training is a must. I would highly recommend training teachers as in-house trainers. One of our teachers completed the official SMART training, so she is our resident expert. Experienced SMART Board teachers offer differentiated staff development: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Teachers share ideas at our “Tech Tuesday” sessions.

How We Use It:

There is really an endless use to the SMART Board: PowerPoint presentations, Google Earth/interactive  maps, virtual field trips, Skype chats with others around the world, modeling how to edit/revise, capture class notes, digital story telling, interactive game show activities for review, interactive activities throughout lessons, morning procedures (lunch count/attendance), literacy/centers/Scholastic Read 180, and even recorded lessons for substitutes.

What’s Ahead?:

We have purchased additional SMART Boards for the remainder of our classrooms and will be training staff at our in-service. In the future we would like to add document cameras to our classrooms.

Comments

[Mitch Johnson]

I hate harsh learning curves. Anything that can be done to cut those is to the good.