Links to My Resources

Here are some links to resources that I have created:

5th Grade Science

Educational LiveBinder

Formative Assessment LiveBinder

Smart Board LiveBinder

Useful Links For Smart Slates

Here are some useful links to help with the Smart Slate:

Smart Exchange

TechSMART Tutorials

SMART Notebook Tutorials

Simple K-12 Teacher Professional Development

Getting Ready for a New Year!

I'm eager to create a new Smart Slate lesson for my Language Arts class--unfortunately not so eager that I got started on it over break like I had planned, though!  Prior to break, I had lofty visions of watching Smart Slate tutorials, gaining new skills, and creating several lessons, but just like my plans to clean closets, organize my personal photos, and complete some sewing projects, somehow relaxing and enjoying myself got in the way.  I don't have any pangs of guilt, though; sometimes people just need to step back and take it easy.


Now that we're just about to get back into the swing of things, though, I do plan to start my next lesson.  I'm planning a unit on opinion writing with the other 5th grade teachers in the building, and I plan to put it all together on the Smart Slate, similar to my unit on simile and metaphor that I completed several weeks ago.  It was great to have all the worksheets, activities, PowerPoints, and videos all linked together for easy access, and I hope to complete this process with other lessons as well.  For one of the first activities for the opinion writing unit, I plan to discuss the difference between fact and opinion, and then have several statements accompanied by pull tabs that reveal either the word "fact" or "opinion."  The students really enjoyed the pull tab math lesson I had created awhile ago, and I think they'll be excited to have another chance to use the pull tabs in class.

Having Students Write With the Smart Slate

I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts on having the students write responses with the Smart Slate.  In theory, it seems like a great way to get the kids more involved in the lesson, but whenever I try it, it seems like it takes the students so long to write using the stylus, and they end up with either horrible penmanship that can't be read, or they make multiple mistakes and erasures so it ends up taking forever for them to finish.  In the meantime, the rest of the class has lost focus.  I've been trying to use it in math class so that the students can demonstrate how to solve problems.  I know if the students could just have more time to practice, they'd get better eventually (I got much better after my first several tries) but I can't see how to schedule sufficient time for each student to practice with the Slate.  I realize there are many other ways that the student can be involved in the use of the Slate that do not involve handwriting, but I was just wondering how is everyone else handling student use of the Smart Slate.

Simple, But Effective

I used the Smart Slate for a very simple task this past week, but I felt that it offered a very effective way to make an abstract concept more concrete for my math students.  We were practicing a skill that our math book refers to as "multiplication patterns"--multiplying numbers with one non-zero digit, followed by one or more zeroes.  I have always taught the students to "ignore" the zeroes, multiply the non-zero digits, count the total number of zeroes, and them tack them on to the end of the answer.  When "ignoring" the zeroes in the past, I usually wrote the problems on the regular whiteboard and used a piece of paper to cover up the zeroes on the ends of the numbers.  With the Smart Slate, I used a blue marker to write the numbers, then chose a fat yellow highlighter to color over the zeroes.  That way, we could ignore them, but still see them in the problem.  Again, I felt it was a very effective way to demonstrate the concept that I wanted the students to learn.

Using the Smart Slate in Language Arts

In addition to the Science unit I'm working on, I decided to create a Language Arts unit on Similie and Metaphor.  I already had several worksheets and handouts that I had created in Word in previous years, as well as a couple of PowerPoint presentations.  I attached all the documents and PowerPoint presentations to a Smart Slate lesson, then added their titles to a single page and linked the text to the attachments.  Now all I have to do is bring up the Smart Slate lesson and click on the title of a handout to display it for the class!  This made it much easier to go over instructions on individual worksheets, since I could display the worksheet on the overhead before handing it out (I often find if I hand out the worksheet, then try to go over instructions, students begin working immediately and don't hear all of the directions!)  This will also work well for referring back to previous lessons as we progress through the unit.  One of my similie/metaphor examples is Katy Perry's "Fireworks" song.  Since I already had the song in iTunes, I decided to try to attach it and link it to the page as well, and it worked!  I was so excited!

Getting Back on Track

Between all of the end-of-marking-period "stuff" and student-led conferences, I have strayed away from the Smart Slate for a couple of weeks.  Now, though, I'm ready to get back on track and utilize the Slate  a little more in my Science classes (I had been using it mostly in Math).  I've been working on the intro to microscopes portion of my science tools unit, and am in the process of collecting all my documents and web site links into one Smart Slate lesson.  I think that having all the resources linked together in this way will make my lessons flow more smoothly, and it will be easier to refer to previously learned info.  I hope to have a page with a diagram of a microscope, and use pull tabs for identifying the main parts.  Also, I'd like to try to convert and embed a video into the lesson.  I'm thinking that Tuesday's "deer day" will be a good chance to play around with these parts, as they're bound to take a little more time and attention that the parts I have finished so far.