Absent: Dan Gebauer, Shane Radosevich
Chris agreed to facilitate in order to get us started. We began with introductions followed by a review of the class topics, Know and Be Able to Do items, course requirements, and the Scope and Sequence of the classes (handout provided) that includes information on assignments. After a short discussion it was agreed to follow the original five class model and omit Social Studies at this time which then cancels the May class. Classes will be held from 4:15-6:15 Mondays 2/18, 3/3, 3/17, 4/7, and 4/21 in Rachelle Russell's classroom at Brookfield Elementary. Although the group is not instructor led, participants felt it would be helpful to have a point person for each class to include time keeping and refocusing as needed. Lynn volunteered to take notes.
The topic for today was the Impact of the SMARTBoard on Classroom Management. Participants shared their current practices and notebook files focusing on management issues.
- Kristin W. shared her start of the day file which includes attendance/lunch count, date, money in the bank, days in school, monthly weather graphing, concluding with a music link used during transition time while students are doing their jobs and getting ready for the next focus.
- Maggie shared that she also uses the attendance/lunch count page and the monthly weather graphing. In addition she shared pages she has created focusing on time, money, and 100's.
- Pam shared her strategies for organizing the many files she has created for her general music classes — grade level and class date. Also, she demonstrated an assessment for High/Low and a Jeopardy game she created.
- Lori shared some activities she uses in her classroom.
- Rachelle showed us the random number generator from the Gallery and said she uses it when it's time to select students (i.e. computer time, learning center) instead of popsicle sticks. She said it's easy, the kids like it, and there are no arguments!
- Sarah and Kristin O. (job share) demonstrated how they use it for their daily assignment notebook. The notebook works especially well for students who may be absent, out of the classroom (i.e. lessons), have difficulty writing, or whose parents desire a teacher copy as they can print out copies for them. They also shared dual page display and "pinning" the left page so it remains static as you go through the additional pages of a file. They use dual page display at the start of the day to have the attendance/lunch count onscreen along with the daily math message.
Conversation and more sharing followed on these topics:
- Attendance/Lunch Count — Chris explained that they will be writing a program this summer for elementary which will allow us to do attendance/lunch count directly in Infinite Campus next year. This will eliminate not only printing and sending to the office, but also the expressed challenges of accidental erasure or marker alignment issues with the current SMARTNotebook file many are using.
- Airliner Slate — Kristin O. and Sarah have just begun using a Slate in their classroom. It's working very well with their 4th graders, although the stylus is a challenge with hand/eye coordination. They are corresponding with Kelly Kluck (Tonawanda) as she used it 1st semester. Chris noted that they are also testing a Slate at the high school level. Discussion ensued regarding EEF grant possibilities or other funding to secure additional Slates.
- Modeling organization — Kristin W. noted that although she had not intentionally planned it, she realizes how she is teaching the importance organization to her 1st graders as she verbalizes what she is doing (i.e. navigating the server tree structure when saving and opening files, ease of finding things when you're organized).
- Copier Usage — participants generally felt they were doing less duplicating, especially overheads.
The group closed with quick review of the 3/3 topic (Reading) and assignment:
- Implement one classroom management strategy and reflect on its implementation in your journal. (may be a Word document, blog, whatever)
- Journal reflecting upon current integration into Reading.
Please send any corrections or additions to Lynn Syverson .
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