SMART Teaching

Teaching with technology has its benefits and its deficits. After co-teaching a mathematics graphing
lesson on a SMARTBoard, I have seen how student learning can be affected positively and negatively
with the use of technology. As a team, we planned for students to create their own graphs on a premade graph with skittles from a Halloween-sized packet. Students were expected to determine how many of each colour they had and place their skittles accordingly on the graph. Thus, students were able to see how everyone had a different graph as each skittles packet contained a different amount of each colour. However, when students were asked to place their results on the accumulated class graph on the SMARTBoard, students were unable to space skittles icons out appropriately to accurately compare numbers. As well, the graphing lines were not long enough to contain the total amount of a three colours of skittles. Thus, we had to continue three coloured lines below the graph, which confused students on how to compare the total numbers of different coloured skittles correctly. In the future, creating the class graph on a graphing paper background may increase student understanding as icons will be clearly and consistently be placed in each of the background’s graphing boxes to space icons and avoid overlapping. Another thing I would change about our lesson is structuring time into our plan to have students compare their individual data with a partner’s. As we asked students to create their own skittles graphs, we decided it would have been more impactful to include time for students to compare and contrast their graph’s data with an elbow partner’s, and write “more than” and “less than” statements to illustrate their observations. This way, student understanding may be increased by scaffolding the concept of comparison, as applying their individual data to the cumulative class graph would occur afterwards. As well, another mathematics outcome and English language arts outcome would be implemented into the lesson. With the nature of a mini lesson and its time constraints, it was not effective to have students involved in co-creating a rubric. Although we had formative checklists to assess student learning, students should be included in the assessment process in the future by completing “I can…” statements or an “I can… checklist, or responding to “I can…” statements with thumbs up, in the middle, or down. To extend learning and apply students’ newfound knowledge to real world applications, I believe it would have been effective to lead a follow-up lesson to our skittles lesson. Thus, to apply meaning to the experience, I think it was important that students brainstormed real world applications of our underlying concept of pictographs. 

In terms of using SMARTBoards in the classroom, this form of technology allows students to further
their understandings with e-learning and hands-on demonstrations. Through its colourful, kinesthetic,
and various uses for educating in the classroom, a SMARTBoard allows for increased engagement.
Students who require movement and a variety of ways to answer questions or explain their thoughts can
be differentiated for by adding this type of varied instruction. By incorporating a “fun” and fully accessible
way of learning into the classroom, most students are inevitably more involved in and happy to take
ownership of their learning process. This motive can increase student independence while simultaneously
improving an educator’s classroom management. In the classroom, a SMARTBoard may be
implemented into morning routines, and allow students to take individual attendance, practice graphing,
practice fine motor movements with dragging icons, and increase student competency with technology.
On the flip side, SMARTBoards are costly to schools and are unreliable, as all technology is. Upon further
investigation, SMARTBoard use may slow down learning as it takes time to recalibrate the board, can be
sensitive to touch and can frustrates the teacher and learners while interfering with the lesson and its time
constraints, has unreliable audio and, when it is working, may not be loud enough for some students,
particularly those with hearing impairments, and, in the long term, may affect teacher and student eye
health. 

With its ups and downs, as all technology goes, SMARTBoard use in the classroom ultimately has
major potential to increase student learning and assist instruction. If you have access to a SMARTBoard,
I would highly recommend experimenting with it in your classroom and see the student engagement level
rise! Click this link to check out our skittles lesson!