Last Day of Presentation!

Last Friday I taught my last lesson for this project. Now, the CI will be taking over and he will teach the remaining 8 lessons. I feel like the lesson went really well. Last time the students did the SOL review individually but today I wanted to switch it up so we did it as a whole class. I enjoyed working as a whole class because the students were able to discuss amongst each other as to which strategy was the best way to solve the problem.
The planning and preparation for this project probably took me a total of 15 hours. Since my CI initially had no plan for me, I had to come up with the way to present a SOL Review with the SMARTBoard. Then I collected all of the SOL questions, organized them thematically, created a student response chart and compiled a lesson plan to teach the reviews. I also had to go into class to set up the SMARTBoard and SMARTNotebook software. I found this to be really beneficial because the CI and I were both learning how to set it up together.
Overall, I think this project went really well because it met the main goals of the teacher: to understand how and why technology enhances a lesson and to learn how to incorporate technology into his own lessons and style of teaching.
I have left my CI with a CD of all the SOL Review Lessons. In fact, I even included an additional 10 lessons to the CD so that he could have more variety on what he wanted to focus. I was pretty excited when he said that he was going to pass the CD around to all of the Algebra 2 teachers so that they can use it too. I'm glad that I was able to help him enhance his SOL reviews and get him comfortable using the SMARTBoard.

First Day of the Project!!

Hello! On Monday I completed the first day of my TIP project...and it went really well! I've been really anxious to start it, especially since most of the class has already finished their project. My TIP project is basically a SOL review using the SMARTBoard. The project has two main goals, one was to engage the students in an interactive SOL Review and the other goal was to get the CI comfortable with using the SMARTBoard. Therefore, on Monday, I taught the SOL Review to demonstrate for the CI how to use and navigate through SMARTNotebook during a lesson.

The next time I teach is this Friday, and I look forward to it!

...Planning for the Project...

I put the ellipses before and after my Blog title because planning for this TIP project has been happening, and will continue to happen.

The classroom teacher with whom I am working is also my 488 CI, therefore, I have been talking to him throughout the semester about this TIP project and we have been bouncing ideas off of each other. Last week, we made the final decision to plan a 10 day SOL Review for the students starting after Spring Break and going into May, up to the actual SOL. My project will mainly use SMARTBoard but I will also be using TI-SmartView.

I will teach the first two lessons on April 13th and 17th, and then Mr. Bicknell will teach the remaining 8 lessons. That way, Mr. Bicknell can learn from observing how I teach using the SMARTBoard, but then he will have to also learn by doing the presentations himself. Hopefully, this will be a gradual process in which Mr. Bicknell becomes comfortable with technology and sees the many benefits of SMARTBoard, both in how it enhances student learning and eases long term lesson planning.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Today I visited the classroom in which I will be doing the EDLF 545 TIP project. I observed the students and helped the teacher with teaching his lesson. Fortunately, I have been observing and teaching in this classroom since October so I know the students well and I am well adjusted to the classroom atmosphere. Knowing the students will be very helpful as I begin to plan my TIP project for this class.

Today was unique because I began to bounce ideas about the TIP project off of the classroom teacher, Mr. Bicknell. We have decided that by next week I will have the main ideas of my project outlined. For now, he has given me a schedule of the topics he will be covering the rest of the year. This way, I will be able to pick a certain content that would be greatly enhanced through the TIP project.

Mr. Bicknell has given me complete freedom in the project. He uses minimal technology in his lessons and would be happy to see any technology integration in the classroom, as long as it is technology for the sake of learning rather than technology for the sake of technology.