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As YME adds new technology to their classrooms, teachers are becoming more and more creative in how they can use it to their advantage and make learning easier and more interesting.
Within the past few years, teachers have begun using Smartboards so that instead of using overheads to write notes on, teachers can use a projector to display their computer screen onto the Smartboard, which acts as a giant touchscreen.
The Smartboard comes with a lot of applications, such as a graphing calculator that allows teachers to show directly what buttons the students should use; the board also allows students to play a jeopardy tournament hands-on or give a speech with a PowerPoint presentation.
6th grade teacher Stacy Hinz has also been using Google Docs, Flip cameras, and netbooks in her classroom. Google Docs is an online program that allows individuals to make an account and save documents, presentations, and workbooks completely online so that they can be accessed anywhere from any computer.
The great thing about it is it allows you to share your work with others, so Hinz has her students type their writing assignments on their netbooks (a smaller and more portable laptop), share it with their classmates for peer review, and finally share it with her as well so that she can grade them.
Students can open the document, read it, type in comments directly below their work, and send it back to the student who wrote it. Hinz explains that it makes grading a lot less intimidating for the students, and it makes it easy for the students to exchange ideas.
Hinz has also used the netbooks and Google Docs to help students make an elementary newspaper. Students can conduct and record interviews with the small, easy to use Flip cameras that help to make quotes more accurate in their paper. The students can then use the netbooks and Google Docs to complete their articles and share them.
The school has also purchased iPads for teachers and students to use, which are touchscreen tablets the size of a notebook that have interesting applications – like musical instruments. The iPad has a xylophone app that displays a xylophone on the screen and when you touch a key it plays its note, which sparked music teacher Beth Jahn’s interest. Jahn has started an “iBand” – a group of five students who use the xylophone and shaker applications on the iPad to perform songs together. The band may perform during their March music concert.
In the high school, history teacher Brandon Raymo has been using a lot of new, innovative websites to make his curriculum more interesting.
Raymo has been having students in his advanced classes make an online textbook to summarize what they have been learning throughout the year. He also uses another website for his 9th grade history class to make a cartoon book about the Revolutionary War. Raymo has also used an online service that allows him to send polls to students through their cell phones – he can ask students history questions that the students can answer back to by cell phone. He is also developing a course for next year that would allow students to broadcast live events that happen at the school – like sports, homecoming, or Snoball – for people to watch online.
The school’s new technology has certainly made the classroom a much more creative and interesting place to learn, and students are really excited to be able to use it for their schoolwork. As teachers and students alike continue to become more familiar with their new technology, the opportunities for learning more creatively will only multiply.
As YME adds new technology to their classrooms, teachers are becoming more and more creative in how they can use it to their advantage and make learning easier and more interesting.
Within the past few years, teachers have begun using Smartboards so that instead of using overheads to write notes on, teachers can use a projector to display their computer screen onto the Smartboard, which acts as a giant touchscreen.
The Smartboard comes with a lot of applications, such as a graphing calculator that allows teachers to show directly what buttons the students should use; the board also allows students to play a jeopardy tournament hands-on or give a speech with a PowerPoint presentation.
6th grade teacher Stacy Hinz has also been using Google Docs, Flip cameras, and netbooks in her classroom. Google Docs is an online program that allows individuals to make an account and save documents, presentations, and workbooks completely online so that they can be accessed anywhere from any computer.
The great thing about it is it allows you to share your work with others, so Hinz has her students type their writing assignments on their netbooks (a smaller and more portable laptop), share it with their classmates for peer review, and finally share it with her as well so that she can grade them.
Students can open the document, read it, type in comments directly below their work, and send it back to the student who wrote it. Hinz explains that it makes grading a lot less intimidating for the students, and it makes it easy for the students to exchange ideas.
Hinz has also used the netbooks and Google Docs to help students make an elementary newspaper. Students can conduct and record interviews with the small, easy to use Flip cameras that help to make quotes more accurate in their paper. The students can then use the netbooks and Google Docs to complete their articles and share them.
The school has also purchased iPads for teachers and students to use, which are touchscreen tablets the size of a notebook that have interesting applications – like musical instruments. The iPad has a xylophone app that displays a xylophone on the screen and when you touch a key it plays its note, which sparked music teacher Beth Jahn’s interest. Jahn has started an “iBand” – a group of five students who use the xylophone and shaker applications on the iPad to perform songs together. The band may perform during their March music concert.
In the high school, history teacher Brandon Raymo has been using a lot of new, innovative websites to make his curriculum more interesting.
Raymo has been having students in his advanced classes make an online textbook to summarize what they have been learning throughout the year. He also uses another website for his 9th grade history class to make a cartoon book about the Revolutionary War. Raymo has also used an online service that allows him to send polls to students through their cell phones – he can ask students history questions that the students can answer back to by cell phone. He is also developing a course for next year that would allow students to broadcast live events that happen at the school – like sports, homecoming, or Snoball – for people to watch online.
The school’s new technology has certainly made the classroom a much more creative and interesting place to learn, and students are really excited to be able to use it for their schoolwork. As teachers and students alike continue to become more familiar with their new technology, the opportunities for learning more creatively will only multiply.
