2005 Year in Review

SMART Boards make learning easier

Brandon Sharp shows his project on his family tree.

Brandon shows that by touching the screen with his finger, it acts as a mouse and he can "click" on different parts of the program. This is a presentation he did on Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

Sara Tenboer looks over Brandon's project on Space Monkey's

“It has made teaching easier for me,” stated Sara Tenboer, Language Arts Using Technology, teacher at Morrison Junior High School. “The kids can really see what I want them to do.”

She is referring to the SMART Boards, which are an interactive dry board that is touch sensitive. Run from a computer it shows the screen on a whiteboard. By touching the screen Mrs. Tenboer can show the students where exactly on their computer screens they need to place their mouse.

The SMART Board set up includes a computer, a digital projector and the SMART Board. These three components work together in the process that the computer loads an application and then sends the image to the projector. The projector projects the image on the interactive whiteboard and the whiteboard acts as the monitor and input device allowing the teacher or student to control any application by simply touching the whiteboard.

The SMART Boards are also equipped with a cordless mouse so that the teacher can walk around the room aiding students, and still do things on the board.

Some of the projects that the 8th graders at the Junior High have been working on are a Power Point show in which they have to use 17 slides for their presentation. They have also been working on animation and constructing their family trees.

“Morphing” is one of the fun projects the kids have been working on which is the process of transforming one image into another giving the appearance that the first image "becomes" the second. By taking a picture of a young boy the image is morphed to his older brother, father and last the picture of the grandfather. Similarities can be seen through each morphing picture process.

“The kids can show their slide shows and presentations and the whole class can see it very well,” stated Tenboer. “They are really excited about this class and sometimes when the bell rings they don’t want to leave.”

The Junior High is equipped with only one of the SMART boards but there are several being used at the high school level.

by Dawn Zuidema, theCity1.com
March 21, 2005