Interactive White Boards (IWBs) and SMART Boards
If you haven't been in a classroom lately, you'd be surprised to see what types of technology are being used in schools across America today. Interactive White Boards (IWBs) are changing the way that students learn in the classroom through interaction. Watch these videos to get a better glimpse of what this technology can do.
SMART Board Technology in the Classroom
SMART Board Demonstration
International Society for Teaching in Education NETS
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has created a set of standards for both students and teachers in regards to using technology in the classroom.
Using SMART Boards in the classroom allows teachers to do the following:
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
How to Use SMART Boards in a Special Education Classroom
The idea of using SMART Boards is to increase student interaction, attention, and engagement. This includes both regular education and special education classrooms. Interactive whiteboard technology is becoming more accessible and functional now more than ever for students with special needs. As a speech pathologist, one can see that communication and interaction with others is always at the forefront of a special needs classroom. Interactive whiteboards give these students access to opportunities that are normally seen in traditional classrooms. While in the middle of a technology boom, classrooms are finding more ways for students to become more interactive and engaged in the learning process. Special needs classrooms are no exception. Beauchamp and Parkinson (2005) explained that researchers are beginning to take the knowledge that is known about interactive whiteboards a step further. The research showed what people were already verbalizing about whiteboards in that they increased student motivation, participation and collaboration, and understanding of more complex concepts. Furthermore, whiteboards increased the capacity for different learning styles, allowed students to generate more creative presentations, and increased usage among younger students.
SMART Board Activities for Special Education Classrooms
One of the greatest resources for SMART Board activities remains the internet. Teachers from across the world freely share their activities and websites for others to use in the classroom. The following is a list of websites that provide activities:
This one just moved to the top of my list. I like the way they have it organized. THIS IS A MONSTER RESOURCE!
Questions about how to do anything on the SMART Board? Head here to see tutorials straight from the horse's mouth. You can pretty much see how to do anything here. Check it out!
This is a great resource for educators! You can borrow and share SMART Board activities. You can do a general search or you can search by subject, grade level, or file type. Some of the subject areas include: art & design, language arts, citizenship, mathematics, science, heath and physical education, special education, social studies, foreign languages, ESL, history, music, and much more!
Jim pretty much created a resource website like the one here--only better. The difference is that Jim is a "local" expert. He's my coworker and probably the most knowledgeable guy I know in regards to SMART boards (and the Detroit Tigers). His WIKI provides information on SMART Notebook software, Interactive Websites, Whiteboard Blogs, Lesson Plans/Templates/Notebook Files, Videos and Tutorials, and his Delicious bookmarks.
Harvey Almarode is a keynote speaker and educator who travels the country to teach educators about the SMART Board. He has tons of useful activities and links to use. This is a must see for new users!
Great already made games for Smartboards! Has games and interactives for all subject areas and units!
This website provides hundreds of educational games, activities, quizzes, articles, and more for kids and everyone else to use online. And, as always, the best part--they're FREE!
Dave Sladkey and Scott Miller do all of the dirty work for the teachers who don't have time to figure things out. This is an AWESOME resource for SMART Board activities! They have an ongoing podcast/webcast and tutorials on how to create and use SMART Notebook and other websites. If you like podcasts (iPad, iPod touch, or any other MP3 player), then you can subscribe here. Their topics include: uploading videos from YouTube into SMART Notebook (a very common question asked to me), Math Tools, and interactive games to name a few.
Opening Activities
Starfall (and More Starfall) is a great website for basic, fun activities. This is a great 'beginner to SMART boards' site. Even though I put the site under Opening Activities, it could also fall under Reading and Math. The site includes activities for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, home school, and English language development.
Counting Activities
Although this is filed under Counting Activities, Family Learning is a great resource for many different educational subjects. This website was developed in the United Kingdom, but is very relevant to Americans. Most of the games are fun (and educational) ranging from phonics, food groups, safety games, shapes, cooking videos, and holiday games.
Reading Activities
Scholastic has raised the bar on commercial companies that provide whiteboard activities. They have dedicated a webpage to four areas that incorporate many of the books and characters that Scholastic produces. Users can interact with many activities in Language Arts (phonics, phonemic awareness, interactive storybooks, writing prompts, character maps, poetry, paragraph writing, and more!), Social Studies (community jobs, immigration, holidays, Black History Month, current events, American history, and more!), Science & Math (dinosaurs, math word problems, insects, weather, scientific method, and more!), and Learning Games & Teaching Tools (interactive storybooks, Spanish vocabulary, myths brainstorming, and more!).
Again, Starfall has given access to some pretty cool activities. This will take you to its interactive book page. You can have the students click through the books which include several genres: plays, fiction and nonfiction, comics, folk tales, Greek myths, and Chinese fables.
Cooking Activities
"Your Special Chef" is a collection of resources to help teach cooking skills to individuals with special needs. Click around the site to find cue-card recipes, lesson plans for life skills teachers, video tips, and more! Check back soon for a personalized recipe creator. This is a really, really neat site for working on cooking skills!
Sample Lessons (updated links coming soon)
Visual Schedule
Vocabulary Game - Keyword Search (with Spongebob Squarepants)
Vocabulary Game - Image Search (with Family Guy and South Park)
Morning Schedule/Daily Routine for Special Education Classroom
Vocabulary/Graphic Organizer (middle school/high school)
Macbeth Jeopardy. The original template was downloaded for free from SMART Exchange.
Edmark Functional Word Series Sample. Basically, I've taken a couple of Edmark worksheets and turned them into SMART Board activities.
Vocabulary Memory (match the word to the definition). This also has a bonus Family Guy component.
Family Guy Keyword Match (match word to definition)
Vocabulary Game using images/definitions of words (I used Google images and then put text over the pics in Photoshop--easy if you're crafty) In Notebook Software, search "image select" for the template.
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