Here we got for the next installment as part of the IWB Challenge. this week has been a little bit insane and I’ve barely been in the classroom. Monday was my only full day this week (with a strike day, China program meeting day and project planning day) and so I have not spent much time with the SMART Board. I still have got two things to report on though, so let’s get to it:
1. As I mentioned last week, I introduced my students to Google Earth via the SMART Board. On Tuesday afternoon I had grade 2 and seeing as half of them (there are only 12 in the class - fabulous) got to have a go at ’spinning to world’ last week, the other half wanted to have their turn. So, that’s what we did, and here is a video of some of our tour. We started off at our school which you can see if you look closely enough 
The kids love getting up close to the earth and they love ‘throwing it’ as you can see them doing here:
So far we have just been feeling our way around Google Earth and even though we have checked out some key places in China, we haven’t really used it as an integral part of a learning activity, so I’m keeping it in mind to do that.
2. The second way I used the board this week was not by getting the kids to produce something, but by using the SMART Recorder to make two videos to introduce the characters for ‘you’ and ‘me’ to the students. I have put these videos on the Video Lessons page of technoChinese, our class blog and the kids can watch them, and then create a recording of their own so I can see their attempt at writing characters. Some of my students watched these videos on the SMART Board itself, while others watched on the PCs in the classroom. SMART Notebook software is installed on all of the computers in my room, so my students could create their recordings without having to use the SMART Board itself. Here is one of the videos I made. Watch here to learn how to read and write the Chinese character for ‘you.’
Next week I’d really like to use SMART Video Player to its full potential and create some interactive activities that promote deeper thinking about Chinese characters. I want to model these activities and then get the students to create their own interactive lessons for other classes.
Related posts:
The Great IWB Challenge - it’s on!
Me, a SMART Board, and some language teaching - a commitment
Sounds like great fun Jess!
You might be able to do an activity I have done with an inflatable globe - to show that the earth is 70% water by surface area. Spin the globe and each student records where their finger landed (Land or sea) and makes a comment about how water is used (washing clothes, boiling vegetables, for stock to drink etc). After each student in the class has one or two spins, record the tally of land and water. The ratio should work out about 3:7.(30% land to 70% water).
I thought about using mobile phones in my VCE Enviro class - to record data about grassland ID. My main phone-savvy students weren’t present that day, so I didn’t worry too much, but a lot of potential there.
We are going to miss you so much Jess!
Hi Jess,
I am back at school and posted how I have used the IWB this week, will try to post comments next week-end.
Marie-France
I like the idea of using the Smartboard software to make movies. I’m going to see if I can talk one of my teachers into trying this and installing the software on a student computer or two. As for GoogleEarth there are of course many options…one I’ve looked at doing is having students create a virtual field trip using the add-ons in the program, especially the photos.