Creating a student-centered SMARTboard classroom

A colleague and I were recently talking about the SMARTboards we are lucky to have in our classroom. However, we are both at a loss as to how to create activities that are more student-centered. We feel that while we both utilize this tool fairly efficiently, our classroom - at least the technology end of it - is still very teacher centered. How have others managed to move their SMART classrooms from teacher-centered to student-centered?

We teach middle school science and math.

Thanks!

Tags: board, classroom, interactive, pedagogy, promethean, smartboard, white

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Permalink Reply by Dale Ehrhart on March 4, 2010 at 4:27pm

I enjoy educational game sites like SpellingCity because the kids love it as a whole class activity, and then they can use it in the lab or when they go home.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wylie on March 4, 2010 at 6:53pm

Just got a smartboard myself in the last two weeks. I am really enjoying having it, but I am also thinking along the same lines as you. We have one in a lab that a teacher uses for small groups to practice on interactive student websites. Mine is in my room and while I would like to use it with groups, I fear it would be a 60 inch distraction for the rest of the students in my class. Maybe once the novelty wears off we will use it that way too, but I will have to see. In elementary, where I work, I see the teacher centered approach as less of an issue than at middle school, but I appreciate your point of view with older kids. I will be interested to see what replies you get. Hopefully they will be constructive, and not just putting down smartboards, because I think that they are a really good tool to use in schools. Is there any chance of you getting the Smart Response? I have found that can be good for initiating more class discussions. It can be used by individuals, or groups, and centered around various discussion topics that the students can reply to.

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Permalink Reply by Dale Ehrhart on March 4, 2010 at 8:14pm

Yes, they really are a kid magnet until the novelty wears off, but the kids still have fun with them after that. I was a K-6 computer lab instructor and most of the time the students were at my boards. Considering the content thought, I think that ought to be expected.