Teachers Hold the Real Keys to Whiteboard Effectiveness
Educator skill seen to determine the technology's impact
Sandra Simoneaux holds her right hand, with her thumb and ring finger together, up in the air as if she is about to lead an orchestra. She holds it there for a few moments until her class of 18 rambunctious 3rd and 4th graders at Parker Elementary School, a public school in Oakland, Calif., settles down. She then turns back to the interactive whiteboard at the front of class to continue the day’s lesson, which includes math, language fluency, and comprehension, and which utilizes the whiteboard’s touchscreen, writing pens, an interactive quiz, and its ancillary student-response system.
Her students at the 230-student school aren’t normally so restless, she later explains, but they had some steam to blow off since they’d just spent the full morning taking the first part of their California Standards Tests, or CSTs. In fact, she spends this class session preparing for the next day of testing, by using the interactive whiteboard, or IWB, to work through CST-style multiple-choice questions with the class.
Despite the students’ restlessness, all eyes are on the board and the children’s excitement is palpable at key moments throughout the class, such as when Ms. Simoneaux announces it’s time for a math quiz. As sets of two students walk to the IWB to vie against each other during timed math problems, their classmates cheer them on. And the moment Ms. Simoneaux has the slightest hiccup with the whiteboard software, a number of students yell out suggestions on...
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