CONTRIBUTED Teachers watch during a Smartboard training held at the Wolsey-Wessington School on Feb. 3-5.  From left are, Tammy Myers and  Jennifer Boomsma, both from Wolsey-Wessington School; and Jessamy Truman and Mandy Frank, both from Kimball School. Below: Stanley County teacher Matthew Jensen manipulates objects on a Smartboard using only his fingers.

If you  walked into the Wolsey-Wessington School on Feb. 3-5, you would have seen a group of 15 teachers learning how to engage their students through the technology of Smartboards.

But instead of instructing, these teachers occupied the student seats to learn to make their teaching more powerful by incorporating the Smartboard into their teaching.  

A Smartboard is a device that attaches to a computer and an LCD projector to make words and graphics “come alive” on the screen of the Smartboard. Words and objects can be manipulated by student hands on the board, allowing students to visualize concepts much more easily than if the concepts were simply spoken.

Wolsey -Wessington School hosted the training event, and schools attending were Kimball, Miller, Ipswich, Stanley County, and Wolsey-Wessington.

Five of the 15 educators elected to complete a certified training course, which will now enable them to instruct others on how to use the Smartboards. The five teachers who will become certified trainers are Darcie Langbehn, Sara Konrad, and Caroline McGillvrey, all from Wolsey-Wessington School, and Barb Jones and Tammie Barnes from Miller Area School.

The trainer for the course, Karen Brailsford, traveled from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She said, “It was my pleasure to introduce local educators to the classroom usage for the SMART Board Interactive White Board and SMART Notebook 10 Software. We explored the tools and mechanisms for creating effective, interactive lessons and successfully examined the pedagogy involved in presenting them.  An enjoyable session all round!”

“I learned many things that will engage the students to make learning more fun!” stated Jennifer Boomsma, a Wolsey-Wessington teacher.

“Our trainer not only knew how to use the Smartboard, but she also modeled exemplary teaching methods to the participants,” Wolsey-Wessington technology coordinator and teacher Caroline McGillvrey said. “It was time well spent for all who attended because it helped us update our teaching strategies for the 21st century, technology-laden world in which all of us live.” 

Others participating in the training were Sandy Sivertsen and Renee Clement from Miller; Matthew Jensen from Stanley County; Matt Pollock from Ipswich; Mandy Frank and Jessamy Truman from Kimball; and Jennifer Boomsma, Joni Bartells, Gordon Hooks and Tammy Myers from Wolsey-Wessington.

The Smartboards will be demonstrated to parents and the community at the Wolsey-Wessington Technology Showcase to be held April 27 at the Wolsey-Wessington School. Everyone is invited to attend.



For the complete article see the 02-09-2010 issue.

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