Get in Touch, Find Inspiration, Multiply Student Engagement, Part 2

The next teacher featured in this webinar was Barbara Mutch, a high school math teacher in Canada.  Barbara first talked about how teachers at her school bundle activities within the SMART notebook software.  All the math teachers in her building do this, so when students move grade levels or have to transfer classes they are receiving the same style of instruction.  I believe she also mentioned that each grade level math teacher uses the same bundle activities so they all plan together too.

These bundles include lessons with assignments, worksheets, solutions, links, videos, and images, and more so students see the entire concept or lesson they are working on.  Teachers use these bundles with they have substitutes or for students who miss class.  Everything they need is included right in the bundle.  Each day's lessons are also included on their school website.  She uses the website as a way to encourage engagement at home, by posting her daily notes, which parents and students love having accessibility to.

Barbara has also begun working with other teachers in her building on using this format and one teacher commented that they liked the ability to incorporate all technologies used into one file format through the use of SMART Notebook.

She also talked about using SMART Response remotes.  Everyday, students use these and they are sitting on each desk when they walk in.  Students sign in at the beginning of class and usually she uses their real names to also look at data from that day's activities, but sometimes she uses the anonymous mode or the celebrity mode, where students receive names of celebrities and that way students are less embarrassed because they're real name is not showing, but they teacher knows who it really is.