Action Research Update (03/30/13)

The first few weeks of my action research project started with me trying to secure a Smart Board for my classroom. This was not a easy task because we only had 3 boards currently on campus. One of the teachers got fully trained and holds a Level 1 Certification. The other teacher uses it but not to the full effect; however, the board was mounted to her wall and there was no way to share the board. This left the band director who uses it but on a very infrequent basis. He was generous enough to lend me his board.

Our district employs Instructional Technology Assistants for certain high school feeder patterns. This starts at the high school and any schools that feed into that high school is their work load. Our ITA covers 9 schools. I set up a five-part training session to familiarize myself with the technology and the software that goes along with it. These trainings have covered: Smart Board basics, interactive websites, Smart Notebook software, the Gallery, teacher activity tool bar, images, and interactive manipulatives. The final training will show us how to utilize our document cameras effectively then connect it to the Smart Board. After every training, my ITA has assigned me a “homework assignment”. I take something from that training and use or apply it that week. I used an interactive website; whereby, I created an interactive presentation in Smart Notebook. I plan to use the recording feature and use a pre-created interactive activity page found in the Lesson Activity Tool Kit.

I am documenting my entire project in my online portfolio under Action Research at the following website:

https://sites.google.com/site/heatherelseportfolio/home