New classroom, but still no smart board....

Just switched classroom assignments. Am now teaching grade 2. It's a good switch, not only for more working time, but this class is also easier. I think mainly it's because the previous teacher, who has now retired, knows how to do classroom management. Like seriously, these kids will read quietly for over 20 minutes and more than one of them would do longer if I let them.

So, one thing the last teacher did not do, was technology. So the kids are lapping up using the mobile computer lab. They loved the math exercises I had them do through IXL.com. What a great website! You can link it directly to the PLO's for your province. It's great! And then I let them play for awhile on kid pix. What fun! I am already thinking about how to integrate that program in some parts of the curriculum.

I also used the document camera for a math lesson. That worked great! They all had the manipulatives on their desks, but I modelled the lesson under the camera, so they could all easily see if what they had was what I wanted. What a great invention. The alternative would have been to try to do it on the board...but I don't have magnetic manipulatives to use, so stuff would have been falling, or to have then crowd around me. But with it all projected up into everyone's line of vision, it went so well. Definitely something I will do again and again.

Still waiting to have a smartboard in my class,though.....