That's One SMART Board!
The East Fund Puts Technology into Action

by Henri Rix Wood

For the Lancer News, October 2006

Learn about the original grant

It looks like an ordinary projector screen, but this is one smart board. Just ask math teacher Brock Wenciker, who on a recent October morning is using this new state-of-the-art technology to teach calculus at Shawnee Mission East.

As 20 students open their textbooks, Wenciker touches the SMART Board in his room to access the same page from an online version of the book. An interactive white board connected to a computer and screen, the SMART Board allows teachers and students to access Internet sources, write and draw in different colors, integrate Power Point presentations, and save notes in different software applications. It can translate handwriting into standard fonts, animate graphs, and even solve math equations—with a little help from a teacher or student, of course.

While Wenciker’s students begin working on greatest integer equations using their handheld calculators, he touches the SMART Board and the image of a large calculator appears. Pushing the simulated calculator’s buttons, Wenciker works the equation with his students. Then he shifts to a new screen and draws diagrams and adds notes as he discusses this concept with the class. The notes will be transferred to a file that students later can access on Wenciker’s math website.

“The SMART Board allows you to be a more dynamic teacher,” Wenciker says.

To date, about 250 math students at Shawnee Mission East benefit from the use of two SMART Boards supplied by a grant from the East Fund. Another SMART Board is on order. Each SMART Board costs about $1,500. The math department is requesting laptop “slates” from the East Fund to allow all 18 math teachers to take advantage of the ceiling projectors that the district is installing in SME classrooms. Eventually 1,400 students in a variety of math classes will be able to use this learning tool, according to Carolyn Seeley, math department chairperson.

“I have people fighting for the SMART Boards that we have,” Ms. Seeley says.

Social Studies Implementation

History and sociology teacher Vickie Arndt-Hegelsen, also known as “Yoda,” uses the SMART Board that she requested from the East Fund to inspire discussion and display visual materials. During a sociology class discussion of socialization, Arndt-Heglesen projected a diagram to encourage students to consider the effects of nature and nurture on human development. Representatives from student groups took turns writing examples on the board. The already lively discussion got even livelier as students debated terms and ideas.

“I want students to be able to use the SMART Board,” says Arndt-Hegelsen, who also teaches in a classroom that doesn’t have a SMART Board. “A critical issue is that technology facilitates teaching rather than being the great focus.”

To learn more about how the East Fund enhances learning for all SME students and teachers, and how you can help, visit the website at www.TheEastFund.org.

Posted 10/15/06