Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Cowichan News Leader Pictorial 7
Bench steps beyond the blackboard Ashley Degraaf
News Leader Pictorial
B
ench Elementary Grade 2 teacher Ruth Bowman calls it a “fancy pencil.” But what it really is, is the world’s ¿rst interactive whiteboard. And as part of the SMART Collaborative Classroom program, Bench students now have one of these boards installed in every classroom. Students have been testing the new equipment, which was installed during the Christmas holidays, for about two weeks now, explained Bowman, an of¿cial educator and trainer for the SMART program. “It went really well and we had so many people come out and of course the kids were thrilled to be the centre of attention,” she said of an of¿cial unveiling ceremony Tuesday morning. “Bench Elementary is the only school in B.C. and Western Canada to be a part of the (SMART program),” she said. Bench, now an of¿cial SMART Showcase School with the Canadianbased company SMART Technologies Inc. has for the past ¿ve years been using SMART education solutions to engage students and improve learning outcomes. But instead of only a couple whiteboards featured in a few classrooms, the entire school’s jumped on board, with whiteboards in every class and a classroom dedicated as the “Collaborative Classroom.” The Cowichan Bay school, which
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Grade 2 student Eric Young demonstrates the SMART document camera during the SMART Collaborative Classroom program event at Bench Elementary School yesterday. serves 323 students from kindergarten through Grade 5, is really pumped about the collaborative classroom that has four whiteboards and uses multiple SMART Boards, SMART Document Cameras and SMART Response systems (clickers) and students can connect to digital content using their laptops, iPads or smartphones, explained Bowman. “The addition of the SMART Collaborative Classroom will enable teachers and students to continue exploring new ways of teaching and learning, while maintaining a dynamic balance between wholeclass, small-group and individual
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learning,” a press release explains. “As part of the SMART Collaborative Classroom program, Bench Elementary will also be connected to other classrooms around the world in order to share ideas and best practices for collaborative learning.” “It’s been wonderful for the children, as they learn in various ways,” added Bowman. “Some are visual and some are doers. “The SMART board meets a lot of their needs. You can bring in movies, ¿lm clips, video, pictures and it all interacts, which means you really get the attention of everybody, even if they’re not normally the listener type.”
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