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My Technology Use: Attendance on Smart Notebook: March 11, 2018

In the fourth grade, our students arrive in our classrooms between 8:55 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. each morning.  We then take our students to special area at 9:10 a.m., therefore our mornings fly by quickly with taking attendance, listening to announcements, checking agendas for parent communication, and settling students in with a morning greeting.  My team and I have been working to find ways to make our mornings flow smoother with only having 5 minutes of true instructional time before special area.

One of my co-workers recently attended a district professional development on Smart Notebook and mentioned to my teammates and I that we could take attendance on Smart Notebook.  This peaked our interest.  We were able to find balloons on Smart Notebook that allowed us to edit names and include each student in our classroom.  When the students come in, they simply walk up to the Smart Board and "pop" their balloon as a way of checking in for the day.  This has been a small way to ease our morning routine, as now I often leave the attendance balloons up and take attendance after dropping my students off for special area, as I can just look at the board to see who was here and who was not.  It did take two to three days for students to get in the routine, but they now love it.  It is also a great way to show them responsibility as they now have a morning job as soon as they enter the room.

Has anyone used anything similar to this in their classroom?

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 11, 2018 at 6:36 PM

    I'm glad you were able to find a tool that frees up some of your time in the morning. I'm interested to see how this pans out for you guys because I'd fear that students might start playing around and popping bubbles for fun. I teach middle school, and my students don't have the highest maturity levels, so I see this being risky for my particular setting. With trustworthy students, I think this would be great!

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  2. UnknownMarch 13, 2018 at 1:17 PM

    I went to a similar PD and have heard about this. There are a ton of different styles of this Smart Notebook attendance to use. I used this a couple of years ago with my students. While some seemed to like it others were just not into it and did not participate. I'm glad it is working in your classroom!

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  3. Karen LyonsMarch 13, 2018 at 5:47 PM

    I have seen the balloons in other classrooms. Where did you find the resource? Is it free? Some Smart Tools require you to buy them, especially math tools. I think the Smartboards are viewed as outdated now as some are starting to break, and the district isn't paying for all the updates. I really wish I could use my board more for true technology interaction, but I am guilty of using it as simply a projector.

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