Is your classroom lacking in the technology department? I get so jealous when I see classrooms with interactive whiteboards and real 21st century equipment. It’s easy to feel like you’re living in the Stone Age when you see people all over with interactive whiteboards and amazing technology in their classrooms. Trust me, I’m with you there.
Giving my students experience with technology is important to me. We live in a world full of technology and our students need to be prepared and know how to interact with it, and let’s face it, there is some super cool stuff you can do with great technology in the classroom. But unfortunately my classroom is more equipped for prehistoric times than present times. I wanted to use what I had in my classroom to build an experience for my students. Check out what I did!
My classroom did come with a whiteboard, laptop, and projector. I knew this was some material I could work with!
There was only one thing I needed to get to make my idea work. I invested about $10 on a wireless mouse from the clearance section at Target. I was able to plug the mouse into my laptop via it’s USB port and move the wireless mouse right next to my teacher chair at our circle time and viola it worked like magic! I’m able to sit in my teacher chair at the front of the room and direct group activities while controlling the mouse to make our group times more engaging!
I also invested about $10 on a speaker that I found at Target. This makes the computer loud enough for all of my students to hear. I just plug it into the computer and away it goes!
What am I able to do with this easy technology? I lead an interactive circle time that I created from a PowerPoint presentation with my set up! I am able to lead a music time where students choose songs they’d like to sing from a file I created. I use the Story Time Pack from Teaching Special Thinkers and when students point to their response, I use the mouse to click. I use my Language Based Interactive PDF Activities in the same way. Students point, I click, and the board interacts!
Check out this awesome space we now have to learn in a more modern way! My students are huge fans and love any time we get to spend learning in this space!
There really are no limits to the things you can do when you think of new and innovative ways to use the technology you already have. My students love these interactive experiences in our classroom and we made it happen on a fraction of the cost of an interactive white board!
