Mentoring the Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities

Mentoring


Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction. ~ John Crosby


We are very fortunate to have some former TDSB Interactive Whiteboard Learning Community (LC) members acting as mentors for our current LC teachers. This opportunity gives experienced interactive whiteboard (IWB) users the opportunity to share their successes and challenges with using IWBs whilst offering support to new IWB users, to help them build on their own expertise. The "Come Back and Swim with Us" SEA team project is new this year. In total, there are 20 special education teachers from east and west regions TDSB participating as a mentor this year.


At a recent Learning Community for teachers who teach students with Learning Disabilities, mentor Michael Azzopardi from Millwood Junior School shared a Science lesson that he taught his students using the IWB.

Michael is displaying a graphic organizer used by a student in his HSP class on the IWB.

Michael demonstrated how picture clues were provided to the student along the left-hand side of the IWB. The student was then able to use the pen tool to jot their point form notes on the graphic organizer provided.

Michael then showed how student work could be captured, using a document camera, to help with editing student work. Michael had the students use “digital whiteout” by selecting the pen tool with white ink to erase their error. Students then chose a different colour to write in their correction. Michael found that more students were able to catch their own errors when their work was displayed on the IWB.

Modelling the editing process: Michael demonstrating how student work was captured using the document camera so that students could edit their own work on the IWB.

This sharing of best practices inspired many of our current Learning Community members to appreciate the different ways the IWB and peripherals can support student learning.