In-class observation session in PJ DD classroom

In-Class Observation Session in Primary-Junior DD Classroom


Katie Barron is the teacher of a Primary-Junior DD Classroom at Seneca School in Etobicoke. Katie is one of approximately 300 Special Education teachers in TDSB who received a Promethean Board in her classroom through a group SEA (Special Education Amount) Claim this year. Along with other special education teachers with new SEA claim funded Promethean Boards in their classrooms, Katie has attended three Learning Community Sessions during which Itinerant Resource Teachers model ways to use the tools available in ActivInspire (the software program that comes with the Promethean Board) to support students’ learning needs.

Katie hosted an observation session in her classroom for some teachers in her Learning Community to come observe how she uses the tools available in ActivInspire to meet the students’ individual learning needs. During her morning circle time, Katie used the Promethean Board to incorporate IEP learning goals that the students are working towards (e.g., spelling their own name, what to do when you are feeling angry, participating in group activities, pointing to and tracking symbols during shared reading).

During Circle Time, Katie lead her students in a song “When I’m Angry and I know it” (sung to the tune of, “If you’re happy and you know it”).  Boardmaker symbols are used to remind students what to do when they feel angry (e.g, count to 5, listen to music).

Recently, Katie has been working with her students to identify and label actions (verbs) but felt her students were not ready to identify actions by looking at pictures (e.g., picture of someone eating). During a co-planning session with Lisa Mast, Itinerant Resource Teacher, Katie learned how to insert multiple videos of staff doing actions (e.g., eating, clapping, eating) onto one page in ActivInspire. The goal of this learning activity was for students to be able to answer the question “Who is running?”. Students used their voice or communication devices (e.g., Dynavox) to respond with the name of the person who was running in one of the three videos. Students were engaged in this activity and enjoyed seeing the staff and students in their classroom in the videos on the Promethean Board.




Two videos were inserted on a page  (one with a student eating and one with a staff member clapping) and Katie asked students the following  questions: Who is in each photo? What is each person doing? Who is eating? Who is clapping?  

Teacher Testimonials:

“Having the Promethean Board in my classroom has made it easier for me to differentiate lessons for my students at various levels of learning.” Katie Barron, DD Teacher

“I learned a lot from our Promethean Board Learning Communities that I am currently using in my program. But seeing the Promethean Board in use in a classroom with students has been amazing. The teacher showed how much I can do with the Interactive White Board. I really enjoyed seeing how she used the IWB to enhance the student’s knowledge at their individual developmental stage. I am looking forward to bringing what I learned today back to my classroom and incorporating it in to my program.” Sara Bueno-Bradley (Observing Teacher and Promethean Learning Community Member)