Why I love SMART Boards

Last Monday, our a/c called it quits. Thankfully, we have cool air again  (after replacing the entire unit), however, we spent most of last week displaced.  The only empty room available was in the upper grade hallway on the other side of our school.

Anyone who has ever worked with early childhood kids knows that all it takes is a minor disruption in the routine to throw everything off. Well, this was not a minor disruption. This was the Gigantor of all disruptions. Monday afternoon was atrocious. I am thankful that it was my duty free day, leaving me the flexibility to move us, and then deal with the discipline issues. In the course of an afternoon, we had:

• 5 keep-keep-your-body-to-yourself timeouts
• 4 we-don't-spit-because-it's rude-and-gross talks
• 3 epic pencil wars
• 1 nurse visit as a result of the above pencil war

I knew that if we were going to learn anything that week, I had to do something different.

So I did.

One of the perks of being displaced was our temporary location had a mounted SMART board and projector. After doing a little digging, I found my morning math SMART presentation from last year, and set it up for Tuesday morning.

After picking up my class and making the trek down to our temporary spot, we set up for morning meeting and morning math. They were absolutely captivated. I guess in my almost daily use of the SMART board, I forget the magical effect that it has on kinders. But I am so glad it does!

We start the week back in our room tomorrow. I'm glad to be back "home," but I sure will miss the SMART board, and I'm sure my kids will too. (Hopefully, not for too long!)

I love my job!