This summer, Holy Trinity Catholic Junior/Senior High jumped into the 21st century with the installation of Promethean Interactive Whiteboards in the Spanish, math and science rooms.
The teachers wasted no time in familiarizing their classes with the ActivExpression tool, which enables students to interact with what is displayed on the board. Questions can be displayed, and then students can answer them confidentially by choosing from multiple-choice answers or “texting” in their answers with the device. Teachers are then able to instantly gauge the students’ comprehension by tallying results.
A random group of seventh-, tenth- and 12th-grade students were asked if they felt their teachers were comfortable using this new technology in their classrooms. Students’ responses were an overwhelming “yes”!
Students surveyed said their teachers were using the Promethean boards in chemistry, seventh-grade math, seventh-grade science, trigonometry, Advanced Placement calculus, probability and statistics, and in all levels of Spanish.
The students all felt that the Promethean boards helped them to understand and maintain the material — not to mention the boards held their attention so much more! Other positive comments noted the ability to flip back to the previous pages of notes, build color-coded graphs in AP calculus and allow for concept comprehension.
Comments also highlighted the environmental benefits of taking quizzes using the ActivEpressions — saving paper while enabling the teacher to still record scores.
Each board, including accompanying tools, cost about $4,100.
