County:  Contra Costa
District:  Oakley Union School District
School: Oakley Elementary School

Second grade hands shoot up as teacher, Kylie Harrison of Oakley Elementary School, asks her seven and eight year olds to show all the even numbers between 60 and 72. They clamor to share their answers and their understanding with each other. Students chant, “Yeah Marcos,” in support as their classmate approaches the board to demonstrate his answer and mathematical thinking. Mrs. Harrison asks the others, thumbs up or down, to agree or disagree with their classmate’s answer as they follow along on their own clipboards.

This is a snapshot of the many ways that the Smart board in Mrs. Harrison’s class is engaging learning and thinking.

In this lesson, they moved on to the concept of counting money by transferring their grasp of the 100s chart and counting by nickels, dimes, and quarters. Mrs. Harrison uses one of the many interactives that are part of the Smart board software suite, this one an image of a piggybank and gigantic coins. Her student labels the coins as he counts aloud and explains how he remembered to switch and count by tens when he got to the dimes.

In the fall of 2005, Oakley Union Elementary School District’s, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Dr. Carol Boyd used lottery funds to put Smart boards in 17 classrooms that applied for the opportunity. Since then, Smart boards have cropped up in many other classrooms in the district and Dr. Boyd supports their use with professional development provided by Pat Anderson, their district technology specialist. Read more to contact Oakley about their vision and implementation of Smart boards, or to learn about the use of other brands of interactive white boards in our region.

Contact for Oakley: Pat Anderson
Oakley Union Elementary School District
Technology Integration Coach/Teacher