Kindergarten gets smart!

By Brooke W

Mrs. Angie Boehm, one of Valley’s kindergarten teachers, has been awarded a grant from the McElroy Foundation through Keystone AEA for approximately 1,800 dollars in electronic goods.  With the money, she plans to purchase a device called a smartboard.

A smartboard is an interactive, electronic whiteboard, which can aid in instruction and learning.  Mrs. Boehm has been wanting to purchase a smartboard for a long time.  She attended a technology conference which showed many different ways to use the smartboard and she feels that it will be very beneficial to the students because it will allow her to use the Jolly Phonics sounds curriculum to help students be more hands on in their learning.  The smartboard will be installed in Mrs. Boehm’s classroom, but it will be shared between both kindergarten classes.

They will receive the smart board on Dec. 21 in hopes of getting it set up before Christmas. It comes with a whiteboard, Jolly Phonics software, and animation software; the school has already provided projectors for this program and the computer to be hooked up to the whiteboard.  Someone from the McElroy grant committee will come sometime in January to evaluate how the grant money is being used.

As a requirement upon receiving the grant, the kindergarteners will also present a lesson to the preschoolers showing them all the different uses for the smartboard such as writing, sounds, and math.  There is also a photo gallery to use for more visual aids.  Mrs. Boehm and the kindergarteners are very excited to receive this smartboard.