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Students Using Interactive Boards at NAES

Pictured above:  Kelon Hall, a 4th grade student in Tammy Kirkland's class, uses the Mimio board to review a Shurley English lesson on nouns.

Students at New Albany Elementary School (NAES) are being reached in a new way thanks to interactive Mimio boards that were purchased with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) of 2009. 

Thirty-five classrooms at NAES are equipped with Mimio boards.  A standard white board and a classroom computer is converted into an interactive teaching tool by adding a LCD multi-media projector and a Mimio bar.  AARA funds were used to purchase needed projectors and Mimio bars for many of these classrooms. 

“We are fortunate to have Mimio boards in all of our classrooms in 2-5th grades and many of our kindergarten and first grade teachers have them as well,” said Lance Evans, NAES Principal.  Evans hopes to have the teaching tool in all classrooms as funds become available.

“I've had a Mimio board for a year, and I use it all the time,” said Tammy Kirkland, a fourth grade teacher.  “We use it for PowerPoint presentations, vocabulary review, visiting Internet sites, and even playing jeopardy subject area games as a review.”

Stephanie Simmons, a first grade teacher, uses the board daily in her classroom for calendar math, phonics, and Shurley English.  “We view videos that are related to our social studies and science lessons,” Simmons said.  “The mimio is also used as a reinforcement of skills in game formats that really keeps the children focused.”

All of the teachers who have a Mimio board in their classroom attended a three-hour small group training session earlier in the semester.  “The training session taught us how to utilize the Mimio software,” Kirkland said.  “Since then, I've been able to create ‘interactive’ lessons based on the needs of individual students in my class.” 
 
“The boards are wonderful hands-on technology teaching tools that makes instruction more interactive,” Evans said.  “Our teachers have used the boards in so many creative ways including virtual field trips and interactive PowerPoints.

“It is an amazing tool that has changed the way I teach and how my students learn,” Kirkland said.

Pictured below:  Liam Neely uses the Mimio board to review for an upcoming Math test.  Liam is a student in Stephanie Simmons' first grade class.