Smart Boards Ignite Interest in Liberty Classrooms
By Sharon Ramsey, Latin and Bible Teacher
Thanks to generous gifts from Liberty families, SMART Boards are a reality at Liberty Christian School.
The Middle and Upper School math students are the first at Liberty to experience the electronic interactive whiteboard that is already enhancing their learning.
“The SMART Board immediately engages the students, which allows them to be more involved in the learning process,” said Cynthia Vick, Upper School math teacher. 
SMART Board research shows positive impacts on student learning by raising the level of student engagement. Students are highly motivated to participate in the learning process because the SMART Board speaks their language of technology.
“One of the many benefits of SMART Boards is that it puts new tools into the teacher’s hands and encourages ‘out of the box’ teaching, which enables more students to be reached through interactive learning,” said Vick. “It breaks down the barriers of traditional teaching and gets more into the technological world of our students.”
SMART Boards have also helped Vick connect lessons to the real world, which helps students retain learning.
Geometry teacher Kenalea Hailey added, “The SMART Board can do so many great things that are interactive and in full color – my lessons have taken on new life!
“As we teach with the SMART Board, we can easily insert interactive drawings, games, videos, and more, which helps maintain the attention of the students. Now students like coming up to the board to answer questions or label geometric shapes using all of the different pen options.
“The SMART Board has challenged me as a teacher to make changes in my lessons and search for new ways to explain geometric concepts. I believe it is growing me as an educator and making learning more interesting for the students – it is win-win situation!”
Upper School math teacher Stephen Cook is also using the SMART Board in his classroom.
“The SMART Boards have been an awesome resource. We hope to use them to draw students into our everyday mathematics lesson. I have had numerous volunteers coming to the front of the classroom to aid in presenting the lesson. I have always felt that I needed to get the students more involved in the lesson, and I think that SMART technology is helping with that! This technology is forcing me to think of new ways of presenting material and helping me to stay on my toes as a teacher!” he said.
Vick concluded by saying, “The teachers in the math department are very excited about having SMART Boards in their classrooms this year. We are committed to building a strong math foundation for our students and preparing them to experience success each step of the way, including SAT and ACT scores. With SMART Boards and the new 4MAT, our goal is to reach, motivate, and inspire all students in the learning process.”