Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMART Board - Notebook Basics Video

Here's a training video on Notebook Basics from Interactivewhiteboard.net.au.

Interactivewhiteboard.net.au aims to be the leading authority on interactive whiteboards and their use in education in Australia. This website is not about sales of products. Rather its aim is to encourage and support teachers and other educators who are committed to interactive learning environments in today’s 21st century classrooms.

Teacher Resources: TeacherXpress

While not directly related to SMART Boards, I have been meaning to share this teacher resource page for some time.

The site is called TeacherXpress and it contains hundreds (if not thousands) of links to valuable resources for teachers. The site is too comprehensive to discuss in one post.

Please take a look but be careful on how much time you spend exploring.

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Smartboard and Primary School Reading

I would like to share two great Primary School Reading Websites that are perfect for your SMART Board. The first site is called Children's Storybooks. It has wonderful stories and wonderful illustrations that are sure to motivate new readers. This site also has stories for the older kids but I find the early reader stories the best.

The second site I want to share is called The Fable Library. It also has some wonderful stories to use with new readers. In addition, you can download six wonderful Flash-Based stories that run directly on your computer. These are outstanding resources to use with your Smartboard! I've included three of them here for you to take a look or you can download them directly from the Fable Library Website.

• Benjamine's Bowtie
• Benty the Rabbit
• The Blue Shoe

Please share these sites with others!

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EDCompass Feature Article - Measuring Up the Senteo Interactive Response System

Heather Ellwood writes this week's featured article Measuring Up the Senteo Interactive Response System. She provides a wonderful analysis of how the Senteo can benefit teachers in the classroom and help them meet the federal government's increased demands for accountablilty.

Because the feedback with the Senteo is instant, I am able to address any errors or misconceptions immediately. This is so effective. The old expression ‘nip it in the bud’ certainly rings true here. I find I can put a stop to misconceptions while they are still in early development, and so many of the errors that often occur later, will disappear.

Caleb Courtney, senior high computer engineering teacher

Find out where the future of assessment is heading and how the Senteo works seamlessly with your SMART Board and Notebook software.

EDCompass Newsletter November 2007 - Best Practices

This week's EDCompass newsletter focuses on Best Practices in using the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom. Personally, I find that documenting and sharing best practices in the classroom the best method of improving your ability to instruct. Learn how one teacher scans homework so correcting work becomes an interactive while another teacher uses the SMART Board to change the way she teaches vocabulary.

Also included in the newsletter are three in-depth case studies that are sure to inspire creative and effective uses of SMART Boards in the classroom.

A note from the editors:

Educators employ best practices every day. In this issue of EDCompass™ newsletter, we’ve gathered best practices from teachers like you on how they are using SMART products to achieve teaching and learning goals. You’ll also read about a new research study that concludes the use of interactive whiteboards positively impacts student achievement. And learn how to start using the SMART Learning Marketplace, our new content subscription service.

As usual, this month's EDCompass newsletter is packed full of wonderful information and outstanding resources for all teachers who use SMART Boards.

Teachers Love SMART Boards Email Sign-Up

Did you know that you can receive blog posts from Teachers Love SMART Boards directly to your email?

Every time I post a new entry, you can have that post sent directly to your email formatted exactly like you see here. You can unsubscribe from this service at any time and your email address is completely safe and is never shared with any one else.

To subscribe to email updates, look for the sign up box on the right-hand side of every page. Just type in your email address and click the Subscribe button. You will then receive an email asking you to verify the subscription.

I will be vacationing in Virginia for the next four days and will be without Internet connection. Look for my next post this weekend.

Peace and love to all!

Sharing is Caring!

Jim

SMARTBoard Thanksgiving Resources

Teachers in the U.S. who are looking for some wonderful Thanksgiving resources for their Smartboard, don't need to look far. I have three wonderful websites that can help keep the kids focused.

For the Middle School and High School students, here's a summary of events presented in a wonderful timeline called Thanksgiving Timeline: 1541 - 2001

Here's a great site from Scholastic called The First Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful resource that has audio, slideshows, animated timelines, and a Web Qwest. This is a must see!

You may as well have a little fun before the break! Here's a Thanksgiving activity called Picture Perfect Turkey Day where the kids come up with words that create a fun story. Great for practicing parts of speech and reading in the earlier grades.

Wants some Turkey Games for the younger kids?

• Find Pete (primary)
• Turkey Maze (primary - not interactive but would be good with Smartboard pen)
• Animated Turkey Puzzle (primary)
• Turkey Anagram (primary/middle - really good!)
• Turkey Slide (primary/middle - good but you have to get past a few ads)

If you know of any fun sites for the holidays, please let everyone know!

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SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast - 100th Episode

They did it! Joan and Ben have completed the 100th episode of their SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast.

Here's the 100th episode summary:

In Episode 100:

Links You Can Use:

• http://www.logmein.com
• Help us create a high quality ‘Twitter’ SMARTBoard professional network that is only a quick question away.  Join Twitter and then “follow” Ben: benhazzard and Joan: jbadger.  We will follow you back.
• Comments
  • Shannon responds to Marci’s request about technology clubs with her SWAT team idea.
• Blog Love: http://adifference.blogspot.com/2007/11/blogging-is-pointless-in-education.html
• Call the podcast to say hello, comment, add, suggest, or rant: 415-944-1691
• And the winnter is… Nathan Toft for our 100th Episode Contest!
  • Matt Marshall from Anaheim, California shares a tip about using student signatures in the gallery

Our Roundtable:

• Joan and Ben share info about upcoming features in SMART Notebook which is in pre-beta form. Hint: shape pen, active alignment, and tables.
• Ben and Joan host a round table discussion about SMARTBoard use with Chris Betcher from Australia and Tom Barrett from the United Kingdom.  We discuss:
  1) Is there a SMARTBoard/iwb pedagogy? 
  2) Does SMARTBoard/iwb uncover or amplify other pedagogies?  What does it show and when?
  3) What does effective SMARTBoard/iwb usage look like?
  4) What is the next step for SMARTBoard/iwb usage for: a beginning user, an intermediate user, an advanced user?

You can listen to the podcast at their site or you can subscribe to their podcast in various places including iTune and Zune.

You can Follow me at Twitter too.

Enjoy! Sharing is Caring

Smart Board and Visuwords - A Great Combination

Please take a look at the ICT In the Classroom blog post on Visuwords for an in-depth analysis of using this incredible tool with your SMART Board. 

From Tom Barrett:

My favourite web based tool I am using in my classroom at the moment is Visuwords. It is a dictionary/thesaurus/etymology visualisation tool which uses Princeton University’s  WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. It works wonderfully with a SMARTBoard as you can move the nodes about and shift things around to help clarify a connection. There are many many applications for this in the classroom and here are just a few I have been pondering.

Go to Tom's site for the full analysis. You won't be sorry!

My sincere thanks to Tom for writing such an incredible article on using Visuwords in the classroom!

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Smart Board Games for a Friday Afternoon

As a teacher, I saw too many other teachers use a Friday afternoon to watch a movie. Instead of a movie, how about some fun strategy games to play on your SmartBoard?!

Here's a game called Blox2. The object is to eliminate the gem blox from the board. It's a lot of fun and easy enough for your 4-8 grade students.

Here's a game everyone should be familiar with called Connect4.

Enjoy!

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SMART’s Notebook™ software Version 10 - Look what's coming!

Winter hasn't even arrived but it's already time to start looking forward to the Spring! Why? Version 10 of Smart Technologies SMART’s Notebook^™ software will be released in the Spring of 2008 with some exciting new features.

Here are a few of the highlights! 

Shape Pen

With the Shape Pen, you can draw a rough circle or other shape on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard and the software will perfect it. You can also access the shape recognition feature in the object drop down menu.

Watch demonstration of Shape Pen

Active Alignment

Accurately align objects horizontally or vertically to any object on the page.

Watch demonstration of Active Alignment

Tables

Easily create a table from the Notebook software toolbar, and then insert or drag and drop text, images and other objects into any cell. You can change the table’s font, color and line thickness, and add or delete individual cells to create asymmetric tables.

Watch demonstration of using Tables

 

SMARTBoard Grant Resources

Looking for funding for your SMART Board? One place you can go is to techLearning's Grants and Contest page. Also, don't forget about Smart Technologies funding newsletter!

Thank you Mike for the tip!

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SMART Board - Mathematics Teaching Tool

I ran across a great article about math and Smartboards that I thought I would share with everyone. It's very short but has some great ideas on how a Smart Board can be effective in the classroom.

Mathematics Teaching Tools: Using SMART Boards With Computers by William De Salazar

Free SMART Board training from Smart Technologies

Looking for a quick two-minute SMART Board training fix?

Take advantage of these wonderful, free two-minute training videos from the people who bring you the SMART Board, Smart Technologies.

Take a look!

SMARTBoard Top 5 Countdown

Here are the top five Teachers Love SMART Boards websites based on how many times visitors have clicked on the links:

Coming in at #5 - Pauly's Playhouse

#4 - Mapping Our World

#3 - Math Playground

#2 - Entheos Interactive Games

The #1 most visited website - LearnAlberta

Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite site is!

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Smartboards and Early Literacy

Can a SMART Board interactive whiteboard assist in early childhood literacy? Here's a great article from the electronic journal Reading Online that touches directly on that subject. The article was written by Pamala Solvie.

Here's the concluding paragraph:

The process of learning to read is truly complex. As educators we continue to learn more about this process and to seek ways to help young children become successful readers and writers. Incorporating the digital whiteboard in our practice as a tool to teach early literacy skills may help us reach young children in many positive and powerful ways. The students' involvement with and demonstration of skills when the digital whiteboard is used may prompt continued use and research of this tool. As we persist in learning more about the reading process and effective instructional practices, this tool may assist young learners as they become excited and ever more proficient readers and writers.

Teachers who wish to bring this amazing tool into the classroom need to present research-based information to their administration.

About the Author

Pamala Solvie teaches at the University of Minnesota, Morris (Division of Education, 600 East 4th Street, Morris, MN 56267, USA). E-mail psolvie@mrs.umn.edu. 

Smartboard activities on LINKS Learning

I found a wonderful site that is in development and has the potential to be an incredible resource for educators. The site is called LINKS Learning and will eventually have multimedia resources for parents, kids, teachers, Principals, and Superintendents.

I would highly recommend going to a new section they have developed called SuperMath (to access, click on LINKS Learning above and then click on SuperMath in the Math section). It currently has four wonderful Smartboard activities for 4-10 grade Mathematics. If these examples are indicative of what's to come in all subject areas, then this site needs to watched closely.

Let us know what you think!

Smartboards - Differentiate Learning with Technology

How can you use your Smartboard as a tool to adapt instruction to respond to the diverse needs of learners? Well, here's a resource that attempts to do just that. It's a remarkable resource for K-5 teachers that provides a compass for using technology to differentiate learning. It has resources for math, science, reading, writing, art, music, social studies, and more!

If you're a teacher serious about using your Smart Board more effectively, then you owe it to yourself to explore the resources on this site.

Flightplans for Learning: Differentiation & Deep Thinking through Technology

Enjoy!

SMART Board Fun Tools - Animoto

Using this new slideshow generator would be so cool to do with your SMART board! Here is the first video I created using Animoto. It's a 30 second slideshow of my daughter Jasmine.

Smartboard Classroom Tools

Here's a fun little website called ClassTools that lets you "create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet!"

I explored the site and was able to create the following activity in under five minutes. It also has activities and quizzes already created. A few of the game formats might be difficult to use on the Smartboard since they require arrow keys, but most work very well. Definitely check this website out!

Click here for full screen version

Please leave comments for others and let your fellow teachers know how you like it. Sharing is Caring!

Smart Notebook Lessons for the SMART Board

I like to "wow" the teachers in my training classes by showing SMART Technologies' Notebook Software Lesson Activities page. I search for an activity and then I bring up the state standard for that activity.

I recently saw a biased video on YouTube where the presenter was saying that Mimio (another interactive whiteboard tool) is better because it gives teacher-created lessons and the other companies do not. Really? I challenge anyone to compare SMART Technologies' Lesson Activities page and Mimio's Lessons page and say that Mimio has more teacher-created lessons. Actually, Mimio's Lesson page has a grand total of only 21 lessons.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm for any tool that helps increase a child's ability to learn, including Mimios. However, their marketing (at least by the salesperson in the video I watched) is a little misleading and in my opinion, SMART Boards and the resources provided by SMART Technologies and SMART Board users still stand out from the rest.

To solidify my point, here's a great non-commercial website that has at least 10 times the number of "teacher-created" lessons than the Mimio website. The Notebook files are in zip format but it only takes a few extra clicks to get them unzipped and loaded into Notebook.