Teachers Love SMART Boards

Get SMART with SMART Boards Podcast - Episode 3

Harvey and I just finished recording the 3rd episode of the Get SMART with SMART Boards podcast. Harvey thought it would be fun to focus on a "magic" theme for this week's podcast and the result was fantastic!

In this podcast, we each share one of our favorite websites for the SMART Board.  Harvey begins his "magic" theme by discussing the site The Magic Gopher and I talk about one of my favorite websites that displays a life size blue whale floating by you as you watch in amazement. It's a great site to watch and interact with on your SMART Board.

In our Notebook file segment of the podcast, Harvey shares his Magic Birthday application and I provide a Notebook application about Johnny Appleseed which contains five examples of how to use animation to provide feedback.

Finally, in our Tips and Tricks segment, we both share a Notebook file that demonstrates how to reveal information using a magic glass or a magic flashlight.

I hope you'll subscribe to our new podcast and let us know what you think.

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Get SMART with SMART Boards Podcast

I'm excited to announce a new podcast called Get SMART with SMART Boards. SMART Board expert Harvey Almarode and I join forces to help teachers use the SMART Board more effectively in the classroom.

In the first episode, Harvey discusses how he uses the website JigSawDoku to have children play SuDoKu and I share an amazing website called Flash Animations for Physics.

In addition, Harvey and I both share a Notebook application that teachers can use immediately inside the classroom. Harvey shares his Bird on a Wire Notebook application and I my application on the Gettysburg Address.

Finally, you'll hear about two great tips for using Notebook more effectively. Harvey explains how to color in a freehand drawing in Notebook and I describe how to customize the Notebook toolbar. Each tip has an accompanying video.

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SMARTBoards and a Holiday Gift From Teaching With SMARTBoard

Those wacky guys over at Teaching With SMARTBoard have a wonderful gift for their video podcast viewers this holiday season.

Each week, Scott and Dave create a fun and informative video podcast that demonstrates how to use your SMART Board and Smart Notebook more effectively. Their videos have a Math emphasis but much of the information can be applied to other subject areas.

So why not spend a few seconds and check out their video library which includes all their past videos including a 4-part series on the Lesson Activity Toolkit as well as an a 4-part introduction to Notebook 10? You may have to sit through a corny Math joke or two but you'll be glad you did!

Thank you Scott and Dave for sharing such a wonderful gift this holiday season!

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SMARTBoards and the Making of an Icon

Let me just say that Ben and Joan's SMARTBoard Lessons Podcast is still in my top-three list of most useful Smartboard resources on the Internet.

This week's podcast was very informative (as usual) and highly entertaining (it's fun to listen to Ben when he's taking cold medication).

In the latest episode called Student Interaction, Ben demonstrates his brilliant idea for how to add student interaction into your lessons by using custom student icons. To better understand his idea, you can check out his Embedding Student Interaction Notebook file containing examples of how he applies his idea.

I was so inspired by Ben's idea that I created a Notebook application called "The Icon Generator" that helps students create their own custom icon. Ben also gives instructions for how to make them in his Notebook example. 

Download The Icon Generator Notebook file

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SMART Board Lesson Podcast and Jigzone

As always, Ben and Joan have produced another great episode of their SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast. This week's episode (#125) highlights a lesson about the Bernoulli Principle. They also have a very short survey to help gather some information to make their podcast even better. It only takes a few minutes to complete so please help Ben and Joan out if you can.

One of the people who called into the show mentioned a fun website that works great with the SMART Board. It's called Jigzone and it allows you to create a jigsaw puzzle from pictures that you upload. There are a lot of ways to use this for educational purposes. For example, here is a graphic I created using a graphic editor (PhotoFiltre is good free graphic editor).

I can use Jigzone to upload this photo and then create a fun jigsaw puzzle for kids to put together on the SMART Board. When they're done, they have to tell the class which side has the correct answer.

Here's the puzzle (click on it to start) created from Jigzone and embedded here in my blog. You can use the controls on the left to change the number of pieces and automatically solve the puzzle:

Enjoy!

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Smart Video Recorder and Video Podcasts

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk technology integration with Dave Sladkey and Scott Miller from Naperville Central HS in Naperville, IL. Dave and Scott are the creators of the new video podcast Teaching With SMARTBoard. We had a lively discussion and I was impressed with how they were using technology to engage the students.

Here is a short video that shows how Dave and Scott created a student-centered learning environment where their students create video podcasts that describe how to solve various Math problems. These videos can be uploaded to the Internet and viewed at any time.

                                

Launch in external player

SMARTBoard Video Podcast

I would like to introduce everyone to Scott Miller and David Sladkey who have produced their first "Teaching with SMARTBoard" video podcast covering  4 Corner Sorting, page length and cloning pages.

I thought they did an outstanding job and hopefully they can keep em coming. Here's a quick snip-it of their podcast in which Scott and David share their tips on inserting pages and controlling page length.

To see their entire podcast please visit their Teaching with SMARTBoard podcast site. You should also visit their resource site that contains resource files for their podcasts. After completing this post, I'll send out an email to Scott and David and hopefully they can add some comments here about their new podcast.

                      

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