Teachers Love SMART Boards

Notebook Video Tutorial - Color in a Freehand Drawing

Oddly enough, two people asked me this week how to color in a freehand drawing using the Smart Notebook software. Even though you cannot use the Fill Tool to color fill a freehand drawing, there are a couple of ways to accomplish this in Notebook.

Here's a short video tutorial that demonstrates how to draw a freehand image of a lake and color it blue.You can use the same technique in succession to color fill multiple enclosed areas of a detailed freehand drawing.

 

Here's the direct link to the video on YouTube

The image of the flower was created in Notebook using the procedure from the video. I used the technique shown in the video three times in a row. Each time I simply changed the color of the rectangle, captured the image, and used the Set Picture Transparancy option. Easy Peazy Lemon Squeezy.

Note: If you purchased the Math Tools, you can use the Irregular Polygon tool to create unique shapes and then use the Fill Tool to add color.

 

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SMARTBoards and the Fifty Nifty States and Capitals

Today, while searching for a Geography Notebook activity to highlight on the blog, I came across a simple United States map activity that utilized the U.S. background and the U.S. State images from the Gallery. I've seen and used these Gallery objects in the past and I really like them because the images fit perfectly into the U.S. background image.

What I didn't realize was that the background image has a special built-in feature - it actually "snaps" the state images into place if they are dragged close enough to the correct location. I'm not sure how I missed that before but I think it's pretty cool. 

I found a wonderful interactive activity on the SMART Exchange called 50 States - Political Map created by C. Austin and added a page where the students drag the State names on to the map. I also included a solution page. Click here to download the Notebook file.

In addition to the U.S. Notebook activity, here are some good interactive sites intended to help students practice learning their States and Capitals.

Ben's Interactive Games - Place the State

This is an outstanding resource that has two activities for placing the States in the correct location as well as one activity for placing the State Capitals.

 

Vectorkids - State Capitals

In this resource, students touch on a State and then select one of three possible answers for the capital.

 

Sheppard Software - U.S. Geography Games Page

This is one of the best interactive resources for reinforcing the states and capitals. The activities range from beginner to very advanced and teachers can utilize the supporting detail when using the activities.

 

YouTube - Fifty Nifty United States song

Popular version of the Fifty Nifty song. You can search and watch other versions appropriate for your students.

 

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If you have difficulties opening the Notebook file, please switch to another browser like Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer and Safari have difficulties recognizing .notebook files. If you have to use one of these browsers, then save the file to your computer first and make sure the file extension is .notebook and not .zip - if it's not, you'll need to rename the file and change the extension back to .notebook.

 

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SMARTBoard Games and Puzzles from Jefferson Lab

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science funds the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility also known as Jefferson Lab. Part of Jefferson Lab's mission is to "serve the nation and its communities through education and public outreach."  In connection to that mission, they have developed a wonderful collection of teacher resources dedicated to Math and Science teachers.

The Online Games and Puzzles section contains so many useful  interactive resources that you'll want to take some time to explore everything that they have to offer. These activities work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Your students will get hooked on the "Who Wants to Win $1,000,000?" game as well as SpeedMath Deluxe. SpeedMath Deluxe presents a Math problem without any operators and the students need to select the correct operations to make the equation true.

Science teachers will love the Element Balancing and the Element Hangman activities and the Element Concentration game is really a great way to let your students have some fun at the SMART Board.

Teachers can use the interactive practice tests and select the number of questions, the type of questions, as well as the specific state standard strand (Virginia).

Please share these wonderful interactive resources with your technology department and the other Math and Science teachers in your school.

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SMARTBoards and Count Us In Games

Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers can use the Count Us In website to play some very engaging Math concept games on their SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Each game is very simple to use and allows students to interact with the information in a fun and engaging manner.

Three of the activities require a keyboard input but the remainder of the games can be played by touching and/or dragging objects to the correct location.

Teachers can also download these activities and run them directly from their local computer. This is a good way to make the activities fit on the entire SMART Board.

Don't forget to share these activities with your fellow teachers. Remember...

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SMARTBoards and Spell a Picture

Awesome! This is the best word to describe all the wonderful activites on the Kerpoof website. I've recommended this site once before and I'm happy to report that it keeps getting better.

I've been utilizing a new activity they have call Spell a Picture. It's such an incredible learning tool for the classroom and it's highly engaging. Your students will be begging to come to the SMART Board to spell out words.

 

As the student begins spelling out a word by touching one of the letters, different pictures appear on the page that begin with that letter. As the student touches more letters, pictures become larger if they are being spelled correctly. Students can click and drag a letter to remove it if they make a mistake.

When they spell a word correctly, an arrow points to a picture to let them know that they can add it to the page. Once they add a word, they can move it around the page. You can even spell some action words like "chat" and "sing" to provide some action from the characters on the page.

Teachers can use this activity in many different ways and it works great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The website is free to use although they have some membership options that might be appealing to some teachers.

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SMARTBoards and The Magic Key

The BBC has a wonderful interactive site called The Magic Key based on the Oxford Reading Tree learning program.  The site contains nine literacy "adventures" for children that all work great with the SMARTBoard Interactive Whiteboard.

The Magic Key website is aimed at children aged 5-6 years and follows the TV programmes in which Kipper, Biff, Chip, Wilf, Wilma and Floppy go off on their adventures.

 

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Each adventure contains an online interactive activity, a corresponding worksheet, and a teacher resource section that describes how to use the resource and provides curriculum key skill information.

I now you'll enjoy these simple but highly engaging activities inside your classroom.

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SMARTBoards and Invention at Play

Looking for something fun AND educational for your SMARTBoard? Okay, that's a retorical question but it really sums up the Invention at Play site on the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (maybe the can "invent" a shorter name).  

The Invention Playhouse has four flash-based interactive activities for  your students to use at the SMART Board. The Cloud Dreamer activity lets students create their own cloud image and then see it float across 
the sky. The Puzzle Blocks is a fun activity for manipulating shapes to create an image; Word Play lets students create and change unique stories in a fun and collaborative manner; and the Tinker Ball activity lets students move and manipulate tools to solve a simple gravity problem.

All the activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. If you're using Internet Explorer, I would recommend "zooming" in on the activity to make it fill the screen. If you're using Firefox browser, you'll want to use the Flash Game Maximizer Add On to have the activities fill the screen.

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Notebook Video Tutorial - Re-Size Multiple Objects

For all the teachers out there who use Smart Notebook to develop customized lessons on the SMARTBoard, here's a short Notebook video tutorial on how to re-size more than one object by the exact same amount at the same time. I use this simple trick so much that I thought it was time I shared it with everyone here on my blog.

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If you're unable to view the video, click here to go to the actual video page.

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SMARTBoards and Edheads Interactive Games and Activities

Here is a nifty site called Edheads that provides various interactive activities for your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.

"Edheads brings you high quality, free educational activities for your classroom. Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. We partner with various school systems in the United States, which help us research, design and test our activities every step of the way!"

I really like the Odd Machine activitiy as well as the Weather activity although your Middle School students will probably be drawn to the actual photos contained in the virtual surgery activities.

Be careful of all the ads that surround the activities.

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These are flash-based resources that are a lot of fun to use on your SMART Board.  When using flash-based resources, I highly recommend that you use the Firefox Internet Browser and download the Flash Game Maximizer Add-On. This handy little add-on allows you to run flash activities in full screen on your computer. This is extremely helpful when viewing the activities on an interactive whiteboard. It may not work for all flash activities but it works for the majority of them.

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SMARTBoard Notebook Lessons - Idioms

Here's an interactive and fun Notebook Lesson about "idioms." You can use this as a starter activity for introducing idioms in the classroom.

This lesson has three sections. The first section uses a common idiom in a sentence and the students have to choose the correct meaning. The second section gives an informational statement and then challenges students to pick the correct idiom. The last page challenges students to write their own idiom using information about Daylight Savings Time.

Here's an online activity called Eye on Idioms from the ReadWriteThink.org. It's a fantastic resource that lets the students choose the correct idiom and then asks them to reflect on the actual meaning of the phrase and then has them use it in a new sentence.

 

 

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Notebook Activity - Role Model

 

This is a fun little Notebook activity called "Role Model" that guides the student through a series of short calculations. When the students get their final answer, they use that number to determine their perfect role model.

The fun part is that no matter what number the student starts with, the result will always be the same number - nine. Since you know what the answer will be, you can place "your" name at position 9 to show that "you" are their perfect role model.

Instructions: Before using in the classroom, you will need to edit the text object on the last page and enter your name in the 9th position. To do this, you will need to move the image out of the way and then double-click on the text object that is underneath. After you finish editing the text object, place the image back over the list of names. You may also want to lock your objects when you're done and re-save the file.

You can also change the other names and add additional pictures to the main image to reflect the current trends or personal preferences as long as you don't remove Jennifer Lopez. :o)

Download File

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If you have difficulties opening the file, please switch to another browser like Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer and Safari have difficulties recognizing .notebook files. If you have to use one of these browsers, then save the file to your computer first and make sure the file extension is .notebook and not .zip - if it's not, you'll need to rename the file and change the extension back to .notebook.

 

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Notebook Video Tutorial - Adding a Drop Shadow

Each week we'll bring you a short video tutorial for using the Notebook software. This week's tutorial demonstrates how to add a drop-shadow to a text object to give it a little more pizzazz.

Notebook Video Tutorial - Add a Drop Shadow to a Text Object

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If you can't see the video, click here to view it.

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SMART Boards and Tagxedo Word Cloud Generator

I am in awe of one of the latest entries into Word Cloud Generators called Tagxedo. The options for creating word clouds are simply incredible and best of all, the site makes it very easy to save your work as an image file without the need to "capture" your work.

The flash-based results are a lot of fun to use and when you are using your SMART Board, you can touch on a word to make it enlarge and come to the forefront.

Here's a word cloud image I created from the words in my post from yesterday:

The site allows you to change almost any aspect of your word cloud including font, colors, number of words, shape, orientation, etc. When you're finished, you can Save your work in various sizes and formats.

This site is spectacular but be ready to spend a little time playing around and having fun. Please share any classroom ideas you have in the comment section.

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Notebook Lessons - Writing and Spelling

These two amazing Notebook lessons for the SMART Board were created by two amazing teachers, Becky Arnett and Sherri Fricker. These two lessons are very special to me because each one utilized techniques found in the courses from Teacher Online Training. As a matter of fact, Becky's "Writing Prompts" lesson was the grand prize winner of the SMART Exchange Contest Challenge.

Becky and Sherri went way beyond the techniques found in the online courses and each one created a lesson that made my jaw drop.

Becky's lesson is called Random Writing Prompts:

Use the random selectors to choose writing prompts for kids writing assignments. Reluctant writers love to use this tool to come up with a writing idea. Topics include citizenship, favorite things, remember a time when... and many others.

Click here to download

 

Sherri's lesson is called Spelling Bee:

Students can practice their spelling words by "typing" them on this keyboard. The keyboard is sensitive and doesn't like the wrong keys to be pressed.

Click here to download

 

Thank you Becky and Sherri! Your creative abilities are simply awesome!

 

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Teachers Love SMART Boards - We're Better than Ever!

 This award winning blog has always been dedicated to providing resources and support for teachers who have a SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom. Get ready because it's about to get even better!

 

 

 

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We have been working with teachers and asking them what they wanted in a online SMART Board resource. Here is a list of what they wanted most in a SMART Board blog:

1. Notebook Lessons and Ideas - 75%

2. Interactive Web Resources and Games - 71%

3. SMART Board / Notebook Tips and Tricks - 68%

4. Professional Development / Support - 61%

 

Here is what they want to make the blog easier to use:

1. Categories for subjects and grade levels - 58%

2. Search capability (Shhhhh, we already have that) - 53%

3. Updates to Facebook and Twitter - 38%

4. Daily updates - 32%

 

Here's what you can expect from Teachers Love SMART Boards:

• New website design with Categories that make it easy to find valuable resources

• Weekly Notebook Lesson recommendations

• Weekly Web Resource recommendations

• Weekly Notebook Video Tutorials

 

We also have a lot more surprise in store so make sure you subscribe via RSS or EMAIL.

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SMARTBoards and Free Notebook Training

If you're like a lot of teachers who have a SMARTBoard in your classroom, you may think that it's difficult to learn how to create your own lessons using the Smart Notebook software.

You may have even gone to a workshop and said, "Hey! I can do that." Then a month goes by and you don't even remember how to get started.

There's a better way!

With Teacher Online Training, you can actually learn how to use the Notebook software in the privacy of your own home. All you do is follow a series of short video tutorials and before you know it, you'll have an authentic lesson that you can use in the classroom. Once you finish creating your lesson, you will have mastered some key skills in Notebook and more importantly, you'll understand how to apply these skills to other Notebook lessons.

All the courses are designed to be completed in less than two hours and you can start and stop as often as you want and take as long as you need - all in the privacy of your own home. Best of all, you're not alone. You'll also receive expert feedback and free technical support. You'll even receive a certificate of completion for each course when you're done.

Interested? Click here to take one of the courses for free and find out how easy it is to create your own interactive lessons using the Smart Notebook software.

No obligation
No money
Just a great offer!

Teacher only please

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Get SMART with SMART Boards Podcast - Episode 9

The newest Get SMART with SMART Boards podcast is now available. In this edition of the popular audio podcast, Harvey Almarode and I revisit the topic of random selection. Harvey shares a Notebook file that demonstrates how he adds a little bit more engagement when generating random numbers by using the Random Image Tool from the Lesson Activity Toolkit.

We also talk a little bit about how we choose a winner using random selection tools when we want to give stuff away at conferences. You can use the same techniques in your classroom.

The podcast contains a lot of other information related to using SMART Boards and Smart Notebook in the classroom, including a very important technique for safeguarding your Notebook files.

The Get SMART with SMART Boards podcast website not only allows you to listen to the podcast, it contains libraries of Notebook files, Website Recommendations, and Notebook Video Tutorials.

Kick off your shoes and enjoy the podcast!

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoard and Teacher-Created High School Biology Resources

If you're a High School Science teacher, you'll want to review the amazing resources found on Harvard University's Life Science Outreach Program website. The site contains actual teacher-created resources covering Physiology, Microbiology, Regenerative Biology, Evolution, Neurobiology, Immunology, and the Biology of Cancer.

For each area of study, teachers created Lesson Plans covering a variety of topic areas. Many of these lessons include supporting PowerPoints, Lecture Videos and Scientific Animations.

This is a great site to see what other teachers are creating for their classrooms and to build upon what they've already created. Some of the Scientific Animations are outstanding and include interactive activities that work great on the SMART Board. I also like that a lot of the teacher-created activities were developed as WebQuests. If you've never seen the structure of a WebQuest, this is a great opportunity to experience how a WebQuest can increase engagement and motivation in the classroom.

Sites like this are rare and should be shared with the teachers at your school. Remember, Sharing Is Caring, so please forward this website to the High School Science teachers in your district. They'll thank you for it!

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoards and the SMART Insider Newsletter- May 2010

I'm really excited about this month's SMART Insider Newsletter. Maybe I was a little too excited since I accidentally sent it out twice over the weekend. If you subscribe to the SMART Insider and you received two emails, please do NOT unsubscribe from one of them. I promise to do my best to avoid sending double emails going forward. Computers seem to have a mind of their own sometimes.

The SMART Insider Newsletter is totally free. I created the newsletter to share resources for teachers who have a SMART Board in the classroom. I also use it to provide information about the online, self-paced Notebook training courses on Teacher Online Training.

Each SMART Insider newsletter contains Tips & Tricks, a featured Website, a Notebook Video Tutorial, and a Notebook file to use in your classroom. This month's newsletter has a great tip for how to integrate websites with your Notebook lessons; it highlights an amazing website containing interactive educational games and activities that work great on the SMART Board; it has a short video tutorial on how to create a drop shadow in Smart Notebook; and it has a fun Notebook file that you can download called the Bubble Reveal.

If you like the newsletter, you can subscribe to it by email. Once subscribed, you can expect to receive a new newsletter at the beginning of each month. You can also unsubscribe at any time and there is absolutely no obligation.

Click here to go directly to this month's newsletter.

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SMARTBoards and Battleship Activities from Quia

I believe we'll be seeing a lot more sites like Quia that allow teachers to develop their own interactive activities for the classroom. I was experimenting with some interactive Battleship games on Quia created by teachers and shared on the Quia site for everyone to use. The Battleship games work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard.

To find a Battleship game to play from the shared resources section of Quia, all I did was choose a subject area and then I chose Battleship from the Activity Type search field. You can also enter in keywords, sub-categories, etc. to help narrow things down a bit, but your search results may come back empty. After I did my search, I simply scrolled through my list until I found something relevant.

The Battleship game is simple. You play against the computer and you take turns trying to find the ships on the game board. If you hit one of the computer's ships, you'll need to answer a question by choosing the correct answer from the list provided. If you are right, you get a hit. If you are wrong, you'll need to try again on your next turn.

I can think of a number of different ways a teacher could use this review activity in the classroom. These activities are also flash-based so you can use the Flash Game Maximizer add-on in Firefox to make the activity as large as possible on the SMART Board.

You can subscribe to Quia to access additional resources and create your own interactive games, however, you don't need to subscribe to access the shared resource library. Quia has a 30 day free trial if you're interested in checking out all the resources.

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoards and a Few of My Notebook Lessons

I've been spending more time lately developing custom Notebook lessons for the classroom. For me, Notebook is the perfect tool for creating new and exciting lessons that can help increase learning. When using Notebook, I don't feel limited in what I can do. Notebook is so easy to use and so powerful that it allows me to be more creative in how I am able to present information and how I can make it possible for students to interact directly with the information.

The following Notebook lessons were made upon request. Please feel free to download and use them in your classroom.

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Role Model

This is a fun little Notebook lesson I created that goes through a series of  short calculations that will magically determine someone's role model. No matter what number the student starts with, the result will always be the same number. Before using in the classroom, you will need to edit the text object on the last page and enter your name in the 9th position.

Download File

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Artsy Multiplication

I created this application for my daughter when she was learning the times tables. It was a lot of fun watching her time improve when she was learning her tables. This application presents a multiplication problem on the page and the student has to touch the correct answer. If they are correct, the section covering a famous painting is removed. Students play until the entire painting is revealed.

Download File

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Johnny Appleseed

This application was created for a teacher who was reviewing the American Folk Tale "Johnny Appleseed." It contains activities that allow the students to interact and discuss the tale including an interactive vocabulary game and a custom word search. It also has a fun video about Johnny Appleseed and a fun "word of mouth" game.

Download File

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I hope you enjoy the lessons. If you want to learn how to create similar activities, I highly recommend that you subscribe to Teacher Online Training. It really is the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to create Notebook lessons similar to these.

[If you are having difficulties opening the Notebook files using Internet Explorer or Safari, please try using Firefox or Chrome instead.]

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoard Game Resources

It's getting close to the end of the year for many teachers and sometimes it can be a challenge keeping students occupied in a creative manner.

If you're looking for some interactive games you can use with your SMART Board to help with the last 10 minutes of a class period, you may want to scroll through the "Games" category here on Teachers Love SMART Boards. I'm sure you'll find something fun for your students. 

Here are some of my favorite activities: 

Audio matching game

Uncross the Lines

Railroad Builder

Jigsaw Sudoku

Code Cracker

The Set Game

US State Capitals Game

Bubblewrap

The Eyeballing Game

Enjoy!

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoard and Some Sum Fun

That's just about the silliest blog title I've ever used but I'll stick with it since I've been having a lot of fun using a simple little application called Connectsums.

The game is very simple. Students are presented with a target number and they have to select the correct combination of numbers that add up to the target number.

The game has options for using coins, digits, or dice when displaying the numbers and you can play using a timer or a countdown. It's really amazing how well this simple game can improve your ability to count change using coins. Since you're working against a timer, it challenges you to find the best combination to use in order to improve your time. This game is addicting and it definitely helps students recognize summation combinations. 

Another fun game that's also available for the iPhone/iTouch is Sumsstacker. This game requires you to drag and drop numbers (coins, digits, or dice) around until you have the correct sum for each column. Once again, this game is very addicting and it doesn't take long for students to start recognizing patterns. 

Both of these fun little applications work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoard and eflnet ESL and EFL Resources

The eflnet ESL and EFL Resource page has an amazing collection of Language Arts review activities designed for TOEFL preparation. These interactive review activities are fantastic assessment tools in any classroom.

I can think of a myriad of uses for these resources including using them as a quick starter activity. When used with the SMART Board, they can definitely help to increase engagement while assessing student understanding.

The activities are mostly multiple-choice review questions that provide instant audio and visual feedback although some activities require keyboard input. Most of the review activities in each topic area go from beginner to advanced and most activity groups contain 10 questions.

I used something similar in my classroom when playing "last one standing." It was a review activity that I did half way through a block session to assess understanding. I created two teams and each team would take turns answering a series of 10 questions. When one member of a team missed, someone else from the other team would continue. When the 10 review questions were complete, the team that was standing got 10 bonus points. We would then begin the next set of questions. This game would have been even better if I had a SMART Board in my classroom at the time.

Firefox users can use the Flash Game Maximizer Add-on to remove the ads and make the activities fit on the entire SMART Board.

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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SMARTBoards and abcteach

Sometimes it's very difficult to adhere to our policy of promoting only free resources on this blog since there are so many outstanding paid subscription-based sites that provide amazing classroom resources for teachers.

One of these amazing sites is called abcteach. This site contains so many outstanding free resources that it's incredibly apparent that their main objective is to support teachers in the classroom.

The thing I like the most is that abcteach is increasing the number of interactive resources specifically designed for teachers who have a SMART Board in the classroom. I just spent the last 30 minutes reviewing a number of their free Smart Notebook lessons and I'm really impressed with what they're doing. Their lessons are engaging and they seem to utilize more of the advanced features of the Notebook software to make them more effective in the classroom.

I could write for hours and still not touch on all the great teacher resources found on abcteach. If you were going to ask my opinion about whether to become a member, all I can say is that it costs less each month to be a member than it does for a single tall Mocha at Starbucks. Wouldn't you give up one cup of coffee to have access to all these amazing resources? I know I would!

If you're already a member, I just noticed that abcteach is having a 25% off renewal promotion that ends this Friday.

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the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

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