Teachers Love SMART Boards

Smart Board - Math for all levels

I've had a few people email me about good math websites for ALL grade levels that work well with a Smartboard.

The first website that popped in my head was the Utah State University's National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. A number of things set this site apart from the rest. Firstly, the activities are interactive. Students can come to the Smartboard and investigate the material. The site also provides teachers with activity guides and class prompts. It will also correlate the activities to national standards.

For the more advanced, you can utilize the eNLVM resource to actually create classes for your students to do independent work and you can actual monitor each student's activity with the built-in tracking tools.

Here's the best thing...this site is free and totally void of any advertisements!

Free Microsoft Word Training Video

I include Microsoft Training videos in my Teachers Love Smart Boards blog since many teachers use Microsoft Office with their Smartboards. Since I'm a Certified Microsoft Office Master Instructor and a big fan of Smartboards in the classroom, it seems a natural fit.

Here's a free Microsoft Word video showing how to use the format painter. This is a great little tip to quickly apply similar formats throughout your document. Trust me, you'll love it!!!

Let me know if you like it!

Math on your SMART Board

I should include more of the great sites out there for Mathematics since I have a ton of them and I love using my Smart Board for math activities. I actually think that learning mathematical concepts is greatly enhanced with the Internet and Smartboards.

Once simple but highly effective way to use your Smart Board is to have a fun problem displayed on the Smart Board when the students enter the class. The first thing they do is spend 5 minutes working on the problem; when the time is up, you can choose someone to go to the whiteboard and give their answer. This technique works great for me and allows me to take attendance and organize things before class begins. It also gets kids involved right away.

Here's a great math website mainly for the primary and middle school grades. Sites like this make it a pleasure to use the Internet. While it has advertisements, it does not have pop-ups.

The worksheet builder alone is worth the visit to this site!

Hint: One thing I like to do is make my viewing screen as large as possible. To do this with most browsers, hit the F11 function key to go to full screen mode.

Smart Board Jeopardy Template

Here's a great Jeopardy PowerPoint template for your classroom that I developed a number of years back. It is a perfect companion for your Smart Board.

To use the template, all you need to do is modify the slides with your questions and answers. You can also change the categories. If you like it, please pass it along or tell others about my Teachers Love Smart Boards blog.

Enjoy!!!

SMART Board Back-To-School Newsletter

As always, Smart Technologies has produced another wonderful newsletter. Their most current "Back To School" issue promises a great new edition to their educational resources called Teacher's Hub: a single destination for all the resources you need to get started with your SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Keep checking their educational resources site for more information. I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

The newsletter also has some great spotlight activities and a "best practice" activity highlight.

SMART Board and PowerPoint Primer

Using PowerPoint with your SMART Board interactive whiteboard is such a natural fit and it may be a good idea to get reacquainted with these two great tools. Below I have provided a great resource for helping you use PowerPoint and your Smartboard.

This resource is a "hands-on practice" developed by SMART Technologies called Using Microsoft PowerPoint software on a SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard that will take you through some scenarios that may occur in the classroom. After opening the file, you may want to print it out for future reference.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and I'll be sure to get back in touch with you to help in any way I can!

SMART Boards in the primary school

Here's a great website to use to help children learn to read. It's perfect for use with a SMART Boards in the classroom and it's a personal favorite of mine that I still use with my six year old Jasmine at home. Jasmine is a full grade level ahead in reading and this site has really made a difference.

Starfall.com: Where Children Have Fun Learning to Read

Let me know what you think!!!

 

Teachers: What do you really make?

This is hilarious!

Smart Board Lesson Plans

The first place to start when looking for lesson activities for your Smartboard Notebook is Smart Technologies lesson activity website.

Feel free to modify these lessons as you see fit!

Note from SMART Technologies:

Lesson activities can only be used with Notebook software, included at no additional charge with every SMART Board interactive whiteboard. You’ll need a Windows 98 (or above), or Macintosh OS X operating system to view the activities.

Are Smart Boards effective?

The only reason to use technology in the classroom is to create a more effective learning environment. The following whitepaper explores how interactive whiteboards affect learning.

Read this whitepaper titled Interactive Whiteboards and Learning: Improving Student Learning Outcomes and Streamlining Lesson Planning that presents research and case studies concerning not only the positive impact on student learning but information about how Smart Boards can help educators become more efficient in the classroom.

Free Microsoft Training Video

Listen as Microsoft Office Certified Master Instructor and former Middle School instructor, Jim Hollis, shows you how to create cool backgrounds for your Microsoft Word documents.

"Creating dramatic backgrounds adds that little excitement to help draw students to the SMART Board."

Adding Backgrounds in Microsoft Word 

How not to use PowerPoint

PowerPoint can be a highly effective tool when using an interactive whiteboard. However, you should be careful about how NOT to use PowerPoint. Enjoy...

SMART Game of the Week

ARCTIC QUEST

In Arctic Quest, you set out to solve the puzzles, each of which takes the shape of an animal or other tropical wonder. As pieces of ice fall from the sky, you grab them with your mouse, rotate them and place them on a grid within the puzzle, filling in the shape and returning warmth to the island bit by bit. If the waters that surround your once balmy home fill up with unused ice, your quest will fail. Luckily, a small fire burns on your land, allowing you to melt surplus ice. You can also earn bonuses that grant you various powers, such as the ability to smash excess ice or paint in portions of the grid.

Smart Board site of the week

E-Learning for Kids is a free resource that provide outstanding course modules in all subjects for grades K-12. New courseware is being added monthly and the quality of both the content and the presentation is outstanding and will be a welcome friend for your interactive whiteboard. You'll really enjoy this great site!