Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMARTBoard Whiteboard Tips Presentation

It's time I share with you a presentation created by users of Interactive Whiteboards. This initiative was started by Tom Barrett and it has over 30 tips and tricks for using your interactive whiteboard. Here's Tom's blog post about this initiative. If you would like to help make this presentation even better, please contact Tom Barrett and he can provide you with the required privileges to edit the presentation.

Awesome idea Tom!
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SMARTBoard and Gigapan

Oh...my...gosh...

Sometimes it seems that certain websites are designed with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard in mind. I would like to share with you an incredible website that brings the ability of viewing images to a new level. The site is called Gigapan and it allows you to explore panoramic, high-resolution images in unique and fascinating ways.

Since you can move around the image and zoom in and out using a single click and drag, it is very easy to use with your SMART Board.

This site has been SMART Board tested and Hollis approved!

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SMART Board photo game

I stumbled across a fun little activity you can use on your SMART Board. It's actually an iPhone application that works with Flickr photos to create a matching game. Since the iPhone requires you to touch the screen and the SMART Board is a touch screen, many iPhone applications work well with the SMART Board.

Enjoy!

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SMARTBoard Blog Report #4

Good morning! Some of you may have noticed that I've been away for a week. I've been working on some big projects and decided to take a week off from my blog. This was such a mistake! I miss perusing the Internet for great resources for your SMART Board.

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of great SMART Board resources being shared through blogs like Teachers Love SMART Boards.

1. The Whiteboard Blog by Danny Nicholson. Danny continues to provide some outstanding resources to use on your interactive whiteboard. I also like that Danny often shares High School Science resources. Today's blog post highlights a great chemistry lesson for the SMART Board that helps with balancing equations.

You can find a lot more of these resources on his Think Bank website.

2. Here's a blog called Smart Ideas for SMART Board Integration by Angie Bunday. This is a great resource for SMART Board users. If you send her a note, maybe she'll include my blog in her list of SMART Board resources! :o)

3. Here's another blog that has some good SMART Board resources called ed-Tech Ninja. Not only will you find some great Notebook lesson files here, you'll also find other great resources for the SMART Board. The latest post on this site is called Telling Time and it includes a Smart Notebook file download.

4. While most of my readers know about the SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast site from Ben and Joan, it's always worth another mention. This week's podcast is about Point of View and includes a wonderful Notebook lesson created by Joan. In addition, you can hear my tip for converting Text to Speech and they share a great website that includes interactive Physics activities.

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SMART Board Notebook Lessons: Mathematics

While browsing around the SMART Exchange forum, I ran across a post entitled Notebook lessons for Elementary and Middle School Mathematics. In this post, Harvey shares his wonderful website that contains (among many things) a list of math Notebook lessons. Harvey does a great job describing his lessons and he even includes a screen shot so you can get a better feel for the lesson's content.

(The screen shot below has links to all the lessons)

almarolh -   Harvey's Home Page via kwout

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SMART Board Image Resource: LOC

I just saw this incredible resource for your SMART Board interactive whiteboard on one of my favorite blogs called HeyJude. Read the great news as told by the blog's author Judy O'Connell...

The Library of Congress and photosharing site Flickr today announced a partnership that will put photos from the LoC’s collection online. These are public-domain, copyright-free photos from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information and The George Grantham Bain Collection, for which no known copyright exists. The collections will be housed on the LoC’s Flickr page.

The Library of Congress' collections on Flickr via kwout

Thanks Judy for getting out the information!

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Smart Notebook Software Video Tutorials

I would like to introduce to everyone a new resource for Smart Notebook Training. I have created a new group of videos on TeacherTube that has various tutorials for using the Smart Notebook software.

Anyone is welcome to add videos to this group and share what they know with others. Thank you Lynn Reedy for adding your training videos. They're great!

You may also subscribe and/or join to this group to receive notifications when a new video is added. Here's a link to all the SMART Board related groups. These libraries are growing and it's up to you and me to share what we know. Let's see if we can create the best resource library for SMART Board videos anywhere! Sharing is caring!

SMART Board Newsletter: Who's Listening?

Smart Technologies has just released their first EDCompass newsletter of the new year entitled "Who's Listening." Read about the the new voice amplification system which will be released at the FETC (Florida Education Technology Conference) on January 22-25, 2008.

In addition to the announcement of SMART's new audio system, here's what else you'll find:

• Three Notebook lesson:

1. Geography Key Word Lesson for grades 4-6
2. Origin of the Atmosphere for grades 7-9
3. Area of a Polygon for grades 10-12

• Great Online Resources:

1. Exploring the Secret Life of Trees
2. Project Gutenberg
3. NASA Education

• School Spotlight: Read about Bellevue School District's installation of over 1000 SMART Board Interactive Whiteboards

• New SMART Exchange membership badges for your website or blog

The newsletter also includes another wonderful article by Heather Ellwood entitled "SMART Champions". What is a SMART Champion?...

When it comes to innovative interaction in the classroom, SMART Exemplary Educators are setting the bar higher and higher. The common trait among these teachers is their willingness to go above and beyond the standard level to better present the curriculum and better reach their students. They are, in a word, champions.

The EDCompass newsletter is a must read for all present and future SMART Champions! Please check out this great issue as well as other past issues. In addition, you can subscribe to the newsletter to receive an email notification of the newsletter when they get released!

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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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SMART Boards and Bitesize Games

I would like to share with you another website of educational games from the BBC. This one is called Bitesize Games and Activities. It has more quality interactive educational games than almost any other web resource I've seen. It has activities for English, Math, and Science that can also be embedded into your blog or website. I've embedded three fun games for you to play with.

MATHEMATICS - Numbers: Number Patterns

SCIENCE - Living Things: Health and Growth

ENGLISH - Writing a Story: Beginnings and Endings

I would like to thank the newest member of the Teachers Love SMART Board forum, Bill, who shared this and other great resources in the Website Suggestion area of the forum.

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SMART Board Free Software Applications

Smart Technologies offers three great software applications for your SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Speller Software

Free software which prompts students to spell words on a SMART Board interactive whiteboard and provides feedback on their answers.

Number Cruncher

Number Cruncher is a free program to help students improve their arithmetic skills. You can choose addition, subtraction, multiplication or division questions, set the level of difficulty and get automatic feedback on answers.

Finale Notepad 2003

Transform your musical ideas into printed music, and play back your compositions on the SMART Board with this free program from MakeMusic! Inc

Thank you Smart Technologies!!

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Notebook Activity Guide

Smart Technologies has a great document for teachers who are just beginning to use their SMART Board interactive whiteboard and aren't quite sure what to do next. The Notebook Software Activity Guide gives an overview of how to create engaging lessons using the Notebook software.

The document is a great way to learn about various techniques for creating interactive lessons; it highlights creating erase and reveal activities, using labels to reveal answers, using the infinite cloner, using sound as a reinforcement tool, and using the shade screen.

Please print this document and share it with the other Smartboard users in your school!

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SMARTBoard Tips and Tricks: Text to Speech

I just recorded another audio tip for Ben and Joan who create the wonderful SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast. Since this is a visual blog, I decided to create a video of the tip I submitted and share it with you here. The video demonstrates how to use the SMART Keyboard to convert text into speech.

                             

I found this tip on the SMART Exchange Forum. It was submitted by forum user Anne Marie and Smart Technology trainer Alejandro.

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Smartboard and Math Dictionary

I love when readers of Teachers Love SMART Boards recommend SMART Board resources. Sharing resources is the ultimate goal of this blog. I have been getting some great recommendations lately through my twitter network, the Teachers Love SMART Board forum, and direct email. I want to share one of these recommendations today that was posted on the forum by TechMom.

The site is called A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2007 created by Jenny Eather. What's great about this site is how thorough it is. Moreover, many definitions include interactions (perfect for the Smartboard) to reinforce the material and make it easier to understand. What a wonderful way to introduce new math concepts!

Thank you "TechMom" for this wonderful suggestion!!!

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Smartboards and visual search engine Pagebull

The SMART Board interactive whiteboard is such a great visual tool for the classroom. Wouldn't it be great to combine this feature with a search engine? Well, now you can. Pagebull is a new visual search engine that shows a "visual representation of your search results on the screen so you can see the page before you go to the site."

Here are the results for the search "smartboard games"
(click picture for larger view)

Don't forget to share this resource with the people you know!

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SMART Board and Sketchcast

I would like to show you two videos. The first video demonstrates how I used the SMART Board interactive whiteboard to record a Sketchcast that describes how to do a math problem. The second video is the actual Sketchcast video that was created during the first video.

Confused? That's okay, you won't be after you watch these short videos. So sit back, put your feet up and enjoy learning about this wonderful tool called Sketchcast that can be used with your SMART Board (or without it) to create amazing instruction videos for your students.

Creating a Sketchcast on the SMART Board from James Hollis on Vimeo.

Here's the actual Sketchcast that was recording in the first video.

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SMART Board and Imagination Cubed

I'm so excited this morning since so many teachers are returning to the classroom today; I always loved returning from Winter break full of new ideas and new enthusiasm.

I have a great new tool recommended to me by my good friend Lori called Imagination Cubed from GE. This is a great tool to use with your SMART Board! Basically it allows you to draw anything on the SMART Board using freehand or shape tools. What's cool about it is that you can replay what you did and it will animate your drawing and play it back for you. It also allows you to share, collaborate, and update drawing with multiple people. You can even invite people to come and draw with you. You really need to try to see what it does. Trust me, you'll love it!!

Thanks for sharing Lori!

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Smartboards and Animal Care Lessons

My good friend Danny from across the pond tipped me off on the UK's RSPCA website for learning about caring for animals. The RSPCA promotes kindness and preventing cruelty to animals and in doing so has created a great interactive resource for your SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

The beautifully designed learning resource includes engaging graphics that discuss how to find a home, how to care for your pet, and what rights are provided to animals under the law. All the activities are set up to work great on the Smartboard and the interactive story called Jake and Bones is a wonderful way to learn about finding a new home for your pet.
 

This site has been SMART Board tested and Hollis approved.

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SMART Board Educational Games

Looking for something fun and educational to get your students actively engaged in the learning process following the long holiday break? Take a look at these great games (over 40) from the CYBERCHASE PBSKids website. I love this site because most of the games work very well with the SMART Board since you can simply touch areas of the Smartboard to work the games.

Here's a screen shot from one of my favorite games Crack Hacker's Safe:

CYBERCHASE teaches kids that math is everywhere, everyone can be good at it, and it's fun!

For more information about what this wonderful site has to offer, please go to the "About Page" to learn how to best use the site.

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Smartboard and Sudoku

I had a request for an online Sudoku game that works easily with the SMART Board.

Here is my favorite online Sudoku game from Fact Monster that has different levels, allows the user to tap the square to select the number, has a learning option, and provides touch-and-drag stickies to help solve the puzzle.

Here is another version of Sudoku that also works well with the SMART Board. You can download this and use it inside your Notebook software. Please use this for educational purposes only.

Happy New Year!

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