Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMARTBoards and Can Someone Angle My Pollock Please?

Teachers Love SMART Boards is about sharing resources and ideas. One reason the SMARTBoard and the Smart Notebook application are such great tools is that it helps inspire ways of making learning come alive.  When teachers share ideas, that idea gets added to the knowledge-base and other teachers can build upon that knowledge to create something even more engaging and powerful.

Here's a wonderful idea of how to incorporate Art and Mathematics shared by Valerie Byrnes. In her video, she is creating an original piece of "Jackson Pollock" art work from the jacksonpollock.org website. She then takes the picture and builds on the concept of acute angles.

The flash application actually works better on the SMART Board than it does on a normal computer screen because the application is "mouse aware" and will paint just by moving your mouse. I found this rather annoying on the computer and I liked being able to click and drag to create my picture when working on the SmartBoard. Also, this flash file is downloadable and can actually be inserted as a Notebook object.

Thank you Valerie for sharing these wonderful resources and ideas!

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SMART Notebook v.10 Challenge #2

This week's Smart Notebook Challenge is to produce a cool effect for revealing secret information. I have not used this technique in the classroom yet but I'm sure it'll be a big hit with the students as well as add a little excitement when you need to reveal some simple information to the class using your SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

The technique will allow students (or teachers) to drag a picture on the Smartboard into a box and have it suddenly reveal some secret information.

Here's this week's video description of the Smart Notebook Challenge #2:

If you need any hints, please send me an email. I will accept challenge results through Thursday, October 2. I'll be awarding free Smart Notebook professional development opportunities to the 1st ten successful entries.  All other successful entries will be entered into the Teachers Love SMART Board Hall of Fame.

Please send your Notebook file for Challenge #2 to me at jim@teacherslovesmartboards.com.

If you're having problems viewing this video, you can watch it on YouTube.

Good luck!

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SMARTBoards and the Shrink and Grow Reveal Challenge

I hope you had as much fun as I did with the 1st Smart Notebook challenge. The response to the challenge was great and I'll try to post a new challenge each week.

The first challenge used the Shrink and Grow animation to reveal a hidden answer to a question. Already, teachers are telling me that the kids seem to really love using this effect to reveal answers on the SMARTBoard.

Our Gold medal winner for the first challenge was Lori Reed. She submitted her challenge not more than an hour after it was posted. Will Kirkwood from across the pond was still sleeping when Lori sent in her Notebook file but he was still able to get a correct solution in just a short time later.

Congratulations to Lori and Will and to all the people who were brave enough to undertake the challenge. Here's the Teachers Love SMART Boards Hall of Fame page.

Below is a video tutorial showing one way to complete the challenge. In addition, our Gold Medal winner Lori shares with us a Notebook file on the Solor System that uses the Shrink and Grow technique. Great example of sharing Lori!

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SMARTBoards and Welcome to Our Planet

I used to subscribe to LearningPlanet.com when I was teaching in Arizona a few years back. The kids really had a great time playing Math Mayhem. They liked the educational games so much that I paid for a class subscription out of my own pocket (a common practice among teachers).

I decided to re-visit Learning Planet to see what they were up to. While not much has changed, they do have some fun activities that work great with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard and are free to use. You can click on the pictures below to go directly to the grade level you're interested in.

GRADES PRE K - Kindergarten

My favorite game for Primary is Mr. E's Matching Game.

Notes: All applications in the Primary section work great on the Smartboard except Rats! which requires the use of the keyboard.

GRADES 1 - 3

The best game for grades 1 - 3 is The Counting Game which lets kids practice their skip counting. It's loads of fun!

Note: Spacey Math and Rats! require a keyboard and are not as easy to use with the Smartboard. 

Grades 4 and up

Fraction Frenzy is a lot of fun and gets pretty challenging. Geography Quiz is good practice for learning your U.S. geography.

While Math Mayhem requires a keyboard, it's a lot of fun to play in a computer lab when the kids are looking for something to do.

Note: Math Mayhem, Rats!, and SpaceyMath require the use of a keyboard and are not as easy to use with the Smartboard.

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SMART Notebook v.10 Challenge #1

Think you've got what it takes to be in the Teachers Love SMART Boards Hall of Fame? Here's your chance to hone your Smart Notebook skills and have a little fun at the same time.

Welcome to the 1st Teachers Love SMART Boards Smart Notebook challenge. Your mission is to try to recreate a Smart Notebook file exactly as you see in the video below. Challenge #1 is a nifty technique that uses animation to reveal an answer when an object is touched. It's a lot of fun to use with your Smartboard!

 
If you're the first person to successfully submit to me your Notebook file, I'll include your name in the Teachers Love SMART Board Hall of Fame. All others who successfully complete the challenge will get their name listed on a special blog post.

If enough people participate, I'll start giving away some cool prizes. To submit your challenge, just send me an email at jphollis@gmail.com or jim@teacherslovesmartboards.com and attach your Notebook file. All submissions need to be created in version 10 of Notebook.

Here's a video that explains the requirements:

If you're having problems viewing this video, you can watch it on YouTube.

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SMARTBoards and the Floating Finger of Fun

Do you want to be known as "the expert SMART Board user" in your school? Here's an advanced tip that allows you to turn your finger into a hovering mouse when using the Smartboard interactive whiteboard.

Unfortunately, the SMART Board doesn't know where your finger is until you touch the SMART Board surface. This causes a problem when you have a cool web application like the Crossword Puzzle game that knows where your mouse is hovering and displays helpful information on the computer screen.

Take a look at this short video to find out how you can turn your finger into a hovering mouse when using the Smartboard interactive whiteboard:

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SMARTBoards and Getting a Little Funky

Ummm, should I even mention that I found a website that works great with the SMARTBoard but qualifies more as a fun site than an education site? Of course I will. It may just be that perfect site for your school's computer-based art class.

If you're looking for some "funky ways to express yourself" (or someone else) you definitely need to check out "BeFunky." This is a free site that let's you make cartoon images of yourself using your own pictures. You can then add cool effects to your image to keep you laughing for hours. They even have a section that lets you create a cartoon avatar of yourself.

Here's the funky way I changed around my 2-year old son Wesley. 

I could have done so much more to the little guy. Fortunately, he was in a good mood this morning so I decided not to give him devil horns or a funky goatee. All I did was use the sketch and color features and then I put a fun frame around it.

Have fun with this one! You deserve it!

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SMARTBoards and a Table Object Up My Sleeve

I love incorporating tables using the SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard. However, many teachers are still a little shy about using them in their Notebook lessons. Here are a few tips and tricks for using the new Table Object in Smart Notebook v.10 that might make your Notebook lessons a little bit more exciting.

The tutorial will cover:

1. Moving a Table

2. Changing Your Row Heights

3. Using the Cell Shade

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SMARTBoards and Pop My Balloon Please

I provide a lot of support for teachers using the new version of SMART Notebook and I'm often asked to explain how to use the wonderful tools found in the Lesson Activity Toolkit.

One of the newest tools is the Balloon Pop tool. The Balloon Pop tool is a flash object that looks like a balloon and makes a popping noise and disappears when it's touched. This is useful for displaying information hidden behind the Balloon Pop object. You can use it to reveal positive and negative feedback, correct answers, or any type of information you want to hide until the balloon is popped.

Here's a short tutorial that demonstrates how to use the Balloon Pop tool with your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.

If you have a good idea for how to use the Balloon Pop object, please share it by leaving a comment!

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SMARTBoards and the Journey to the Cosmic Frontier

Yesterday, my daughter Jasmine (age 7) and I went searching for information about the moon and why it looks different each night. It took me just a few minutes to find the incredible simulations located on the supporting website for Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier by John D. Fix.

The website has a lot of cool simulations that work great on your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard. To help my daughter understand the different phases of the moon, we played around with the Lunar Phases simulation. Another thing that makes this site really outstanding is that each simulation has teacher guides and supporting material to help teachers create an effective experience. (If you use Firefox, you can zoom the page (View/Zoom/Zoom In) to make the simulations fill the screen.) 

Please pass this link to the Science teachers in your school.

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SMART Boards and Clipmarks - Wow!

I'm having a lot of fun with a great new Web 2.0 tool called Clipmarks that allows you to share information from other websites quickly and easily.

In this example, I used Clipmarks to save specific information from two websites and then I packaged that information into a viewing window to share with you here on my blog.

The first clip is from the Clipmarks website. The second clip comes from a blog called Daily Finds. These two clips demonstrate how I can choose just the information I want to share from any website and share them with other people. In the second clip, I selected just the information I needed from the Daily Finds blog that discussed a fun web-based game called "Time Lord" which is a wonderful game to play on your SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

One of the reasons I like this application is that it makes it easy to give credit (and direct access) to information found on other websites. The other great thing about Clipmarks is that you can organize clips into folders and share them in many different ways. You can also have Ciipmarks update your Del.icio.us account if you have one. 

You'll need to install a browser tool but installation is quick and easy (at least it was using Firefox).

Have fun with this one!

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SMART Boards and MathTV Screencasts

Screencasts are a great digital learning tool for use in the classroom, especially on a SMART Board. I would like to share with you an outstanding resource for Math screencasts. The website is called MathTV and it currently has 19 screencasts that solve basic Math word problems.

For each screencast example, another word problem (similar problem to that of the screencast) is available for students to assess what they learned.

If you're impressed with what you see, consider making your own screencasts using the Smart Screen Recorder or other screencast recording tool. If you're bold enough, you can even join the Mathcasts 500 project! If you go to the website, they will give you additional information about the project including instructions for creating your own screencasts using Voice Thread (you can apply for a free educator account).

Here's an example of a Math screencast created using Voice Thread:

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SMART Boards and the Tips-and-Tricks Phenomenon

A really awesome phenomenon about the Internet is the viral nature of sharing information. In other words, good information spreads quickly throughout niche areas.

A case in point...yesterday, I ran across a relatively new blog called elearnr (cool name!) that had a post called Ten Ways to Use Your Interactive Whiteboard More Effectively. It is a very well written post by Doug Belshaw that expands on a Google Docs presentation called Thirty-Seven Interesting Ways to Use Your Interactive Whiteboard (see below).

This incredibly useful presentation was an idea conceived by Tom Barrett and it contains tips and tricks for using your Smartboard interactive whiteboard. The really cool thing about this presentation is that it was put together by educators from all around the world, including "yours truly."

Why I am talking about this being viral? It just so happens that this morning I woke up to find a message posted by Carol from Smart Technologies on the Smart Exchange that mentioned this exact post. I am also spreading the information through this blog and hopfully other bloggers will link to it from their site as well. Wow! Good information travels fast!

While I've already written a post about Tom's Google Docs presentation, I'll present here again. I would also like to share Tara Crewe's wiki that contains various Smartboard tips as well as remind my readers that I have a SMART Board Tips and Tricks category here on my blog.

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(There's a lot of Caring going on these days!)

SMART Boards and Notebook v.10 Video - Reveal Correct Answers

I believe the best way to describe how to do something comes through the use of video. I love watching how other users do things and I believe emulation is a great technique to increase your skill sets.

That being said, here is a video tutorial on how to use layering inside Smart Notebook Version 10 (NBX) to reveal correct answers. This is a great activity to use on your SMART Board and it can be modified in a myriad of ways to improve learning in the classroom. For example, this technique could easily be extended or modified to become a powerful lesson on sorting information.

If you have a request for a video tutorial on using the Smartboard or Smart Notebook, just let me know and I'll get it posted as soon as possible!

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SMART Boards and Interactive Art Websites

 This collection of interactive art sites for elementary and secondary classrooms is simply outstanding. (How can you not enjoy creating your own Picasso drawing using Mr. Picassohead!?)

Almost all of these applications are SMART Board friendly and should provide hours of fun. I'm so glad it has a link to National Gallery of Art's site called the Art Zone (click here to read my blog post titled SMART Board on the Art Zone). This one still gets my vote of for the all-time best interactive art site.

These sites tend to work a little better on Firefox since you can zoom the application by going to the View menu and selecting Zoom. This should help fill up the SMART Board screen.

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SMART Boards and Sharing Resources

The mission of this blog is simple. Share information and resources so teachers will utilize their SMART Boards in a way that increases learning in the classroom. That's why I end each of my posts with "Sharing is Caring!"

I'm really encouraged that more and more educators are sharing what they have and what they know using the Internet. For example, yesterday, Sheryl left a comment on the post "SMART Boards and 1st Grade Mathematics" and provided a link to her resources. Her website, called The Learning Pad, is simply fantastic!!! It has links to some of the best interactive websites covering all subject areas.

Where else can teachers go to find free resources for their SMART Board? You don't need to look any further than the Gallery tab inside your Smart Notebook software. If you click on the Gallery tab and select Online Essentials for Educators, you get a list of resources from Smart Technologies including:

• Teachers´ Hub
• Lesson activities
• Curriculum standards
• Lesson resources
• SMART Exchange
• SMART-accredited titles
• EDCompass newsletter

One place that is often overlooked is the Download section of the SMART Exchange. If you search around a little, you'll find tutorials, videos, Notebook files, research articles, and a whole bunch more. For example, check out the resources available from the Illinois SMART User Conference.

Illinois SMART User Conference - SMART Exchange via kwout

Notice that Smart Technologies' Ginny Washburne shares her favorite resources on her Delicious site. Just another great example of...

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SMART Boards - Most Viewed Top 10 List

Occasionally, I review statistical data for this blog to see things like how many people visit (over 400 per day), how long they stay (average 3 min 47 seconds), where people are from (all over the world), and how they found my blog (most find it using Google). One of the reports actually shows me the most popular blog posts as measured by how many people have viewed the post.

Since my blog has now been active for over a year and contains over 210 posts, I thought it might be valuable (and fun) to list the ...

TOP 10 Most Viewed Teachers Love SMART Board BLOG POSTS of all time:

#10 - SMART Boards and 1st Grade Mathematics

#9 - SMART Boards and Special Education

#8 - SMART Boards and Grammar Ninja

#7 - SMART Boards and Notebook V. 10

#6 - SMART Boards and Student Engagement

#5 - SMARTBoards and Wordle

#4 - SMART Boards and YouTube

#3 - SMART Boards and More Flash Games

#2 - SMART Boards and Algebra

And the #1 most viewed post....

#1 - SMARTBoards and Teaching With SMARTBoard Video Podcast

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SMART Boards and Coordinate Plane

I have two wonderful tools for teachers to use with their Smartboard interactive whiteboard related to plotting points.

The first one is an interactive flash application that plots points on a coordinate plane. It's very simple but has lots of neat features. It's definitely a "must have" resource for your Smartboard and it can be imported directly into Notebook.

The second tool is a Coordinate Plane worksheet generator that creates pdf files of coordinate planes to print for your students or display on your SMART Board. When you generate the pdf files, you can save them to your computer and link to them inside Notebook.

Please share these resources with other SMART Board users in your school!

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SMART Boards - Notebook and Aligning Objects

With the new version of Notebook, users can now easily align objects on the page. I produced a short video tutorial that demonstrates how the new alignment feature works in Smart Notebook Version 10.

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