Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMART Boards and the Virtual Keyboard

Here's an great interactive keyboard application that was shared by one of my readers. It's a Virtual keyboard from the Birmingham Grid for Learning that can simulate nine different instruments (my favorite is definitely the electric guitar) and can even play back chords. It's a perfect companion for the SMART Board.

This application is so simple in design but so powerful in it's ability to help teach. Just a quick note for the music teachers, "the piano keyboard goes from ‘Middle C’ to ‘Upper F’ – one and a half octaves (18 different notes). The double bass is pitched lower but still tuned to ‘C’."

Thanks Alison for sharing this great resource!

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PLMS - The Best Notebook 10 Training Available

I honestly believe that having a Personal Learning Management System (PLMS) for your school is the most effective and affordable way for schools to protect their investment by providing critical training to teachers who have a SMART Board in the classroom.

Not only is the training effective, it's self-paced and was created to accommodate a teacher's busy schedule. Schools can now provide their entire teaching staff access to the entire Teacher Online Training course library all year long for approximately the same price as bringing in someone to do a single day of training on site. The benefits are just too numerous to mention!

Here's a fun presentation that provides additional information about a PLMS and what it could mean for your school. Please go to the School Subscription Center for more information or to set up a demonstration.

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Personal Learning Management System The Future of Professional Development is Now!

To begin, click on the presentation screen, click the full screen button and then click on the "move forward" arrow to move through the presentation

Please visit the School Welcome Center for more information.

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If the presentation is not visible, you may view it here!

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SMARTBoards and the Relativity of Size

Here's a captivating interactive website from Nikon called Universcale.

Here's the premise of the website...

We are able to view all entities, from the microworld to the universe, from a single perspective. By setting them up against a scale, we are able to compare and understand things which cannot be physically compared. Today, using the electron microscope and astronomical telescope, we can see the objects which we have not been aware of its existence before. Are you able to fathom, or even roughly grasp, these sizes? See our Universcale and experience the sizes of various objects.

I became absolutely absorbed with this website as a learning tool and was even more amazed when I displayed it on my SMART Board. What a great way to help students grasp the enormity of flea when compared to an amoeba or the relative smallness of a jumbo jet when compared to the Great Pyramid of King Khufu.

Please pass this along to the entire staff at your school so it can be shared with as many students as possible.

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SMARTBoards and Customizing the Notebook Toolbar

Here's another teacher-requested video tutorial from Teacher Online Training. This video tutorial demonstrates how to customize the Smart Notebook Toolbar quickly and easily.

Click Here if the video is not displayed.

You can find more video tutorials as well as the best Notebook training anywhere over at Teacher Online Training. Teacher Online Training offers the most effective and affordable Professional Development for teachers and schools who utilize SMART Boards in the classroom. 

Teacher Online Training is currently offering substantial discounts for subscribing. For more information, you can go to the Educator Subscription Center for more information. If you do decide to try it out, don't forget to check out the Special Offers page to request a 50% discount for your first month subscription.

There is a 100% money-back guarantee if you're not completely satisfied and you can cancel at any time. If you're not sure if this is for you, why not take a complimentary course that will teach you an amazing technique for revealing hidden information. 

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I've been working very hard to make Teacher Online Training the best Smart Notebook training site for teachers. I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what else I can do to help teachers use the SMART Board more effectively.

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SMART Boards and Music to my Ears

Here's a fun collection of interactive websites related to Music that work great on your SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. Please use the comment section to share your favorites.

Classics for Kids: Compose Your Own Music

PBS Kids: Thumb Piano Tunes

Pauly's Playhouse: Freaky Frank's Music Machine

Sphinx Kids: Classical Music Interactive Learning & Games

Classics for Kids: The Note Name Game

ArtsAlive: Activities and Games

Dallas Symphony Orchestra: DSO Kids Games

Please share these wonderful resources with the other teachers in your school.

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SMARTBoards and Updating the Lesson Activity Toolkit

Here's a very short video tutorial that shows you how to upgrade the Lesson Activity Toolkit directly inside Smart Notebook.

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SMART Boards and the Floating Mouse

Did you know you could turn your finger into a hovering mouse when using the SMART Board? This feature allows you to take advantage of websites that display various information when you move your mouse around the computer screen.

Here's a teacher-requested video tutorial that shows you how to take advantage of the Floating Mouse feature of your SMART Board.

Click here to go directly to the video.

We have more teacher-requested videos on the new Teacher Online Training Learning Management System. If you're not already a subscriber, then you're missing out on the best Smart Notebook 10 training available anywhere!

Teacher Online Training is currently offering substantial discounts for subscribing. You can request a discount coupon on the Special Offers page and then go to the Educator Subscription Center and use it to register. No worries! There is a 100% money-back guarantee if you're not completely satisfied.

If you're not sure if this is for you, why not take a complimentary course that will teach you an amazing technique for revealing hidden information.

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SMART Boards and the BBC's One Minute Wonders

The BBC's One Minute Wonders video learning site is a perfect example of an educational website that's designed to be engaging for children while providing outstanding educational content for the classroom.

I've just finished watching one of the 13 "shows" which contains a series of five videos. Each video is less than two minutes long and each video is extremely well produced and highly informative. After watching all the videos in a show, you have the option of reviewing the information from the show by taking a short quiz. If you get all the answers correct, you get to download a fun One Minute Wonder background image.

While the educational quality of the videos is what makes this site really good, the way they present the information makes it great.

Why not use this site at the end of a the day to help keep the kids occupied and learning at the same time.

Once again, a big thank you to Free Technology For Teachers for sharing this great resource!

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SMART Boards and Swimming with a Blue Whale

Today I had the pleasure of seeing what it feels like to swim with a life size blue whale. No, I'm not out sailing the ocean blue, I'm still sitting in front of my computer as usual.

You too can watch the largest animal in the world float by on your Smartboard interactive whiteboard by going to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society's interactive website that let's you see what it feels like to swim with a life size blue whale.

Students can touch and drag the whale to move it or they can move the small viewfinder in the top-right of the screen to move directly to different parts of the whale.

A big thank you to my good friend Ben Hazzard for sharing this with everyone on Twitter. Ben is the creator of the Teachers Connecting Podcast along with his brilliant co-host, Joan Badger. It's definitely worth checking out!

Thanks for sharing Ben!

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SMARTBoards and a Happy Easter Public Service Announcement

Happy Easter to all my readers. If Easter is not one of your religious holidays, you can still celebrate the increased feeling of love and forgiveness that permeates so many people on this special day.

Here's an Easter Day Public Service Announcement from the wonderful people over at The Cat's Meow. Enjoy!

This Easter, Beware of Identity Theft

click here for more

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SMARTBoards and Spring Time in Pollen Park

My goal for today's blog post was to find a fun and educational interactive activity related to Spring that students could use on the SMART Board. My search led me straight to Pollen Park.

This is an engaging interactive activity that help kids aged 7 - 11 learn about plant reproduction by using various learning methodologies that kids and teachers can explore in a non-linear manner.

Here's the information from the Teacher's Section:

Pollen Park endeavors to explain the complex process of plant reproduction in a straight forward manner; information is presented clearly and logically separated into obvious sections, enabling users to navigate freely, making their own relaxed decisions and discoveries.

1. The names of the different parts of the flower and understand the function of each in the reproduction process.
2. The process of pollination and the varied methods of pollen transfer.
3. The process of fertilization and how this differs from pollination
4. The different methods of seed dispersal and why this needs to occur.
5. The process of seed germination and the necessary conditions for it to occur.

I loved the idea of collecting pollen to show the progress through the activities. The graphics that explain the various processes are very well done and the explanations are extremely to understand.

I hope you'll enjoy Pollen Park as much as I did!

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SMARTBoards and the Rappin' Easter Bunny

Warning: This has absolutely no educational value (unless you think putting a smile on your students' faces has some value in the classroom.)

Click on the picture to start the Rappin' Bunny

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SMARTBoards and Finding Great Notebook Resources

So many schools and educators are creating some amazing content using Smart Notebook. However, this content is not always easy to find.

I have two wonderful solutions for finding Notebook files that you can use and/or modify for your classroom.

1. Obe Hostetter has developed one-stop shop for finding all sorts of resources including Smart Notebook files. To use this customized search, just type in your keywords in custom Google Search bar and it will return results specific to SMART Boards. How cool is that!

SOL K-12 Technology Integration Resources (The SMART Board Search Engine is #4)

Obe's dedication to helping teachers use the SMART Board more effectively is amazing. Thanks for all you do Obe!

2. Smart Technologies is working very hard on helping their customers find Notebook resources for the classroom. They have also created a custom Google Search that returns only Notebook files. You're sure to find some great resources here!

Smart Technologies Custom Notebook Search

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