Excited About My New SMARTboard

[Patti Harju]

In two days I begin teaching with a fabulous new piece of technology. The SMARTboard that I have talked and dreamed about all summer is installed and working. I had a slight panic attack at the beginning of August - Will I use it effectively? Will it work? Was it worth the money? The answer to all of these is YES! I just love it!
I have created a few lessons for the SMARTboard and it is amazing. At first I downloaded lessons from websites, and then realized how much easier it is for me to create my own. I also had a great time doing a demonstration of the board for my staff. I had them come up and use the board and jaws were dropping. It is really something to see it in action. We only have two boards in the building right now and I encouraged the other teachers to use my board (I realize they will have to kick me out of my room to do his, but we must make sacrifices for the good of the Technology.)
I love that this tech tool will engage the students. They will be the ones using the board. They will probably teach me a few things that the board can do.
My favorite thing that the board does is roll virtual dice. We will have to do some probability or some math games so that I can use the dice. There are even dice that say the number in English, or Spanish or French. This is a very cool tool!

[Vicky S]

I'm very jealous. I'd love to have a SMARTboard in the lab but don't - so for now we all gather around one computer to see how things work but it's definitely not as easy to see things and not as easy to let the kids be involved.

Have fun!

[Patti Harju]

I know how hard it is to share a website or web page without at least a projector. I know how lucky I am!

[JoAnn]

how do u use the smartboard in the classs... i am never sure how to conduct a lesson with it. i am a brand new teacher!

[Patti Harju]

I use it for everything!
A good way to start is to go to the SMART site and look at some of the ready made lessons.
I went to the essentials for educators tab (picture frame tab, and then find essentials for educators) and searched with WORD and found cool interactive games. Spelling/vocabulary is always an easy way to start.
The kids love their version of hangman and the anagram game is cool tool These are all included with the software.
I have the kids find their name each morning and drag it to a graph, or just to a box to show that they are here. They love to play with the board. (Clean it by unplugging it first, spray Windex on a cloth, and then wipe the board. Do not spray directly on the board!)
Here are a couple sites.
http://exchange.smarttech.com/files/default.aspx?Sort=Subject

http://mrsthorpewiki.wikispaces.com/Smart+Notebook_Smart+Board

There are also tutorials included in the software. Click around that Picture Frame tab and you should fine some. The Online Essentials for Educators should have some of the tutorials.

Hope this helps!

[Patti Harju]

I need to add that the Essentials for Educators tab is part of the Notebook Program. You first open the notebook software and then you will see the tabs.

[Obe Hostetter]

Check out the SMARTBoard Revolution NIng for video tutorials, SMARTBoard Notebook 10 training files, tips and tricks and lots of websites. There are over 700 users from around the world sharing SMARTBoard ideas on the SMARTBoard Revolution Ning network.

[Ruth Glenboski]

Happy New Year Everyone! I have been blessed with a SMARTboard as well, but I really haven't used it a lot in the Lab as a "SMARTboard". I use it daily with my projector as I teach computer lessons, but since every child is sitting at their own computer, I don't use the "SMART" part of it. I feel like it could be better used in a classroom and I would do well with a regular whiteboard to project on. Please comment before I do something potentially stupid and let a classroom teacher have my board.

[Patti Harju]

As a classroom teacher, I would encourage you to give it to me! (Of course I already have one) But if I were you I wouldn't give it up so quickly. I have had my board since August and I learn new things to do with it everyday. It has a lot of potential. I explore many of the SMART lesson sites to get ideas.
I would start by moving away from your computer and using the touch screen part of it. You are now in front of the class - you can have students demonstrate in front of everyone. Just try one new way to use it each week/month. It has many cool features like the magic pen, the camera (you can cut a pic from a web page and put it on a new page.) Make sure you get some training from your SMART Rep.
Hopefully the other tech lab teachers here have more ideas on how they utilize their SMARTboards.

[Donna Becker]

I am a tech teacher in the lower school and one thing I've observed is our classroom teachers do not have enough time to search and experiment with the resources that are available on the internet. I have tried to refine that search for them by putting these resources in one area for them to browse through. The resource can be overwhelming at first but I have gotten positive feedback from them. I thought I'd share it with you all as it contains Smartboard and interactive online links that you might find helpful. http://pagekeeper.teachingmatters.org/link/851/list

[Obe Hostetter]

To help my teachers K-12 use the SMARTBoard in their classroom, I created a website with over 1000 activities (PowerPoints, Kidspiration, interactive websites and SMART Notebook files) organized by Virginia standards at http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/resources/soltechintegration.htm In addition, I created custom Google Search Engines to find SMART Notebook files, PowerPoints, Inspiration and Kidspiration files online listed on that same web page.

SMARTBoard Revolution Ning is a network of over 1900 users sharing ideas, lessons, websites and questions so I would encourage you to also join that network on SMARTBoards.