10 Great sites to use with your SMART board

http://www.slideshare.net/hhurley/10-great-websites-for-the-smart-board

Check out this slide show with greats sites.

Solar System Jigsaw

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/playspace/games/jigsaw/jigsaw.shtml

A great site to use on your SMART board if you are teaching the solar system.

Glogster

Check out this site to create interactive posters with sound. It's free and a fun way for students to express themselves. It also would be a great thing to create to introduce yourself to your students and their families.

http://www.glogster.com/

Quizzlet - Flashcard and test creator

Quizlet is a free Web 2.0 site for building vocabulary. At this site students can learn vocabulary in an interactive and engaging environment. Quizlet allows one to create and share flashcards on a wide variety of subject areas.

Flashcard options include playing Scatter, a matching game where when your right the words disappear. This game works really well on the SMART Board. Some of the subject areas already represented at the Quizlet site are english and foreign languages, standardized test vocabulary, history and geography, math and science.

Check it out and begin making your own flash cards that can be used on your board.


http://quizlet.com/

Pen Tray

I believe that every teacher is a reading teacher and I love using a highlighter when I am introducing text. Whether I am highlighting context clues, vocabulary or simply parts of speech it always comes in handy. Since I use this tool often, I prefer to have one of the pens in my pen tray a highlighter. Besides being easy to use, it allows students to pick up a pen and highlight something easily.

You also may want to change a pen if you have a favorite color that isn't red/blue/green or black or simply want a different thickness. For instance, secondary teachers often like a thinner pen since they are writing more sentences in cursive whereas a primary teacher may want a thicker pen. Whatever your reason, it is simple to change the defaults in your pen tray.

Click on the blue square SMART tools icon in the windows notification area. Some say it looks like a white donut and others a peppermint lifesaver. Choose control panel and then "hardware settings." The pen tray is the first item that appears whose settings can be changed. Click on the pen that you wish to change and a properties window will appear. Choose the line style that you wish and change the transparency if you wish for the pen to be a highlighter. Click on "save tool properties" and then "apply" and "ok." The pen now has the properties that you gave it. Changing hardware settings in SMART changes it on the computer that you used. If you are moving room to room with a laptop, the changes go with you. If you share a room, you will want to communicate with others about any changes made to the pen tray. To go back to the defaults you can go back into hardware settings and click on the "defaults" button. All of the pens and buttons will go back to the factory settings.

An FYI - you can only change SMART hardware settings when you are hooked up to a SMART board.

Favorite Text and Pen properties

Often, we have favorite text styles that we like to use or a favorite color and thickness of the pen tool. You can change the pens and text styles in your toolbar very simply so they represent what your needs are as a teacher.

When you click on either the text or pen tool in notebook software, a series of styles appear below the tool bar. Click a style that you want to change and click on the properties tab. Choose the style that you want for that default (color, thickness, font type etc.) and be sure to choose "save tool properties" at the bottom of the properties pane. This style is now available at all times when you click on the tool. Take time at the beginning of the school year to save settings for several text and pen styles that you wish to use. This will make it easy to select and use choices that you prefer throughout the school day.

Embedding Video into notebook

Embedding a video into notebook allows you to archive it in the "my content" folder in your gallery rather than having it saved in a notebook file. This allows you to have it at your fingertips. The only type of video that can be embedded is an .flv - flash video. There are many free converters out there that will allow you to take a video that you already have and convert it to flash. Zamzar.com is one of them. If you want to grab a video from youtube or teachertube you can use keepvid.com to convert the url to a flash file.

Once the video is an .flv you can click and drag it into the working area within notebook. You can also choose insert from the file menu and choose flash video and find the file. Once in notebook, drag it into the my content folder. You will want to rename it and add key words. Click on the video's drop down menu arrow in my content and choose properties. Rename the video and add key words that will help you find it years later.

SMART Ideas

Did you know that SMART has a software like Inspiration that allows you to make concept maps with your SMART board? If you have a board, SMART gives you one free copy of this fantastic software. The software is much easier to use than notebook and is student centered. You can create maps on the fly or create one ahead of time that you want students to view.

To obtain the code for your free copy, talk to whoever registers your boards in your district. The code is emailed to them with the email that they receive stating that their registration was received.

Anyone can have a 30 day trial - check it out and see if it is something that you want to use.

http://smarttech.com/us/Support/Browse+Support/Download+Software/Software/SMART+Ideas+software/SMART+Ideas+software/SMART+Ideas+software+for+Windows

Online Plan book

Try out this new online plan book that allows you to share your lessons with colleagues and/or students and their families.

http://planbook123.appspot.com/

It is free the first year and only $7.95 each year after that.

Check it out.

Next step - "grabbing" text with transparency layer

Now that you have mastered "grabbing" text and putting it into notebook, work on the next step using transparency layer. Open the PDF, word document, web site or other item where you want to be able to "grab" text. Open a notebook file. Click on the transparency icon in notebook which makes notebook software transparent so your document/site can be seen. You can grab text and it will automatically be in notebook. If you desire, you can create a transparent box or oval that says "main idea" or whatever concept you are looking for so students can click and drag the text into that area. When you take the transparent layer off, the text you grabbed will be in the working area along with the transparent shape that you created.

Importing Text

Did you know that you can easily "grab" text from a word document or web page and bring it into notebook? Open a notebook along with the page or document that you want to "grab" text and resize them so they both fit on your screen. Highlight the text that you want to move and click (while holding down your left mouse button) and drag into the notebook. Your text is now in notebook and can be edited if it is double clicked. Try this quick and easy method of bringing in text and making it dynamic rather than static.

More ways to use Wordle!

http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2626

Check out this site for 46 ways to use Wordle in the classroom. Many of these are made even more effective by using them with your SMART board.

Screen Capture - Travel the World from your Classroom

Put yourself or your students in scenes from around the world by using the screen capture toolbar. Take pictures of your students with a plain background. Using the screen capture toolbar's freehand option - outline the student in the picture carefully. The solid background makes it easier to outline them. Also, it is much easier to use the free hand option if you are using your finger and your board rather than a mouse. Place the captured photo onto a scene from around the world.

SMART sponsored FREE training event

http://chicagouserconference.eventbrite.com/

Saturday, September 25

Free light breakfast and lunch provided

Enrollment is limited! Sign up soon to insure a spot.

Want to win a SMART board?

http://us.smartloveoflearning.com/

Write 250 words or less about your favorite teacher and enter a drawing for a SMART board.

Delicious

A few of the sites that I think are well worth checking out as well as some resources.

Check out my delicious site:

http://delicious.com/shawnschwerman