Technology in the Education Arena

Our school purchased two new SMART Boards which I finally have had time to set up.  We now have a total of three boards.  I have been going into the classrooms using a lesson integrating the SMART Board.  The Notebook software provided with the SMART Board is excellent and contains hundreds of graphic templates for all areas of the curriculum.  You can also copy/paste pages from your textbook (if you have it on cd or online) and paste it into the Notebook software for your lesson.  If you have a SMART Board and are not using the Notebook Software, please take some time to check it out.

One lesson I created is for Grade 3 to study the Continents, Oceans, Compass Rose, and Equator.  Another lesson I have used is a great geometry lesson for Grade 3 and 4, and a time lesson for Grade 2.  All these lessons are created with the Notebook software using the supplied templates.  You can also copy images you have from Flickr or wherever into your lesson.  The Notebook software reminds me a lot of PowerPoint.  The kids love using the SMART Board and doing their lessons with it.  I also use our Plato Learning software and go in and do a math lesson.  You can also incorporate the Notebook software into this lesson and allow the students to do their calculations on the board.

For those of you that have a SMART Board and want to learn more about it, here are some Internet resources for you.

SMART TechnologiesEducator Resources:
http://www.education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/
Great page for educators.  Contains lesson activities organized by standard, subject, or grade level, links to websites for curriculum-related resources.  Main SMART Education Page is available at: http://www.education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/ 

SMART TechnologiesSupport Page:
http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Support/  
Download/Update SMART Board software

SMART TechnologiesLink to SMART Board Training:
http://smarttech.com/trainingcenter/index.asp
Find out about available Training Materials, Online Training, Training Events at Locations across North America, and On-Site Training. 

SMART TechnologiesTraining Materials:
http://www.smarttech.com/trainingcenter/windows/trainingmaterials.asp
Contains printable quick reference guides for beginning and intermediate users; online sessions; two-minute tutorials, SMART training offerings. 

Center School District:
http://www.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/SB/templates.htm
Definitely a great resource for SMART Board Templates.  Has templates broken by by K-2, 3-5, Middle School, High School, and Special Classes Templates.  Contains directory listing of all available templates.