The SMARTer Classroom

Summer Vacation!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:36:00 +0000

I have four more days with students and then the current school year is over. It seems this year flew by. But no matter how fast I think this school year went, the summer will go much faster.

What are your plans for the summer? I have plans to relax, enjoy my family, vacation at the beach, and read books for fun. I also plan to clean my house from top to bottom and accomplish all those tasks I never have time for during the school year. And like many teachers, I plan to take steps to educate myself and prepare for the coming year.

This summer I am going to one librarian conference, Camp TASL. This is a new one and I'm looking forward to what it has in store for me. I am also presenting at a Technology Academy. I have two sessions on Free Apps for the Elementary Classroom and one Session on SMART Exchange. I'm still working on my presentations, but when they are finished I will share them with you.

I would love to hear about your plans for the summer!

Conferences

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:44:00 +0000

Last November I was invited by SMART Technologies to present a few sessions at the Tennessee Education Technology Conference. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to share more of what I do every day with my SMART products and I got to meet a lot of other enthusiastic SMART users. When I wasn't presenting I was at the SMART Vendor Booth sharing even more.
I presented one session on how to use the SMART Table and two sessions on using your SMART Board to meet the requirements for the new Tennessee Teacher Evaluation Model. I have been asked to present that session as a webinar in April. I'm excited about this new opportunity and I'll let you know when it's time.

Presidents' Day Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:20:00 +0000

Monday is Presidents' Day. You may or may not be in school, but either way, here are a few classroom resources you may want to use with your students. And they are FREE!!!

Lessons of the SMART Exchange: http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=presidents%27+day

http://free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=28

Apple App: US Presidents
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/usa-presidents/id317835093?mt=8

Android App: US Presidents

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.max.USPresidents&feature=related_apps#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEwOSwiY29tLm1heC5VU1ByZXNpZGVudHMiXQ..

Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:22:00 +0000

I am making some changes with this blog. I have found that a wiki serves me better for various reasons. Therefore, I am posting most of my information at http://librarianne.wikispaces.com/. You can find me over there. I will keep this blog open for occassional educational technology posts.
Thanks for reading!

What is Media Literacy?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:23:00 +0000

This is the first week of school for me. It is an exciting time as I look ahead to new adventures. As an elementary librarian I decided that I was going to stress "Media Literacy" with my students this year. So, I had to ask myself, "What IS media literacy"? I knew I wanted to talk to my students about being safe online, proper cell phone etiquette, how to effectively search for needed information, but what else? After searching the Internet and finding a variety of definitions I came up with four words that describe media literacy to me:

*Access
*Evaluate
*Analyze
*Create

As educators it is important that we not only teach these concepts to our students, but that we allow them to experience. I want my students to learn how to access all the information they need without asking me for help. I want them to be able to evaluate what they find to determine if it is accurate and reliable. I want my students to analyze all the information and determine what they need or don't need and then decide what they can do with it. Finally, I want my students to take all of that information and create something of their own. This is how they learn. I once had a college professor who told us that his job was to make his job obsolete. He wanted to teach us how to teach ourselves so we wouldn't need him anymore. I have never forgotten that and that is my goal now.

Good luck to all you who are beginning a new school year along with me. Let the fun begin!

Getting Ready for State Tests

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:42:00 +0000

It's that time of year again. Teachers across the country are counting down until state testing and making sure their students know everything they need to know. Here are a few FREE sites to help get those students ready. Utilize your SMART Board and do them as a whole-class activity or put your students in a lab and let them work on their own.

1. http://www.qtopia.com/
2. http://www.prepdog.com/
3. http://www.khanacademy.org/

e-days

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:34:00 +0000

Today is the 15th snow day in my school system. It is only mid January so it isn't looking good for the rest of the winter. Last year we missed a total of 25 days and I was hoping this year would be different. Of the last six weeks (including Christmas break) we've been in school for five days. It looks like it is going to warm up this weekend so I'm hoping we'll be back in school on Monday.

All of the extra time has given me a chance to think. There has to be a better way than to miss a month's worth of instructional days, causing students to get further and further behind just before state testing. I stumbled across the concept of e-days. Some school systems are looking into the possibility of having students complete assignments online when they can't get to school because of weather.

In this technology age the concept should be a no-brainer. So much can be accomplished via the Internet. Teachers can post their lessons online complete with text, audio, video, and even quizzes. However, the problem is that not everyone has Internet access. At my school about 75% of our students are on free/reduced lunch. A large portion of our student body doesn't have Internet at home. So, what do we do about those students who can't complete online assignments at home?

So then I started thinking about what could be done with cell phones. And I'm still thinking.

There has to be a better way.

SMART Certified Trainer

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:16:00 +0000

I spent three days in Columbia, SC last week. Another teacher in my school and I have had extensive SMART Board training and have even shared our knowledge with others in the past. Now we are SMART Certified Trainers. We had to go through the three days of training and then take a test when we returned home. I took my test yesterday and signed my contract with SMART. You can search the SMART website and find my name in the list of SMART Certified Trainers for Notebook (Windows).

SMART Table

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:57:00 +0000

I was very fortunate to get a SMART Table at the end of last school year. Now it is October so I have had the chance to put it to good use. My situtation is a bit different from the ordinary classroom teacher, because I am the librarian. I see students on a regular schedule and have activities for them to do on the SMART Table. Get more info here.
My students LOVE the SMART Table! It keeps them completely engaged and they are learning to work together. The great thing about this table is that several students can work on it at the same time. Unlike my SMART Board interactive whiteboard that only allows for one touch at a time I can put up to 8 students at the table and they can each use all of their fingers to manipulate the board. It is a perfect height for primary students and I have found it to be very durable.
From a teacher's perspective it is easy to use as well. It comes with a wristband flash drive to store activities. You can download activities from the SMART Exchange or create your own with the ToolKit. It really is simple.

The Flip Video Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:55:00 +0000

I love the Flip video camera! www.theflip.com For under $200 you can get a handheld HD video camera. It is not only a great little video camera to take on vacation or for my daughter to use to make videos with her friends, but it is great to use in the classroom. The Flip is compact and simple to use. It comes preloaded with its own software that automatically installs when you plug in the USB to your computer. The software is also very easy to use and, surprisingly, it does a lot. You can mix videos, cut and paste, clip still photos, and so much more.
So, what can you do with the Flip video camera in the classroom? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Have students create news shows or video blogs. Record students' oral reports. Have them record their experiments or observations. Give a student a Flip video camera and see what they can come up with.

A Computer in Your Pocket

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:29:00 +0000

I just got back from the Tennessee Educational Technology Association (TETA) Conference in Jackson, TN. It was a great conference and I came home with all kinds of ideas to bring back to my school this fall.
The keynote speaker was Jason Ediger. He is the Director of Mobility and Content for Apple, Inc. I am a PC user with an iPod, but I left that conference wanting an iPad, Macbook with iLife for myself and iPod touches for my classroom. Ediger showed a picture of his three-year-old son who has had his own iPod Touch since he was 18 months old. He has age-appropriate apps and knows how to use them. When Ediger sends his son to school in two years "they will take it away from him". This is why Ediger is so passionate about changing the mindset of education when it comes to using the technologies that our students already have and use every day.
This was a common thread in several of the sessions I attended. Students have cell phones and iPods, yet we tell them to put them away or sometimes we take them away. If they are lucky we will let them use a desktop computer or laptop for certain projects or let them have a turn at the interactive whiteboard (don't get me wrong- I love them). Why shouldn't we be utilizing the powerful pocket computers that we all carry with us every day?
My husband was at the conference with me. On our last night we went out and stopped at the Sprint store to upgrade his cell phone. He got a Moment and we have been blown away with what that phone can do. Calling it a phone seems silly. It is a handheld computer. There are over 350,000 apps for this phone. The educational opportunites are limitless.
It is time that we, as educators, step up and allow our students to take their computers out of their pockets and use them for good.

See the newspaper story on the conference here: http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100715/NEWS01/7150310/Educators-see-latest-tech-up-close

Glogster

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:59:00 +0000

Have you heard about Glogster? I just learned about this amazing Web 2.0 tool today and I am so excited about the endless possibilities this tool has with the SMART Board. You can get a free Education Glogster account at www.edu.glogster.com. You can add students and manage their use of it as well. Checkout the glog I created on SMART Boards.

What to do when the light is flashing

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I've had people ask me before what they should do if the Ready Light on their SMART Board is flashing. First of all, the Ready Light is the small LED light at the bottom right side of the board. When the light is solid green your board is functioning properly. There are several reasons your light may not be solid green.

No light: Your board is not connected properly/ Your computer is not turned on.

Flashing green light: Your SMART Software is not working properly. If this is the fist time you've attempted to use your board with the software check to make sure you installed the software and the drivers and that you have entered the product key correctly. If you had previously used the board and software you may need to uninstall and reinstall the SMART software.

Solid red light: The board and computer are not communicating properly. Try restarting your computer. If that does not solve the problem try resetting the board. How do you do that, you ask? Look at the lower right side of your board. You will see a small gray box with a reset button. Use a pen to press the button and hold it for a couple of second.

Flashing red or amber light: SMART calls this a "problem state". Reset your board (see above).

Hopefully these quick troubleshooting tips will help the next time to come across one of these problems.

Creating a Simple Page

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:26:00 +0000

This video demonstrates how to create a very simple Notebook page. You could have several pages similar to this in one document.

Using the Pen Tray

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:01:00 +0000

The pen tray is located on the front of your SMART Board. You have a black, red, green, and blue pen, one eraser, and two buttons. In an earlier post we discussed that you can press the two buttons together to get the Orient screen. By themselves, the buttons will perform a right-click, or bring up the onscreen keyboard. For the pens and eraser, all you have to do is pick up one of these objects to use it. A light will come on in its place and the tool is ready to use. You can be using any computer application. For example the pens and eraser can be used while on the Internet, a Word document, PowerPoint, or SMART Notebook.

You can easily customize these objects by clicking the SMART icon in your desktop pen tray and choosing "Control Panel". From the Control Panel you choose "SMART Hardware Settings" and then the pens and buttons option. I like to change my green pen to a highlighter so that I have one easily accessible whenever I need it. This is easy to do by simple choosing the green pen and changing the transparency. The buttons can be customized as well to perform functions such as print screen or open Notebook.

New School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:27:00 +0000

It has been a whirlwind of activity around here the last few weeks. School started for us right after my last post. Things are starting to settle down and become routine now. I will try to do much better at updating this blog to keep you informed on all things SMART.
For those of you who are also starting the new school year, what are you doing with your SMART Board?

Miller Perry

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Thank you to all the teachers at Miller Perry Elementary. I enjoyed conducting your training today and hope that you took away some things that you can use in your classroom. Enjoy your new SMART Boards!

Orienting the SMARTBoard

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Now that you have the green light to go ahead and use your SMARTBoard you need to orient the board. This process calibrates the board so that when you touch the board the computer knows where you are touching.

There are a few different ways to get the Orient screen to come up. You can click on the Notebook icon in the taskbar of your computer. A menu will appear and you can choose "Orient". You can open the Control Panel from the same place and select "Orient" from there. I find the easiest way to get the Orient screen is by pressing the two buttons on the pen tray. You will notice there is a button for the mouse and a button for the keyboard. If you press these two buttons at the same time the Orient screen will appear.

Once the Orient screen is up you simply need to press the center of each plus sign as they move about the screen. You can use your finger or a pen to do this. If you make a mistake you can go back by pressing the previous plus sign. Once you have completed them all your board is oriented and ready to go.

Many people ask how often they should orient. The answer is simple: you'll be able to tell when your board needs to be oriented. When you have to touch to the side of something instead of directly on it to select it then it is time to orient. With a wall-mounted SMARTBoard you shouldn't have to orient too often. However, if your projector shakes when the door slams or the A/C turns on, you'll most likely need to do it more often. I would recommend orienting each morning before you begin your day.

Getting Connected

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:36:00 +0000

So...you walk into your classroom and there is a large white board on your wall. You knew it was coming, but now that it's here, what do you do with it? For starters, make sure the board is connected to your computer and the computer is connected to the projector. When your computer and projector are turned on you should see a solid green light on the bottom right corner of the SMART Board. Now you're ready to go!
If the light is solid red make sure everything is connected or try unplugging and plugging the USB cord in the computer. If the light is flashing red or green try restarting your computer.

Beginning to Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:19:00 +0000

This is the first entry of The SMARTer Classroom Blog. It is my hope that this will be a place for teachers, librarians, and anyone using SMART Boards in education to come for information and tips. It is also my hope that readers will share their own thoughts and ideas on using SMART Boards in the classroom, the SMARTer Classroom, that is.