Checklists

March 21, 2014January 31, 2015 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Think about all of the things you repeatedly say throughout the week. Think about all of the kids who are visual learners. Now think about how much time and breath you’ll save by making simple to do lists or checklist for your students using SMART Notebook! I prefer to use 3-5 simple statements coupled with a clipart image for each. The students will become so use to seeing and following the routine directions that you’ll smile and pat yourself on the back.

Got Wordle?

February 10, 2013November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Wordle, www.wordle.net, is a website for creating word clouds. Simply type in a series of words using commas. The more often the word is included, the larger it will appear in the final word cloud. Then customize the themes, fonts, and colors. Use the SMART camera tool to take a picture and add it to your SMART file. There are a variety of classroom applications. Ask your students to write down five words to describe a character from a story, a scientific concept following the unit of story, or an upcoming holiday. This can be an individual or small group task. Or create a Wordle on a topic of study and use it to preview the chapter. Students can view it and make connections to prior knowledge. Or type each of your student’s names to create a class word cloud that can be an image on your classroom website or your classroom computer’s desktop background. TIP: Type your words in a Word document and paste them into the field on the site. Because if you decide to “go back” and add, delete, or change words, you will be sent back to the home page. Your work is not saved on the site. Also, for two words that you’d like to stay together such as United States, put a ~ between the words (United~States).

Pete’s Presentations

December 11, 2011November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Phillip Martin has outdone himself with his collection of sites offering educators FREE PowerPoint presentations, education websites, and clipart. The main site, Pete’s PowerPoint Station, has links to numerous resources. I’d recommend viewing all of the themes and topics at Pete’s Presentations because you can look at all of the possibilities. Sub-sites include Gretta’s Game Station and Hannah’s Homework Help Station. Don’t miss the clipart link. Mr. Martin’s unique, colorful cartoon style appeals to all children.

As long as you use it for your classroom (newsletters, website, interactive whiteboard lessons, self-made worksheets, etc.), these amazing resources are yours at no cost. He does ask that you tell someone else about the site. I’d say that is the least we can do to thank Mr. Martin for his outstanding artistry and organization. This is a teacher’s jackpot!

Pete’s Presentations
http://www.pppst.com/themes.html

Gretta’s Games
http://games.pppst.com/index.html

Hannah’s Help
http://resources.pppst.com/index.html

Circle Tap to Erase

September 2, 2011January 31, 2015 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Do you need a shortcut for erasing a large area of writing on your SMART Board™? Try “Circle Tap” to erase words or drawings created with a pen tool.

Make a complete circle on the board using the eraser around an area with writing. You can use the actual eraser tool in your hand or by clicking on the eraser in your top toolbar. Make sure the circle ends wear you began. And don’t dawdle. If you take too long to draw the circle with your eraser, this will not work.
Tap firmly in the center of the invisible circle you drew. Your writing within that area will disappear.
This will only work on words or drawings that were created with a pen tool. Typed text, shape tool objects, graphics, etc. will remain on the page.
This skill sometimes takes new users a few attempts to master. Remember . . . draw complete circle with the eraser tool and firmly tap in the center.

Orienting the Board

August 4, 2010November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

This process of orienting the screen will tell your computer where the projected image is located on the SMART Board™. I recommend orienting your board at the beginning of each school week. Some boards are mounted in an area of the school building that has more movement on the floor or roof above, which will cause the projector to become out of alignment from time to time. You can orient your board even in the middle of a lesson if you notice your point of touch is off. It will only take 10 seconds.

On the pen tray attached to your SMART Board™, click the keyboard and mouse buttons at the same time. A gray screen will appear which will allow you to orient your SMART Board™.
Using the pen tool tip, firmly touch the yellow center of each red + sign and release. I prefer to touch near the + sign, firmly drag my pen tool tip into the yellow center, and remove the pen when I have it perfectly centered. The SMART Board™ actually recognizes the point of release, not the first point of contact on the screen. Some teachers prefer to use a finger instead of a pen tool for orienting. Continue marking these points as they appear on the screen. A normal-sized board will have 9 points. Widescreen boards will have 12 points.
If you make a mistake during this process, press a key on your pen tray to go back and re-do the previous + sign.
When you finish with the last point, this orientation screen will disappear. You will be returned to the last program you had up on your computer screen.

Graffiti Wall

June 10, 2010July 24, 2010 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

I sometimes use a traditional paper graffiti wall to accompany a novel study, read aloud, or thematic unit. It gives students an opportunity to express their thoughts in words and pictures and promotes a written discussion. The SMART™ Board takes this activity to another level. For a chapter book, you can have multiple SMART Notebook™ pages, one for each chapter. The larger electronic version of a graffiti wall also allows you to more easily discuss posted comments and questions with the entire class. It can be left up for students to use while the teacher reads aloud, during silent reading, or as a literacy station activity.

Linking

May 10, 2010November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Add a hyperlink to a website, an attachment, or another page within your file by first selecting your text or image. A blue line will appear around it to signify it was selected to have an action performed.
Using the drop-down arrow, select “Link.”
Paste or type in the web address.
Decide how you’d like your hyperlink to launch. Your choices include “Corner icon” or “Object.”
Choose “Corner icon” to click directly on a small globe, paperclip, or page icon.
Choose “Object” to click anywhere on the text or image.
To remove this feature, click once on the image or text. A blue line will appear around it to signify it was selected to have an action performed. Use the drop-down arrow to select “Link” and “Remove Link.”

Seating Chart

March 10, 2010April 14, 2010 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Do you still make paper and pencil seating charts? Now with SMART™ Notebook, you can create a template of your classroom floor plan and manipulate the students’ names whenever you feel it’s necessary to switch things up. It also eliminates the need for the teacher to move the desks after school. Let the students view the setup and work with a partner to move desks to the new arrangement.

The First Way to Bulid Your Seating Chart

Use the square drawing tool to make a desk. Add a fill color (tan) to the square, if you’d like. Use the infinite cloner option by clicking on the drop-down arrow of the first desk. Drag 24 (or the maximum number of students in your room) squares from the original. Remove infinite cloner from the first square. Position the desks in the arrangement you would prefer. Lock them in place so that they don’t move accidently when you attempt to adjust the name textboxes later on.
Add shapes for necessary furniture, the SMART™ Board, or the classroom door if you’d like.
Make one textbox with your longest students’ name. Use the “Infinite Cloner” option by clicking on the drop-down arrow of the textbox. Drag 24 (or the maximum number of students in your room) textboxes from the original. Remove infinite cloner from the first name. Position the names on each desk. Double-click on each textbox to change the name.

The Second Way to Build Your Seating Chart

Use the square drawing tool to make one desk. Add a fill color (tan) to the square, if you’d like. Use the infinite cloner option by clicking on the drop-down arrow of the first desk. Drag 4 (or the maximum number of students in a table group or row) squares from the original. Remove infinite cloner from the first square. Position the 4 desks in the table or row arrangement you would prefer. Group the table or row of desk by marquee selecting them all, choosing one of the drop-down arrows, and selecting “Grouping” and the sub category of “Group.” Infinitely clone this group of desks until you’ve filled the page with the maximum number of tables or rows you need. Position them before marquee selecting all of the tables or rows and “Locking” them in place so that they don’t move accidently when you attempt to adjust the name textboxes later on.
Add shapes for necessary furniture, the SMART™ Board, or the classroom door if you’d like.
Make one textbox with your longest students’ name. Make 4 textboxes by using the “Infinite Cloner” option. Position the 4 textboxes in one of the table or row arrangements. Group these four textboxes (not the desks) marquee selecting them all, choosing one of the drop-down arrows, and selecting “Grouping” and the sub category of “Group.” Infinitely clone this group of 4 textboxes until you’ve filled the page with the maximum number of names you need. Remove infinite cloner from the first group of textboxes. Position the textboxes (grouped) on each table or row before selecting “Grouping” and “Ungroup.” Double-click on each textbox to change the names.

Infinite Cloner

February 10, 2010November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Do you want students to have an infinite bank of coins to use in a SMART™ Board activity? Do you need many textboxes to create and manipulate individual student names? Save yourself time and/or space on SMART™ pages by using the “Infinite Cloner” function.

Click on your image or text. A dotted blue line will appear around it to signify it was selected to have an action performed.
Using the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner of the selected text or image, choose “Infinite Cloner.”
Now you can create duplicates by simply dragging the image or text to a new area of the page.
To remove, click on the image or text and a dotted, blue line will appear. Click on the infinity symbol in the upper right corner of the image or text. Then click on the words “Infinite Cloner” to uncheck and stop the infinite cloner function.

BrainPOP

January 10, 2010November 22, 2020 / Kristen Foley / Leave a comment

Let Tim and Moby escort you and your students on a topical adventure! Use these approximately two- to five-minute animated videos at BrainPOP to enhance your reading, writing, English, math, science, social studies, art, music, technology, etc. lessons. The best feature is the ten-question multiple-choice quiz that follows each video. Get all of your students involved in responding to these comprehension checks! Activity ideas and worksheets accompany each topic as well. This is one of my favorite sites to support the skills and topics of study I teach. While you’ll need to purchase a subscriptions to fully take advantage of this site (and its partner sites BrainPOP, Jr. and BrainPOP, Espanol), there are several free videos. Click on “Free Stuff” to see it all. BrainPOP, Jr. is intended for K-3 grades and BP is geared toward 3-12 grades. Preview the video you think you’d like to show before airing it. Sometimes the vocabulary and content is too challenging for my third graders, so not all videos are appropriate to show. You’ll also want to register for the free “BrainPOP Educators.” Gain access to all of the activity pages, various graphic organizers, ideas for using BrainPOP in your classroom, and a lot more!