Using SMART Notebook Software and the SMART Recorder

One of the most amazing aspects of my using the SMART Board and SMART Notebook software in my classroom, is how far my classroom now extends.  The SMART Board has extended the reach of my classroom both for my students and for me. 

Utilizing the SMART Notebook software I can take my students on field trips without leaving my classroom. We have travelled to Mono Lake using Google earth to measure shoreline changes of the lake.  We have followed the path of the LA River from the Arroyo Seco and San Gabriel River watersheds to the ocean.  I have visited Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran's Day and New Orleans to see the effect of Katrina. Through the use of SMART recordings and You Tube, I have taught my students in their home when they are sick or when they are travelling with their family.

My classroom  has travelled all over the world by posting SMART recordings and FLIP cams to post You Tube videos that have been used by students throughout the country and around the world. I have taught students Dalton's Law in Virginia and medical students in Saudi Arabia the skeletal structures of the Ulna and Radius.

The expansion of my of my classroom is only limited to the breadth of my imagination and my willingness to share the lessons I wish to provide.  While there is a greater workload in the beginning, once the materials have been created they can be used again and again in the future.  Once posted on You Tube or my online classroom (Moodle)  they become available for my own students or anyone else around the world who can put them to use.

The technology is only limited to my willingness to embrace it.

      

Just for Fun - Draw a Stickman

Just for fun visit Draw a Stickman.

Just open up the site and follow the prompts. This activity is fun but has a nice message at the end for your students. The site is most effective when used with interactive whiteboard (SMART Board).  Do not use the pens. Use your finger to complete each prompt. Make sure to follow all of the prompts until the very end to get to the message. 

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:

Alien Juice Bar - Acids and Bases

The Alien Juice Bar tutorial provides a simple and fun way to introduce the characteristics of Acids and Bases including the concepts of pH, pOH, neutralization.

Whether students are killing off aliens by serving them acidic or basic drinks that their constitutions cannot deal with, or they are sorting drinks by their characteristics, students can learn or review the main points of acids and bases.  This tutorial created through UC Berkeley is simplistic enough for middle school while intriguing enough to capture the attention of most high school students.

There are three parts of the tutorial. Part one allows students to learn about pH and pOH by identifying them using cabbage juice.  Phase two allows students to determine which drinks are safe to serve aliens based upon the acidic or basic composition of the monster.  Aliens die when their pH levels are altered. The third phase guides students through the neutralization of pH by mixing acids and bases.

This tutorial is best used on an interactive white board (SMART Board) to involve the entire class in the process of protecting or destroying aliens with basic acidic knowledge.

Freezeray.com - Simulations for SMART Boards

The Freezeray website provides educators with an array of very imaginative, highly impactful visual teaching-aids developed for use with SMART Boards.

The resources include tutorials and simulations in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.  These interactive activities help to make sense of some of the more challenging concepts both teachers and students encounter in science.

The Science Literacy section offers a vast array of interactive activities to increase science vocabulary skills, solidify scientific concepts and increase scientific literacy.   

Quizlet - Great Online Tool

Although I am an advocate of project based learning and utilizing education that serves the multiple intelligences, there are some basic skills, ideas and concepts where learning comes down to rote memorization.

I use a very practical,useful and intutitive site online to provide flashcards to assist students with that material which must simply be learned through memory and rote skills.

Quizlet (http://quizlet.com/) is a wonderful site for educators and students to create and use flash cards to provide learning and study opportunites for vocabulary and definitions, formulas, terms, elements and symbols, etc... etc...

Educators and students alike can create their own databank of flashcards for any content area. Sets of flashcards can be assigned to specific classes or students or they can be made public for anyone registered with Quizlet's use.  For most content and subject areas there are vast amounts of pre-made flashcard sets produced by both students and teachers available for public use.

Quizlet provides opportunities for students to learn, review and practice at their own pace, through a variety of options built in to the Quizlet program.   Students can work through the flashcards one side at a time or both sides simultaneously.  Once students feel comfortable with the material they can check their understanding through a learning tool where they must complete the information from the opposite side of the card that they are being shown.  Students can also test themselves with a Quizlet generated test based upon the information in the flashcard set.

Students can also learn and practice through two games, scatter and space race.  Scatter provides both sides of the flash cards randomly placed on the computer screen.  Students must move the partners together to make them disappear. My students enjoy scatter on the SMART Board where they can compete with each other for the best time to remove all the terms.  The space race game is completed by typing in the correct answers before the clue slides off the screen.

Quizlet, provides great options for both students and teachers to tap into those concepts that must simply  be processed through repetition and rote memory.