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[AlizaShap]

If you have been using smart boards in your classroom, please share any tips that would be helpful to other educators! 

How have smart boards enhanced your teaching?
For which subjects do you use smart boards?
Do you have smart board lessons that you want to share?

[drifkind]

Thanks for creating this forum> I have used the Smart Board for several months and would love to see how other have used it. I've used it mainly for gemara and "Shas Milim' games. BTW at the tequipment website their are some game templates that I've used. They even work with Hebrew. Check them out.

[TorahYid]

I use a Mimio device; alas - no SMARTboard for me.  The SMART notebook software is much more powerful and userf riendly than Mimio's notebook software.  The Mimio version won't even recognize Hebrew characters.

I thought I was really stuck until it was pointed out to me that you can run the SMARTboard notebook software even while using Mimio hardware.

[rebbez]

I have a smart board in my class room . I teach Chumash to fourth graders. I have Davkawriter on my laptop and project the Perek we are learning on the Smart board from my laptop.
I ask the class to find different points of the pasuk by using the highlighter tool to underline or hghlight the answer.

[dassya28b]

I use the Smartboard for just  about every subject.... when we do chumash, the sheet that they have is on the smart board. For dinim and yamim tovim, i make interactive sideshows. For Hebrew Language, I do games and charts for different conjugation.

Here is a really good tip. Let's say you are making a worksheet for the class. You can easily put that into the Smart Board software by preing file:print. On the dropdown menu for the printer, there should be a choice for the smart board software. the program will automatically sort your sheets by page.
it is really amazing, especially for children who are more visual learners!!!

[mimim]

I have been helping a friend who developed the most amazing software to use with SMARTBoards.  You can't believe the the technology until you see for yourself! 
TORAHSmart uses Notebook 10 software and brings Tanach to the interactive whiteboard.  Students from kindergarten up will be engaged and challenged.  There are basic interactive games to learn Alef-Bais and animated texts of Chumash and Rashi.
I encourage you ALL to check out the website...www.smarterguys.com and follow the link to TORAHSmart.

[ettisiegel]

My school has three SMARTboards for teachers to sign up for use.  Right now I reserved a slot for my third grade class once a week.  In time it sounds like I might get one in my classroom; we shall see.

Rabbi Krohn's Brachos CD was a lot of fun for reviewing Brachos, but the Asher Yatzar CD was not on third grade level. 

Because teh girls love to actually write on the board themselves, I often use the smartboard for review of Yedios Klaliyos.  I have a page with fill ins- the names of the Yamim Tovim and Chagim for example- and they take turns coming up and writing in the correct answer. 

Going in alphabetical order works best for me- noone gets upset that they are waiting for their turn for too long- they know when their turn is coming.  Sometimes I will start the turns in the middle... but the class goes in a-b-c order from whichever point we begin from.

The mini SMARTboard tutorials are very helpful.  They can be found by googling "smartboard mini lessons". 

I am new at this, but I hope I have been helpful!

[TPeromsik]

This year, I have been using Microsoft OneNote with a Smartboard and a drawing tablet.  All of our class notes and worksheets are integrated in a very organized way.  I can call on students to fill in answers on the board, and it all gets saved for next time.  This has revolutionized a lot of what happens in my classroom without requiring me to drive myself crazy learning something totally new.  You probably already have OneNote on your computer.  I submitted my 4th grade whiteboard files, which you can look at by pasting this number into the search box above:
a_00699

[morav120]

a new website is available with lots of Judaic-Hebrew contetn.
www.cijeteachers.org
It is from the Gruss Foundation

[rdraiman]

The applications of the Smartboard are limited only by the imagination and creativity of the user.  Essentially, a Smartboard is a touch-screen projection of your computer, so anything a computer is capable of can be done with a Smartboard and is viewable by the entire class.  When used in combination with the Smart Notebook software, the uses in the classroom are significant.

1) DIGITAL WHITEBOARD - The simple concept of having a digital whiteboard, with lessons that you can draw and prepare in advance, save, print, copy, and manipulate, is itself an exceptional advantage of a Smartboard.  The ability to mark up any computer screen can also be very useful.

2) COMPUTER PROJECTION / MULTIMEDIA - The ability to have a projector available throughout your lessons is an exceptional utility provided by a Smartboard as well, albeit not fully utilizing its purpose.  Integrating pictures, animation, and video on your Notebook whiteboard, with resources ranging from Davka Graphics to Google Images, Microsoft Office clipart/animation/videos to the Smart Notebook Gallery, can enrich any lesson.  It also affords the opportunity to use Powerpoint to add excitement to your lesson, even as a lecture tool.  Most importantly, ANY classroom text can be projected for the whole classroom to see and free the teacher to view while walking around the classroom, and ensure every student knows exactly where you are.  Parts of the text can also easily be enlarged, reduced, or covered.

3) INTERACTIVITY - The continously expanding range of Flash activities and templates for the Smartboard Notebook software can add a new level of engaging hands-on learning to any classroom.  From sequencing or ordering words and sentences to matching items (such as Hebrew words with translations, English words and synonyms, questions and answers), to highlighting or circling words on a text (such as prefixes, suffixes, shorashim, subject, noun, verb, where a Gemara question begins and ends, etc), the list of interactive learning options is endless. 

4) GAMES - Playing learning games that can also include music such as Jeopardy or Millionaire are also excellent applications in this category.  Powerpoint games and smartboard lessons are readily available on the internet, and hopefully many more kodesh lessons are being released  through sites like chinuch.org, Tequipment, and the Legacy and Gruss Foundations. Templates like Memory, Vortex, and Hotspots also make the learning fun and exciting.  Even non-academic games can be an incentive to add to dry material, such as allowing a student to draw one more part of a classroom smartboard picture after each correct answer to a dikduk class review, etc.  The computer element of these activities is more enticing to students and can successfully capture their attention and focus on learning if used well.

The key with all Smartboard activities is to make them quick actions that do not interrupt or delay the flow of the class.  Rather, they need to be used as a supplement and tool like all others designed to supplement the lesson goals and curriculum and maintain the classroom flow, not the other way around. As with all lessons, begin with the end in mind, and the Smartboard can be a new powerful tool to enhance any teacher's tool kit.

Please feel free to email me at rabbidraiman@hanc.org with your additional ideas or comments.

[MKaroll@lhfl.net]

Legacy Heritage SMART Board Project has a database of hundreds of Judaic and secular lessons for SMART Boards. The SMARTBoard Jewish Educational Database is free and open to all - just to go www.legacyheritage.org/SJED for access.  For more information, contact me!

[TorahYid]

SMARTNotebook 10 comes with great interactive flash programs that can now work with Hebrew characters - if you are running the latest version of Notebook AND you drag your text into the boxes rather than typing your text into the boxes.
1. Make sure you are using the latest version of SMARTNotebook 10. (If you have an internet connection, you can update your software through the HELP menu.) Hebrew will not work on earlier versions.
2. If you open any of the flash programs and start typing Hebrew into any of the windows, you won't get Hebrew characters, you will only get question marks.  Instead, type the Hebrew words into a text box somewhere else on the screen. Then, DRAG the text box into the window in which you'd like to type (but can't).
Please note that if you try this with the any of the anagrams flash programs, the computer gets confused as to which Hebrew letter is supposed to be first  and which last... seems like the anagrams will only work for Hebrew if you're doing palindromes :-)

[rebbez]

The fan in the projector of my smartboard broke. Did anyone else have this happen to them and if it didi how did you fix it ?
Thank you
Rebbez