SMART Updates

by recesstec SMARTBoard tips Turning Point

Monday Morning Message ~ 6-13-2011

After a week of workshops, we have seen some significant updates in SMARTBoard Notebook 10. Included is a calligraphy pen, and several new templates in the gallery.

A quick tip:

Go to the “Gallery Tab” (second tab down) and click on the “wrench” icon next to the search box “magnifying hand lens”. Choose the bottom option, “Check for Updates…”.

I checked for updates to the Gallery Essentials and the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0.

Even if it looks like you don’t need an update, click through to next, if the buttons are available, and you should still receive some additional templates.

I tried to watch carefully as they updated, and two that I saw were question templates.

These can be used with the SMART Student Response Systems®, or the TurningPoint® PollAnywhere®  Systems.

Don’t wait for the scheduled calendar to tell you that there are updates. Summer is a great time to look and play.

Another “tip” is to make a few new lessons to close out the end of the year.
We are always concentrating on the start, but the final weeks are those filled with deadlines, and a little less motivation as the year comes to a close. Use some summer time to make and remake a few lessons that will make the end a lot more enjoyable!

Glob = Globe

by recesstec SMARTBoard Turning Point workshops

Grrr… I hate typos.  I mean I really hate them.  It makes a person seem ignorant.  Like they can’t spell.  When in fact that may not even be close to the case.

Case in point.  I have been working all day on this week’s workshops for the Maroa-Forsyth School District.  Mom and I are headed over to Maroa High School for a 3 day training this week.  We were there last year and had a great time with the staff members that gave up part of their summer break to attend our beginner SMARTBoard sessions.  Well I decided, at the last minute, that I wanted to change some of the presentation as well as create a more detailed handout.

So…out came the external hard drive as well as the Turning Point to do some screen captures.  I wanted to include these updated screen captures to the handout to make things as clear as possible. 

(I hate it when I attend a session and things seem crystal clear only to return to a handout a month later and have absolutely NO IDEA what it means. Consequently, I try to avoid that for the participants in our workshops!)

So after getting all of the handouts finalized, creating viewable on screen PDF forms of them all, and creating the printed packets….you guessed it.  I found a typo.  Click on the glob icon should have been click on the GLOBE icon. 

So now the dilemma.  Do I point out my typo and plead with my workshop participants to believe it when I say I am not a complete idiot?  Or do I kill a tree and throw out the old handouts on account of one silly little e?

Grrr…  Have I mentioned that I hate typos?