This picture, taken during our lunch break from Friday’s workshop, actually represents two ends of the spectrum. To one side you have a SMARTBoard that is, in every sense of the word, “inaccessible”. (Unless, of course, you stand on a well-used paint ladder and ssstttrrreeetttccchhh your arms as far as you possibly can to reach the other side. I joked that it would help if I were stretchy like Mrs. Incredible)
On the other end of the spectrum, you have a wonderful group of teachers who were very enthusiastic to learn how to USE their new SMARTBoards for the upcoming school year.
So what does one do in this situation?
Raise to new heights…(PUN INTENDED!)
I spent six hours on this ladder projecting my voice over a very loud wall AC unit and two fans that helped the teachers keep their cool throughout today’s SMARTBoard workshop.
All in all, it was fabulous. Tiring, but fabulous!
The teachers were able to recognize the irony of this misplaced SMARTBoard in their computer lab, and they completely understood that the whole point of implementing this awesome piece of technology lies in the fingertips of the kids!
That’s right… KIDS!
~Shannon
As I watched Shannon balancing on the ladder all day, I provided one-on-one assistance and “manned” the computer in the back of the room to reach the menu items and type. We usually stay at the board as much as possible to model its optimum use, but today was filled with exceptions.
We cannot speak more highly of a group of teachers as they worked through the activities, and their eagerness to learn made it all worthwhile.
We especially would like to thank Mary for inviting us to present, and one last thing…
We also appreciated the full-length “skinny mirror” in the girls’ restroom. We just felt that much better at the end of the day… 🙂
~Nancy
So…can you identify any other funny ironies in this picture? (Hint…take a look at the pens as well as the size of the projected image.)
Today I had the pleasure of combining two of my favorite loves during one of our beginners’ workshops, 
I saw it…in a classroom on the first day of student attendance. The empty wide mouth glass container with the label “Marble Jar” scotch-taped to the side. And it reminded me of the “Incentive” slide in our SMARTBoard: “What’s It Good For Anyway?” presentation. We try to incorporate the use of the SMARTBoard into every imaginable facet of the teaching day, including the use of the marble jar. Or in this case to replace the use of the marble jar. But before I go any further, I must step back in time a bit. You see, we recently did a full day SMARTBoard training in a southern IL Catholic school. Mom had been looking forward to this training all last spring. (They booked us early). She taught for quite a few years in a small Catholic school and refers to her time there as “The Golden Years”. The strong parent-support, the church community and various self-contained groups of 8th graders all contributed to wonderful teaching experiences. So having this opportunity to go back to her roots (so to speak) for a day of SMARTBoard training was right up her alley. As we pulled into the black iron-gated and perfectly manicured grounds of the school, I couldn’t help but to be impressed. And it only got better. The school was old..and I mean O-L-D. I am not sure what year it was built, but it reminded me a lot of the 4th grade school that I attended in the 
My niece, Allison, came into our lives thirty years ago. She has provided us with a glimpse of another world that we can’t begin to understand, only because we are limited in both our intellect and ability to “see” things the way she does. As a child, Allison “danced with the fairies” and was lost in thoughts that we could only wish to share with her. She was first diagnosed with significant developmental delays with “islands of ability” or possible “childhood schizophrenia”. When Allison was five, her pediatrician called my sister, Diana, at work. He had just returned from attending a conference in California and was very excited to have found an “answer”. Allison eventually was “labeled” autistic, and was placed in special classes in schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Diana worked as a political consultant at the state and federal levels, and used any and all connections she had to educate herself on autism. She became an officer in the Autism Society of America, and became proactive in securing the best help to enable Allison to become all she could be. Eventually we learned that Allison’s symptoms were best described as Asperger’s Syndrome, and she was not only very high functioning, but had an IQ that was far above anyone else in our family. When she was twelve, Allison described to me a book that she was reading about “parallel universes” in terms I could understand. My “Allison Stories” include finding piles of miniature notebook pages under her bed with hieroglyphics of different thoughts and messages filling each page, all easily translated by her at the age of eight. On a visit I took her to buy a bathing suit, and she absolutely needed the black one-piece with a huge beautiful sequined pineapple filling the front. How could I refuse? She loved nothing more than to sit in front of the television under a huge open golf umbrella watching Comedy Central and laughing with the audience. Her humor is quick, dry, and catches you off-guard bringing you to your knees. She has been to “Burning Man”, belonged to a tango club, belly-dances, and has taken Diana and me on a trip to southern France for the “Gathering of the Gypsies”. On our trip to Paris, her first request was to go to the cemetery to see the grave of Jim Morrison. On our trip through the Louvre, she was our personal guide. Just this past Sunday her post on Facebook read,