Tequipment: Blogging About SMART Boards, Resources, Lessons, Training, Games

We would like to thank everyone who submitted a poem!

We had a great deal of fun reading through all the entries. In fact, there were so many great entries we had to select two winners.

We’re very happy to announce two winners for our poetry contest:

Sweet SMART Board,
Messenger of my teaching dreams, (but creator of a zillion cords).
Amazing with online puzzles, movie viewing and educational games
Really sad not everyone has one, it is honestly a shame.
Truly thankful that I have a board to call mine-

Beautiful in performance and classroom design.
Oh! Please, not again…
Alas it’s time to call in the I.T men
Really love my smartboard and I love to sit and fawn
Don’t love the computer, that (again) won’t turn on.

by Brandy Vigen

And “SMART Board” by Denise Langley — which you can see by downloading her very nice Notebook file.

Brandy and Denise will both be receiving 24-packs of SMART Response!

So, here is the deal. To say thank you, and to celebrate the growth of our community, we are giving away one SMART Document Camera, a Senteo 32-pack, or an AirLiner to three ERC members.

The rules of the contest are simple. All you have to do is guess how much the Tequipment rock weighs. We will award one of the following SMART products to the person who guesses the weight of the Tequipment rock without going over. Click on the image of the Tequipment Rock to view it in all its glory. We have added a SMART document camera, an AirLiner, and a Senteo clicker to help provide perspective.

Good luck everyone!

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA E-MAIL TO contest@teqsmart.org. All ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY FRIDAY APRIL, 24 BY 5:00PM! WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED HERE ON MONDAY APRIL, 27TH!!

We are rapidly approaching 10,000 registered members on our ERC!

To say thank you, and to celebrate the growth of our community, we will be giving away one SMART Document Camera, Senteo 32-pack, or AirLiner to three members. On Monday April 20th we will announce a contest to celebrate the community’s achievement.

So check back Monday for a chance to win and thank you to all!

As you know The Celebration of Teaching and Learning is right around the corner, and we have five, full-day passes to give away.

So, here is what you need to do to win: Capture (screen shot) a page from your very best interactive Notebook lesson and e-mail it to us. We are thinking student centered! The best five entries will win a One Day Pass to the Celebration of Teaching and Learning.

Send your entry to contest@teqsmart.org. All entries must be received by Monday 3/2/09.

The top five responses will be posted here and the teacher will receive a one day pass to the Celebration of Teaching and Learning being held March 6-7th at the Hilton New York, West 53rd St and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Ave).

Winners will receive a code via e-mail which can be used to redeem their One Day Pass to the Celebration. The pass may be used for either Friday or Saturday. The registration is one-time only, and non-transferable. Unfortunately, we cannot pay for travel, hotel, or coverage. So, contest winners should live w/in the TriState area but must provide their own transportation to and from the conference.

Good luck and we will see you at the Celebration!

Here is a sample:

SMART is publicizing the releases of the SMART Document Camera and SMART Audio with a contest that gives these items away as part of prize packages.

Click on the link here to learn more, but we’ll Readers Digest this thing for you: Upload suggestions for how to effectively use these new products in the classroom to the SMART Exchange. They’ll pick their three favorites each month and reward them with goodies including the Document Camera and SMART Audio.

The big question might be, “How can I describe how to use these things if I don’t have them, yet?”

In two words: time machine. Go to the future after you’ve already won the products, and then have you from the future write out best practice suggestions, take your work back to the present, and claim the prize. It worked in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. If you want to take a more pedestrian approach, you can write about what you have seen, read about, or heard about the document camera or audio system and how you would apply this knowledge in the classroom.

Good luck, everyone.

We have begun to suspect that there is some kind of giving holiday in Canada, because SMART Technologies has announced yet another contest with a totally sweet first place prize. (Research reveals that May 19 is Victoria Day, celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria. We are going to investigate if this is the cause.)

In addition to the two contests we knew about, SMART is also running the SMART Teacher Content Challenge. Teachers use content from the SMART Learning Marketplace in their classrooms and write reports on their experiences. I know, I know, we don’t like writing reports either, but here’s the good news: (1) just by entering, you can download up to 30 megabytes from the SMART Learning Marketplace for free, (2) runners-up will receive a free subscription to the SMART Learning Marketplace, and (3) the winner from North America will win a seven-day trip for two to London to attend BETT, an educational technology conference.

Do you have to go to the conference? Could you just hang out in Trafalgar Square eating fish and chips with soccer hooligans and Harry Potter? We do not know. Also, we searched really hard to find out what the letters in BETT stand for. It turns out…(drum roll)…nothing. It used to stand for British Education and Training Technology, but now it’s just BETT.

Entering a contest run by a company to win a trip to a convention, both of which capitalize their names despite not being acronyms? It seems a odd, but we think it’s still a SMART BETT.

Kid’s got jokes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You only have until May 31 to enter.

Good luck with the contest. And anyone with more information about Victoria Day, please explain it to us yanks.

What a week.

We would like to point everyone’s attention to a comment on Monday’s post when we talked about a contest SMART is running. Wendy McMahon posted to let us know that they are running ANOTHER CONTEST! She writes:

“SMART is also holding a video contest!

It’s called the Extraordinary Moments Video Contest and it’s being hosted on TeacherTube.

Here’s a link to the contest page along with some details…
http://teachertube.com/extraordinary.php

We’re looking for 30-second commercials that best answer this question:

>> How do SMART products help you create extraordinary moments in your classroom?

Creativity counts. So does technological wizardry. But most of all we’d like to see how you and your students use technology to create a fun, interactive learning environment.

The Extraordinary Moments Video Contest is only open to educators in North America. The contest starts April 21, 2008, and runs until May 31, 2008. The winning commercial will be announced and debuted at National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) 2008.

The first place entry will win a trip to attend the NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, to attend the premiere of their commercial. The winner will also receive a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, valued at approximately USD$3,500.

Best of luck to all the entrants – we can’t wait to see what you come up with!”

There you have it. Get cracking, everyone.

We also want to thank David Riddell and Scott for their thoughts on our post about SpaceTime. We always appreciate feedback. Except in speakers, now that’s annoying. (Today’s bad joke of the week!)

Once again, we thank all of the schools and other organizations that brought us in for trainings this week. You rule:

PS 48X, East Brooklyn Access GED, PS 62Q, International High School, Brooklyn Alternate Learning Center, PS 42X, PS 173Q, PS 63, The Neighborhood School, PS 223Q, PS 11Q, Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish Elementary School, PS 50R, PS 29Q, PS 302X, Legacy School for International Studies, Arlington Middle School, Jumpstart Academy, Lower East Side Prep High School, IS 228K, PS 107X, Yeshiva Torah Vodaat, Freshman Center, JHS 74Q, PS 189M, PS 19Q, MS 158Q, PS 133Q, PS 100K, Middle Country Teachers’ Center, Hunter College High School PTA, PS 39R, NY SOS Conference, Bronx Alternate Learning Center, Holy Cross, Our Lady of Pompei, and Saint Joseph.

Have a great weekend.

A significant portion of our readership works for New York City schools which find themselves back to work today after their week of Spring Break. Some of us are also returning from vacation. While this time last week we were drinking exotic smoothies made from fruits we could not pronounce as we watched exotic birds and monkeys frolic in a beautiful rainforest in front of a towering volcano, we are happy to be back to work.

No, really.

As most of our readers know, we recently concluded our SMART Notebook Lesson Contest. The bad news: We are not currently running a contest. Good news: SMART Technologies is. Better news: The winner receives a prize package worth $3,500. Included in this is a brand new 600i SMART Board and a subscription to the SMART Learning Marketplace.

Having looked over the rules, it is very similar to our lesson contest, but with a specific theme: Back to School. We strongly suggest teachers check out the contest. Click here for rules and instructions. In order to join, you need to join SMART’s exchange, which is a free resource for educators.

See, this week is picking up already.

There were a number of entries that easily could have won are first or second prize. Sadly, we could only choose a winner and a runner-up. To everyone who did not win, we want to thank you again for entering and encourage you to check back with us for the next contest.

The WINNER of the SMART Notebook lesson contest is Linda Treilman from the Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey. Ms. Treilman wins a SMART AirLiner, and we congratulate her for her excellent lesson on transformations.

The runner-up is Matthew Wentworth from the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, New York. Mr. Wentworth wins a neoprene SMART Board cover for his lesson on money.

Their lessons and those of the other entrants will be available for download on our Educator Resource Center in the next few days. We would also encourage anyone who creates a SMART Notebook lesson to please submit it to the ERC, as it is a free resource for teachers to share materials for the SMART Board.

The big news is that today is the release of Notebook Version 10. As we mentioned yesterday, we encourage teachers to strongly consider whether or not they want to start using new software this late in the school year. We will, however, provide the link to the software download from SMART when it appears on their website. As of right now, it is not yet up, but this post will be updated when it is. When it does become active, please feel free to share your thoughts about it in our comments section.

Yesterday was the deadline for our SMART Notebook Lesson Contest, and we would like to thank everyone that entered. We had a number of last minute entries, including some that got in just under the wire. We fear that we may have caused exchanges such as this to occur this morning:

TEACHER: I was up so late, but I finished my Notebook lesson.
SPOUSE: Good, now the lesson and our taxes are done. Right?
TEACHER: Taxes?

We will be posting the winner very soon, so check in with us to see if you have won our prize.