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

A friendly reminder: The SMART Notebook Lesson Contest ends on Monday, April 14. We have received a number of entries in the last few days, and we are greatly impressed by the quality. If you are working on a lesson, make sure you send it to us by Monday.

Good luck, everybody.

On a separate note, we’ve been adding some new files to the Educator Resource Center, including a new Senteo file. Check them out.

Hello, friends. We just wanted to update you on a couple of things that will soon be upon us.

The first is the deadline for our, Lesson Plan Contest. For those of you not in the know (how embarrassing), this contest will reward the individual who sends us the best lesson created using the SMART Notebook software. It ends April 14. (Click here or here for more details, but don’t click here.)

Right after that contest comes to an end, SMART Board Software Version 10 comes out. Those who follow this blog have seen the videos we’ve posted on the new software. New features include object animation, page recording, simple table creation, the Magic Pen, object alignment, and other major advances. We have been asked by a number of teachers if they should immediately download the software or wait for next school year and/or more training. Our answer is slightly complicated as it depends on your school’s situation. If this is a concern of yours, please feel free to email us at training@tequipment.com.

Tomorrow is Friday!

Hello weekend.

We want to thank everyone who has entered the Notebook Lesson Contest so far. We have seen some excellent work, and we hope to see even more. Remember, the contest ends April 14, so send in your entries now.

Comments of the Week: We would like to point out that no one posted their own SMART Board jokes in the comments section of our Tuesday post. We apologize for making our jokes entirely too awesome, and thus setting too high a bar. Next time, we will aim for less funny.

Let’s hear it for the schools we visited this week. All of you rule: PS 101K, PS 346K, PS 40Q, Sewanaka High School, Saint Joseph, JHS 74Q, Mott Hall 4, PS 141Q, Middletown, Aviation High School, Greenburgh Eleven (isn’t that a movie?), PS 117Q, PS 146Q, IS 55K, The Epiphany School, PS 100K, PS 133Q, PS 159Q, PS 79X, PS 75K, PS 52R, Scholastic Academy #18, PS 282K, PS 48X, Governor George Clinton ES, Evander Childs HS, PS 31 at JHS 151, PS 110X, Aviation High School, Division of Human Resources.

Have a wonderful weekend and holiday. See you next week for updates and tips and other awesomeness.

It’s Monday, everyone, and we are starting off the week right. We want to highlight some websites with useful SMART Board resources. See, Mondays aren’t so bad.

TeqSmart fans may already by familiar with our own Educator Resource Center. On the ERC we post hundreds of pre-made lessons, templates, graphic organizers, games and other activities created using the SMART Notebook. We also include links to websites that work well with the SMART Board and to other free resources.

Those of you who read our last post about Kerpoof.com will remember that we already mentioned Teachers Love SMART Boards, an excellent website with a fantastic name. Is it Teachers Like SMART Boards? No. Teachers Just Want To Be Friends With SMART Boards? No. They love them, and they are not afraid to say it. This site is consistently updated with websites and information useful to SMART Board users.

SMART has a number of resources available to users as well. Check out their Teacher’s Hub. They have a large collection of lesson plans and other useful tools.

What about you? What websites have you found with great SMART Board resources? We want you to post in the Comments section and let us know. The poster of our favorite comment will be named the “TeqSmart Honorary Employee of the Month.” (Note if you post in haiku form, you will boost your chances of winning by 50%.)

You wanted another contest! You got another contest! Yeah! So many exclamation points.

This time, it will not be just one picture, however, but a whole lesson. We like to increase the difficulty as we progress to the next level. Like a video game. Like Guitar Hero. Man, do we love Guitar Hero.

The rules:
(1) You must submit a complete lesson following the Lesson Submission Guidelines, which you can download at the bottom of this post.
(2) You must submit your entry between Thursday, February 14 and midnight Monday, April 14, 2008.
(3) The winner will be chosen based on creativity, flow, use of SMART Notebook advanced features, and overall academic quality.

I know, I know. BORRRRING. What are the prizes?
First Place: AirLiner Wireless Slate
Second Place: SMART Board Neoprene Cover

All lessons submitted that fulfill the Lesson Submission Guidelines will be added to our Educator Resource Center so all may marvel at your mad skillz. Good luck and maybe you are the next SMART Board Hero.

Lesson Submission Guidelines
Teachers Guide Form

Hey, everybody. As happy as we are about our amazing entries for our last contest, there’s a sort of emptiness that it’s over. It’s like the day after our birthday.

We are looking to get another contest going in the near future, but we want your input. What do you think the next competition should be? Best use of the frog dissection flash tool in the Gallery? Best lesson created while hanging upside down? Tallest SMART Board user?

As you can see, we have no good ideas. Please click on Comments and tell us your idea for our next contest.

We were overwhelmed by the quality of entries for our best hand-drawn Notebook file contest. It was not an easy decision, but we now present the winner: Amy Kuchera of Garrison School. Congratulations, Amy. Here is the winning picture (please note the excellent use of the creative pen).

Here other awesome entries that made our decision so hard:

Janine Lalande from Solomon Schecter School of Queens:

Edward Maza from Moriah School:

James Longwell-Stevens of High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology:

These are just a few of the great submissions we received. Thank you all very much and we hope to have another contest up in the near future. Stay tuned!

A: Yes, yes it is.

Our contest is still running which will award an AirLiner wireless slate to the winner. What is the contest? What is an AirLiner? Have a seat and let me spit some knowledge at you.

1. The Contest: Your challenge is to create a Notebook file using only the pen tools. No imported images or shape tools. Just pen. THE NOTEBOOK FILE MUST BE EMAILED BY 8:30 AM on MONDAY, JANUARY 28TH. Send your entry to training@tequipment.com. If you have questions about this contest, email or post in the comments below.

2. The AirLiner is a wireless slate that allows you to control your SMART Board from up to 52 feet (9 meters, 8 2/3 fathoms, 4.755 zhang) away. A teacher, such as yourself, could move about the classroom and continue to use all of the features and functions of the SMART Board.

What are you waiting for?

Are you a SMART Board artist (or artiste for our French and French Canadian readers)? We’re looking for the best hand-drawn picture created using the Notebook software. I’ll post some of the best on the site. The winner will be given the esteemed title of SMART Board Picasso (or SMART Board Van Gogh for our Dutch readers) and a prize that will be awesome. Totally awesome. Perhaps the awesomest prize ev… (wait for it)… er. I don’t know what the prize will be yet. I’ll announce the deadline soon. The Rules:

1. You can only use the pens and creative pens. No shapes or copied images.
2. Actually, that was the only rule.

Email your contest submission to training@tequipment.com and be sure to use SMART Board Artist as the subject. Happy drawing