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1. newsletter
June 2008
NEWS AND RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS USING SMART PRODUCTS
SMART at NECC
I N T H I S I SS U E N a N c y’S N oT E S
The tipping point
Nancy’s Notes .......................................... 1
Classroom Content ...............................2–5
A tipping point is the “level at which
News ....................................................2–4
the momentum for change becomes
Feature Article .......................................... 4 unstoppable.”* Over 15 percent of U.S.
classrooms are now equipped with an
SMART Showcase School Profile ............... 5
interactive whiteboard, so it is fair to say
Product Spotlight ..................................6–7
that this product category has reached
Subscribe to the newsletter ..................... 8 a tipping point and that momentum
is driving interactive whiteboards
toward becoming indispensable tools in
a N oT E f r o m T H E E d I To r 21st-century classrooms.
Not only have teachers’ skills with
Welcome to the June issue of
computers developed significantly over
EDCompass™ newsletter! the past few years, but they also have a
The 29th annual National Educational willingness and desire to use technology.
Computing Conference (NECC) is just In the same time frame, the infrastructure
in schools with Internet and network connections has also rapidly evolved, and interactive
days away, and this issue of the newsletter
whiteboards have been integrated into everyday teaching and learning. Teachers and
is your one-stop shop for all the information
administrators have seen the benefit of these products – students consistently have positive
you’ll need to navigate your way around our
booth. On page 3, find a schedule of our classroom experiences, and research points to increased engagement and motivation, and
better retention. It has been increasingly acknowledged that the reusability of materials has
stage presentations, workshops, learning
made teachers more productive, and teachers routinely report being able to cover more
opportunities and daily prize giveaways.
concepts more quickly.
This issue also highlights our new student
Look for us at NECC in booth 8145. We’ll demo our interactive whiteboards and showcase
edition of SMART Notebook software, so be
our latest integrated interactive whiteboard system, our new version of SMART Notebook
among the first to find out how it can help
software, our extensive bank of content and resources, the type of services and professional
your students organize their notes and work
development that we offer and many other products that can be combined in a variety of
on digital assignments. If you or any of your
different ways to create engaging, interactive learning experiences. While you’re there, you’ll
colleagues plan to attend NECC, stop by for a
be able to appreciate how well our products integrate for unparalleled ease of use.
one-on-one demo.
Get a firsthand look at what is causing excitement in classrooms across North America and
As always, if you have any comments about
the world. We’re ready to show you our best.
the newsletter or any of the information
featured in this issue, we’d love to hear * Walsh, Bryan. 2007. “A green tipping point.” Time Magazine, October.
from you. Please e-mail your feedback to
education@smarttech.com. Nancy Knowlton is the CEO of SMART Technologies.
June 2008 | PG 1

2. c l a SS r o o m c o N T E N T NEwS
SMART Notebook Visit us at NECC
lesson activities
Find hundreds of high-quality
K–12 lesson activities on our website at
www.smarttech.com/EdCLA. Each lesson is June 29–July 2, 2008
correlated to local curriculum standards and
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
created by classroom teachers or SMART’s
team of curriculum resource developers. San Antonio, Texas
SMART booth 8145
Here are a few of our new lesson activities to try
with your students. You can find the Senteo™
With more than 18,000 teachers, technology coordinators, library media
counterparts of these lessons on page 3.
specialists, administrators, policymakers, industry representatives and exhibitors from
Vowels around the globe, NECC is billed as one of the world’s most comprehensive education
Students in K–3 language arts classes can technology events.
identify and write all the vowels of the
alphabet. We are there for the tenth year to showcase SMART’s all-encompassing solution of
hardware, software, classroom content, resources, services and support that will help
Powers I you make a difference in your students’ education and have a positive impact on their
Math students in grades 7–9 use scientific learning outcomes.
notation to understand powers.
If you’re attending NECC, stop by our booth to say hello and meet some of SMART’s
Optic Fibers product experts, education consultants, curriculum developers and classroom teachers
Science students in grades 10–12 examine who are proficient users of SMART products. Learn more about our professional
some of the uses of optic fibers and how development offerings, and find out how to connect with a community of educators
they work. who are achieving significant results in their classrooms each day.
What lesson activities correlate
SMART Document Camera is now available
to my standards?
Have you ever wondered which SMART-
created lesson activities and Senteo ques-
Visit our booth at NECC, and see how you can further engage your students and
tion sets correlate to your local curriculum
encourage their participation in class with the SMART Document Camera. The document
standards? You can find out in the Educator
camera easily connects to a SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard to capture images and
Resources section on our website under
videos directly to SMART Notebook software.
Lesson Activities. When you’re on the SMART
Notebook lesson activities or Senteo question
You can learn more about the document camera in the August issue of the newsletter
sets page, select the Browsing Curriculum
and at www.smarttech.com/doccam.
Standards link and see what you find!
June 2008 | PG 2

3. NEwS c l a SS r o o m c o N T E N T
Events at the SMART booth Senteo question sets
Carry this listing of SMART’s stage presentations and prize giveaways with you so you
can attend any sessions at NECC that interest you and ensure you’re at our booth when we’re
giving away free products.
SMART booth presentations
Monday, June 30 Tuesday, July 1 Wednesday, July 2
9:30–10:00 a.m. What’s new at SMART Get SMART about SMART’s training
bringing your services
administration on board
10:30–11:00 a.m. SMART’s training services SMART’s online SMART Exemplary
content and resources Educators
11:30 a.m.– SMART’s online content SMART Exemplary SMART’s ultimate
12:00 noon and resources Educators how-to guide
12:30–1:00 p.m. Get SMART about SMART Notebook SMART’s online
Find a database of Senteo
bringing your software 10 content and resources
question sets and lesson activities at
administration on board
education.smarttech.com/SenteoLAUS.
Each question set includes 10 questions
1:30–2:00 p.m. SMART’s ultimate What’s new at SMART SMART Notebook
that are correlated to local curriculum
how-to guide software 10
standards and are compatible with a
matching SMART-created lesson activity on
2:00 p.m. Daily draw and
the same topic.
prize giveaways
Here are some of our newest Senteo
2:30–3:00 p.m. SMART Exemplary SMART’s training services
question sets that you can use in your
Educators
language arts, math and science classes.
3:30–4:00 p.m. SMART Notebook SMART’s ultimate
Vowels
software 10 how-to guide
K–3 language arts students can learn how
to identify vowels in the alphabet.
4:30–5:00 p.m. SMART’s Extraordinary Daily draw and prize
Moments TeacherTube giveaways
Powers
Video Contest
Math students in grades 7–9 can learn
about integers, with questions relating to
5:00 p.m. Daily draw and prize
squared and cubed numbers and other
giveaways
powers.
Wear a SMART T-shirt and win! Optic Fibers
Science students in grades 10–12 can
Drop by the SMART booth at NECC and pick up your free SMART T-shirt. The more you wear it
learn about the properties and uses of
on the show floor, the more chances you’ll have to win a SMART Board interactive whiteboard
optic fibers.
for your classroom. We’re giving one away each day of the show.
Visit our SMART at NECC website to learn more about our products, services and programs
at necc.smarttech.com.
June 2008 | PG 3

4. c l a SS r o o m c o N T E N T NEwS
SMART Learning Showcase your lessons on the SMART
Marketplace Exchange
Do you want to share your best SMART Notebook lesson activities with other educators?
Are you looking for inspiration from peers who use SMART products? Now, you can upload
your own activities and download lessons from peers through the SMART Exchange. Teacher-
submitted lesson activities are organized by subject, grade level and keyword tags, so it’s easy
to find the lessons you need. You can also provide feedback to fellow educators by adding
your comments and ratings. Visit the Exchange at exchange.smarttech.com/files, and select
Teacher-created lesson activities to start sharing your lesson activities today.
SMART Board™ Interactive Whiteboards
For Dummies®
We just released the first interactive whiteboard reference guide in the popular For
Dummies series of books, designed to enhance your experience of using a SMART Board
interactive whiteboard. This how-to guide will help you discover new ways to transform your
lessons into memorable learning experiences.
Searching tips
Visit our website at smarttech.com/support to find out how to get your copy of the SMART
Searching for content in the SMART
Board™ Interactive Whiteboards For Dummies® guide.
Learning Marketplace just got easier.
You can now quickly find what you need
by performing a keyword search and then f E aT U r E a r T I c l E
filtering your search results by content
Kicking it up a notch
type and subject.
When you find content you are interested
in, preview your learning object before
Click. Buzz. Hum. Wow.
downloading it by selecting the Preview
link below the thumbnail image. This These are the sounds of Jason
way, you don’t use up your subscription Dixon’s eighth-grade class coming
allowance on content that does not meet to life every morning. You’ll
your needs. hear pops announcing iBook®
computers opening. You’ll pick up
Texas correlations the electronic tones of software
applications whirring. The reassuring
All manipulatives, audio, video and les-
purr of a SMART Board interactive
son resources (PDFs) in the Learning
whiteboard. The backbeat of
Marketplace are now correlated to Texas
fingertips pulsing over keyboards. All
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) cur-
intermingled with students chatting about their day’s work.
riculum standards.
“Just use your digital camera and import it.” “Listen to what I found in GarageBand®.”
Visit the SMART Learning Marketplace at
learningmarketplace.smartech.com. But what you don’t hear is of equal significance. No textbooks hit desks with hollow thuds.
There’s no whine of pencils ground and sharpened to tiny nubs. No erasers rip through sheets
of lined paper. What you hear are the sounds that accompany one-to-one learning, a school-
wide initiative Oregon’s Springfield Middle School launched four years ago. Every student
receives an iBook and uses it for every subject and every class. Read the full article.
June 2008 | PG 4

5. S m a r T S H owc a S E Sc H o o l P r o f I l E c l a SS r o o m c o N T E N T
Walnut Hill engages every student in learning New interactive tools
in the Gallery
Whether students are reading a new novel, reviewing grammar lessons or
learning about U.S. state capitals, learning in Sara Ritsema’s fifth-grade classroom
Access new and updated
is engaging and interactive for everyone. And it shows in their Texas Assessment of
Knowledge and Skills scores – 59 percent of students scored at the Commended multimedia tools in the Essentials for
Performance standard in reading this year. Educators section of SMART Notebook 10’s
Gallery. You’ll also be able to run a search
Ritsema is one of 17 teachers at of more than 6,600 free learning objects.
Walnut Hill Elementary School
in Dallas, Texas, who uses a SMART Here’s a sampling of some of the new tools:
Board interactive whiteboard. But
Calendar generator
what makes her class even more
dynamic is the integration of her Create and insert a monthly calendar into
AirLiner™ wireless slate and Senteo your SMART Notebook page.
interactive response system. Today’s
Ruler – interactive
learners love to use technology,
and she says it helps them become Draw a straight line with the pen tool and
actively involved in class. “That use this ruler to measure it.
instant response we get with the
Spinner
Senteo system really engages the
kids in learning,” says Ritsema, Change the speed of the spinner, and
whose class comprises special needs individually customize up to 12 sections
students and general education with specific text and color.
students. “My special needs students
Multiple dice
are also excelling using the SMART
Board interactive whiteboard. It Choose up to eight dice to roll in various
promotes, encourages and allows colors, and insert the sum of the dice into
participation by every student.” your SMART Notebook page.
Gallery Sampler
In the Preschool Program for
Children with Disabilities, students We have revamped the Gallery Sampler.
practice their morning calendar and daily weather exercises on the SMART Board Here, you can find the most popular
interactive whiteboard, and Jeri Kitner, campus technologist at Walnut Hill, says it’s education content for your lessons,
helping them to become more active learners. “The kids can touch the cloud and move such as the most popular Flash objects,
it around the SMART Board when they’re talking about the weather and it involves all photographs, sounds and videos, along with
students in the classroom, not just one,” says Kitner. “Whether they want to touch and 23 new Themes.
drag an object with their fingers, a pen tool, a tennis ball, anything, it all works, and it’s
helping them to understand concepts more easily.” If you missed the SMART Notebook 10
edition of the newsletter, you can download
it now at education.smarttech.com/
As the subjects come alive, every student is engaged in their learning. “With our large
EdComp2008. The April issue is jam-
special needs population, not every child has the same learning style, and the SMART
Boards encourage kinesthetic learners to touch and manipulate graphics on the board,” packed with information on the software’s
says Mary Johnston, Walnut Hill’s principal. “The technology has helped to increase their new lesson-creation features and teaching
understanding and learning … and it’s contributing to the rise in our test scores, which is resources.
just phenomenal.”
If you would like to visit Walnut Hill Elementary School to talk with educators about
their successes and see firsthand how they’re putting SMART products to work,
visit the SMART Showcase School section on our website at www.smarttech.com/
EdCShowcase.
June 2008 | PG 5

6. P r o d U c T S P oT l I g H T
Quick facts about SMART Notebook SE
the software
• Ideal for any student computing device,
including laptops, PDAs, SMART phones
and desktops
• The SMART Notebook SE beta for
Windows® operating systems begins in
August 2008
As technology-enabled classrooms become more prevalent across North
• The beta for Mac OS operating systems will America and around the world, the K–12 education model is increasingly changing
be available in spring 2009 from a teacher-led to a student-led environment. Today’s students are digital natives
growing up immersed in a world of technology, and teachers are no longer the sole hub
of information. Following along with this trend, SMART is addressing an obvious need
• SMART Notebook files can be transferred
for a solution that offers structure and enables collaboration and assessment in your
from teacher to student and student to
classroom, while encouraging students to guide their own learning.
teacher
SMART Notebook SE software
• Take-home privileges allow students to
download the software to their home SMART Notebook SE is the first education software made and designed for students
computers to use in technology-rich classrooms. It keeps your students organized by giving them
access to the tools they need to create work, store their files and share ideas in a
• The Gallery includes activities and multimedia environment.
templates for book reports and other
subject-specific activities “We’re now living in a society of digital natives, and research is showing that students
prefer to do their homework in a digital format,” says Jenna Pipchuck, SMART Notebook
• Students can browse for assignment due SE product manager. “Many teachers, however, are reluctant to assign digital homework
dates or find only subject-specific files because students generally don’t have access to the same software at home. SMART
Notebook SE’s take-home privileges help to alleviate this problem, so students can study
and continue working on projects on their home computers.”
• Multiple SMART Notebook files can
be opened at a time, and students can
We’re looking for beta testers
flip between homework, websites and
assignments We are launching the SMART Notebook SE beta in August, and we’re looking for
students between the ages of 8 and 18 to test the software until December 31,
• Students are able to engage in higher order 2008. If you would like more information about how to get involved, send an e-mail
to beta@smarttech.com, and tell us what kind of computer environment you teach in.
thinking because the software allows them
to instantly annotate over files without You and your students could be testing SMART Notebook SE in the next school year!
having to make notes first The full release of SMART Notebook SE will be available in January 2009.
June 2008 | PG 6

7. P r o d U c T S P oT l I g H T
See it in action Student power
Learn more about the SMART Notebook SE beta at NECC. Visit booth
8145 for a demonstration, and see how you and your students can create a dynamic and
collaborative teaching and learning environment.
An inside look
Using SMART Notebook SE, your
students will have access to all the features
you’re enjoying in SMART Notebook 10,
plus the ability to
• Complete assignments
• Interact with material you send them
• Take digital notes
• Transfer files to you and back again
• Access digital content
• Search for and organize their digital files
• Open and flip through multiple SMART
Notebook files
• Customize their own home page
They can do all of this on their personal or
Check the following features in SMART Notebook SE that will help your
shared computing device at school, in the
students get organized and motivated for school.
library and at home.
My Home is a personal home page for your students’ computers. This is a creative and
customizable space that they can adorn with their own pictures, thoughts, doodles,
Up next
notes or drawings.
My Binder is the heart of your students’ file management and organization. It displays
all their SMART Notebook files on their computers. This includes teacher-created
Watch for the Summer Update edition
files, student-created files and assessments in each of their subjects. Students can
of EDCompass newsletter. This two-page
add keywords to search for files and organize assignments by subject and due dates.
primer will keep you informed of contests,
When accessing a file, a preview panel at the bottom of the screen shows pages of the
training events and new products that are
selected file so that students can quickly browse the file to see if it’s the one they’re
available this summer.
searching for.
June 2008 | PG 7
© 2008 SMART Technologies ULC. All rights reserved. EDCompass, Senteo, SMART Board, AirLiner, smarttech, the SMART logo, and all SMART product logos and taglines are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other third-party
product and company names are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Printed in Canada 06/2008 10318-08

8. Sign up now for EDCompass newsletter
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e-newsletter keeps you up to date with the latest SMART products, best practices, tips and tools designed to help you in your daily teaching.
Get quick, convenient online access to classroom content, professional development, the latest lesson activities, program opportunities and contests.
Find the latest issue of the newsletter on our website at education.smarttech.com/EdCompCurrent.
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We will not sell or rent your information to any other organization without your explicit permission. Read the entire privacy policy at
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June 2008 | PG 8
© 2008 SMART Technologies ULC. All rights reserved. EDCompass, smarttech, the SMART logo and all SMART taglines are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC in the U.S. and/or other countries.. Printed in Canada 06/2008 10318-08