“SMART! I remember having a SMART Board when I was a new teacher, it brings me nostalgic joy!” Often when I work a booth at a conference, I hear comments along the lines of, “I miss my SMART Board”, or “I have decades of Notebook lessons I wish I could still use!” or my personal favorite, “Can you still calibrate?” Some of the best conversations come from these questions, so I’ve made it my mission to share that everything SMART created for educators in the past is not only still available (ok, maybe not pen calibrating), but continuing to be innovative as the world of education evolves. You don’t know, what you don’t know.
I graduated high school in 1999. This puts me right in that odd middle generation who isn’t quite sure if we should be a millennial or a gen X-er. In the world of SMART, that means I experienced the first generation of SMART boards as a student, then watched them evolve into the interactive flat panels they are today. Immediately after college, I stepped into teaching, which made me that technologically savvy newbie sharing Notebook files with my colleagues. Notebook was truly the original desktop lesson creation tool and I soaked in every tool. Fast forward almost 20 years where I’m a member of the sales team at SMART continuing to share those amazing tools with educators daily. The experiences I had in my early teaching career help me identify not only with the wide-eyed teachers embracing the powerful new technology being created, but also with those who’ve been in the classroom for decades and tend to miss their original teaching tools.
What I desperately want to share though, is that the old and the new can work hand in hand. The comment above about missing old Notebook files…well let me share for the youngsters as well as the experienced, Lumio. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lumio is a cloud-based solution that allows educators to not only pull in years’ worth of Notebook files, files can be combined with Power Point, Google slides and PDF’s. Not only can multiple file types be combined, stored and shared, teachers are able to add games, activities, assessments, YouTube videos and even audio instruction for more powerful and engaging lessons. SMART has also partnered with companies such as Desmos, PhET and Kooth, to enhance the classroom experience. Recently after completing a session on Lumio during a conference for math educators, a teacher shouted out, “this is like other software I’ve tried, BUT ON STEROIDS, it does EVERYTHING!” So, for those who are fresh out of teacher college and exceptionally comfortable with the cloud…start with Lumio, connect it to your Google Drive, add a PhEt lab and build a lesson you’re able to share out to student devices. For the veterans out there? Grab a Notebook file you made in 2007, add it to Lumio, borrow a few slides from the Lumio lesson library full of ready-made content and share with your peers! Lumio truly does everything, and the team here at SMART cannot wait to share it with you.
TAKE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH LUMIO
Wednesday, March 22, 1:00 pm–1:50 pm
TCC – TCC – Room 406
Join Lake Washington School District SMART Ambassadors as they share how to take student engagement to the next level and foster a learning environment of active learners and collaborators all while saving precious teacher time. Notebook lessons, PPT’s, PDF’s and even Google Slides can all be blended together and transformed in exciting and collaborative ways. We’ll share examples and strategies that you can use in your classroom tomorrow!
Presented by
Teacher
Lake Washington School District
3rd Grade Teacher, Sammamish, WA Tech Integration Facilitator SMART Ambassador and Certified Trainer, MIE Expert Mom, Wife, Critter Keeper, Fun Haver
Teacher
Lake Washington School District
2nd Grade Teacher, Sammamish, WA Tech Integration Facilitator SMART Ambassador and Certified Trainer, MIE Expert Mom, Wife, PNW lover of outdoors
Professional Development Specialist
Prior to joining SMART, Sarah was a classroom teacher, team lead, and administrator in Houston, TX. She has unique experience in helping educators integrate technology to provide effective feedback and promote active learning in their classrooms. As a result, she is committed to supporting educators in establishing a learning environment where technology is meaningful, and the focus is on student engagement and mastery.
Regional Education Manager
SMART Technologies
Jessica Secan is a Regional Education Manager with SMART Technologies. With a Masters in Education Leadership and 15 years of both classroom and school administration experience, Jessica enjoys collaborating with educators to integrate technology into their schools. Working for SMART has inspired her interest in technology and how it enhances the classroom experience for the 21st century learners of today.