Our Smartboard was installed in November. However, we had to wait for a cord to connect it to a computer. From Day 1, the kids in our class have been very excited about it. During guided reading, the Smartboard is one of our centers that all of the students love to have. They use the mag netic letter board to place their spelling words and high frequency words on the board. They like to choose the colors of the letter, and we don't have to waste time putting loose letters back in their compartments. The kids know to touch "clear" and the board is automatically clean!

We have used it to show videos from Discovery Streaming. It is much easier and more enjoyable for the kids than trying to crowd around a 15" computer monitor.

The Smartboard has become a favorite center when we can't go outside. There are so many interactive websites that our students enjoy. One in particular they enjoyed was "painting" an Easter egg. They would paint it and then countinuously change colors on different parts of the egg.

We have found the Smartboard is very useful when we do calendar time in the mornings. The students enjoy writing in the missing information to our calendar questions. During Math, it has replaced the overhead projector with the many manipulatives in the teacher's resources section. The best part is that we can clone items and we never have to do anything to clean up except touch a few keys.

When we are using the Smartboard, students are more inclined to be engaged. They are always at the ready for an opportunity to participate in the lesson by writing ont he Smartboard and using the manipulatives. It was been interesting, watching them experimenting to learn what they can do.

As we learn more ways to use our Smartboard, I am excited about new pathways of learning we will take with our students. We have done many activities with our Smartboard, but I strongly suspect that we have only touched the tip of the icebeg.