From the SMARTBoard guys at www.teachingwithsmartboard.com you can immerse yourself with new teaching ideas and techniques while also learning to use your SMARTBoard. Space is limited.

This is a post about seeing how involved your students are in class.

Energizing Brain Breaks are 1-2 minute activities to help your students refocus. Now they are available in PowerPoint and SMARTBoard Versions

I learned a tip yesterday that most certainly will help my students. It is that I should use a wireless mouse in class. Here is what I mean. You just have your mouse with you while you are in the back of the room and then when you need to do anything on your computer you can just scroll your mouse on any available surface. I've used slate's and special pointers before with poor performances. With the mouse I can just naturally move things around. Give it a try.

Calling all Administrators with teachers that use SMARTBoards! This is a resource that your teachers will love. The book shows how to use teaching templates made in Notebook (SMARTBoard) software. The book explains how to access the free templates from www.teachingwithsmartboard.com

Energizing Brain Breaks help students to refocus in the middle of class. They only take 1-2 minutes. Teachers love them because they help get the jitters out of students. They are work well for any student K-12. There are links to websites with videos of students in action doing a brain break.

We are going to give 1000 Energizing Brain Breaks books away to needy schools. Schools that have a free or reduced lunch program of 40% or more qualify to get the books. See below for more details. 25% of the profits of Energizing Brain Breaks Book are going to underprivileged schools. We have given over 1000 books away to schools all over the United States. We need to give another 1000 away. We will give 25 books (a $375 value) to each school that meets the criteria. There will be no shipping and no cost involved. All you will need to do is fill out the form and send it in to get the books. Energizing Brain Breaks are 1-2 minute brain and body challenges to help your students refocus in class. More info at www.energizingbrainbreaks.com

If you were to make a list of the 13 most important traits of a TEACHER, what would they be? I did this and it was very challenging. GIve it a try and see what your list would be like. I got the idea from Ben Franklin who gave us 13 virtues to live by.

Give a Brain Break every 30 minutes in your class. This Brain Break has the students tapping toes together to a pattern. It takes about 1-2 minutes and then they are done and ready to get back to the class material. There are video examples of the Energizing Brain Break in action.

Download a free gallery collection file for your SMARTBoard. There are pre-made graphs that you can slide into any lesson with ease. Graphs include standard rectangle graphs, polar graphs, trig graphs, number lines, and special colored graphs.

Brain Breaks are excellent for students to get refreshed in just 1-2 minutes. Students of all ages are being helped by having a Brain Break every 30 minutes. Teachers are seeing the need to give students a little break to help them refocus. The DVD has 50 videos of students in action doing Brain Breaks. The DVD follows the Energizing Brain Breaks book page for page. There is also a link to http//brainbreaks.blogspot.com which has many video examples available.

If you would like to learn about using the Smartboard in your classroom you should check out the website teachingwithsmartboard.com. There are 75+ episodes each with 15 to 20 minutes of using the Smartboard in the classroom. Also, there is a book called "Easy Smartboard Teaching Templates" that you can check out there as well. The book goes into great detail how you can use the "free" templates on the website and begin making interactive lessons for your students in minutes.

This site has video examples of students taking "Brain Breaks" in the middle of class. "Brain Breaks" help students to focus in class and also they are fun and engaging. Many of the activities cross the midline to help engage both sides of the brain.