Teaching with Smartboard.com

Someone gave me the suggestion this summer to use a tennis ball to move things around on the SMARTBoard.  I don’t remember who told me, but it is an awesome idea.  I do know that the tennis ball has helped my students move things around.  For some reason, a tennis ball glides on the board very nicely and the students feel like they can press pretty hard on it.  It is outstanding for special needs students.  Give it a try.

Some problems with moving items occur because you touch the item on the ”inside”.   See the picture below.   You must click on the outline of the item to move it.  This gets frustrating with certain objects that don’t have something inside it. This shape below you must click on the black line to get it to move.

 Whereas if you have a shape like this, you can touch it anywhere to move it.

Lastly, I think the easiest way to help students is to tell them to select the item first, and then move the item. This is done by touching the board with your finger and then sliding your finger across the object.  Some students like to use a tennis ball to touch and drag.  You will see your object is selected because of the blue line around it and the green circle above it which allows you to spin it.  Also, when an item is selected, you should see the little box with an arrow in the upper right corner.  This will open the dialog box to many other possibilities.  Once selected, an item is much easier to move.

Happy Smartboarding,

Dave

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