January 2, 2007 - The Upper Saddle River Educational Foundation (USREF) has funded a number of SMART Boards throughout the Kindergarten through eighth grade district. As Dr. Joyce Snider, superintendent, explains, "Technology continues to provide schools with a wide array of tools to assist in the instructional process.  The new Smart Boards are an interactive tool that combines the power of the computer, the display of a blackboard, and the enhancements of graphics in a way that makes learning more exciting, more efficient, and more substantive."

The Boards are used at every grade level in age-appropriate lessons.  Christine Thies, first grade teacher at Reynolds School explained, "I recently used my SMART Board for a math lesson to introduce the penny to my students.  The children used magnifying glasses at their desks to identify what was on each side of the penny.  On the SMART Board, I listed the characteristics that I was hoping the children would notice and covered them with a colored box.  The children love coming to the Board and using the pens to write or seeing how their fingers can drag images around the board.  It helps keep the children at their desks focused because the images are so large and easy to see.  They wait patiently until they get a chance to come up to the Board."

At Bogert School, Pat Ackerly, a fourth grade teacher, finds the SMART Board an invaluable tool.  She said, "For our Upper Saddle River Unit, each student receives a packet of information which they need to read through in order to answer questions.  I display each section of the packet on the Smart Board. This helps students improve their study skills habits and their reading comprehension by learning how to take notes and identify key information when reading nonfiction text.  I ask t hem to read through the questions that they will need to answer at the end of each section of the packet.  Then as a class we begin reading the section.  By using the Smart Board tools, students can visually see how to highlight information using the highlighting tool and they can see how to write notes in the margins by using the pen tool. Students are then asked to come to the board and select the tools to show what is key information and should be highlighted or to select the pen tool to write notes in the margins."

Andrew Kramar, eighth grade teacher, added, "Homework worksheets are scanned and projected onto the Smart Board.  Students then come up and write the answers on the Smart Board for the class to see.  This really helps students who are primarily visual learners.   The Smart Board is also used to show movies.  With high end speakers and the look and feel of a flat screen TV, the student’s attention is always where it should be, on the material being presented."