User+Group+Meetings

=January 20, 2010=

**Mahtomedi District Center (1520 Mahtomedi Avenue, Mahtomedi, MN 55115)**

 * Introductions
 * Presentation: Tierney Brothers SMART Education Consultant program
 * Discussion: Spring Showcase
 * Discussion: SMART Response update and issues
 * Tips and Tricks

= = =December 9, 2009 1:00-3:00 PM=
 * White Bear Lake Area Schools District Center Room 201 (4855 Bloom Ave, White Bear Lake MN 55110)**
 * CompView EC position
 * WBL Special Education Teacher demonstrations
 * Time to share

=October 14, 2009=

**Mahtomedi District Center (1520 Mahtomedi Av, Mahtomedi, MN 55115)**
**2009 - 2010 Meeting Dates**
 * October 14th - Mahtomedi
 * November 11th - East Ridge High School (South Washington County Schools)
 * December 9th - White Bear Lake (CompView invited and will discuss their new EC position)
 * January 20th - Mahtomedi (Tierney Brothers invited and will discuss their new EC position)
 * February 10th
 * March 10th
 * April 14th
 * May 12th


 * October 14, 2009**

Great start for this year's NEMSBUG. Lots of discussion about where schools/districts are with implementation, training, successes people are having, and also some ongoing issues people are having. If you don't have time to read the minutes, here is a Wordle that sums up the discussion. The other major discussion that the group had was in regard to losing the Educational Consultant position in the Minnesota market. As you know, Lisa deRoy accepted a promotion within SMART, but the company chose not to replace her. Instead, SMART is asking area re-sellers to create their own EC to work with districts. At this time CompView has an EC and Tierney Brothers has just hired a person. It is the group's understanding that the services offered by the new EC's will be fee-based. Because the positions are new and the role will obviously be very different, we are extending an invitation to CompView and Tierney Brothers to attend a meeting so they can introduce the service and take questions. Both companies have agreed so we will work to include them in an upcoming agenda.

Please look at the calendar for future meetings and volunteer to host. Also, if you have staff that would benefit from joining the wiki, please forward them the link.

The November 11 NEMSBUG will be hosted by South Washington County Schools and will be held at their new high school, East Ridge High School. More information about a specific location will follow.

Tentative dates for the 2009 - 2010 Northeast Metro SMART Board user group (NEMSBUG). At the October 14th meeting we will confirm dates and locations. If necessary, the Mahtomedi Community Room is available for all of the meetings except January 13 (I have reserved the 20th in case another district cannot host on the 13th). We hope, however, to be visiting as many other districts as possible for our meetings.


 * After the meeting on the 14th I will adjust the wiki and send an email to this group with the final dates. **


 * October 14th - Mahtomedi
 * November 11th - East Ridge High School (South Washington County Schools)
 * December 9th - White Bear Lake (more info to follow)
 * January 13th or 20th (decided at 10/14 meeting)
 * February 10th
 * March 10th
 * April 14th
 * May 12th

Discussion regarding EC being removed from MN SMART Response SMART Classroom Suite
 * Topics for 2009 - 2010 NEMSBUG**

Notes

= = = = = = = =

Thank you to Jerelyne Nemanich and Spring Lake Park for hosting this month's meeting! Welcome to Nate Koernig, Minnesota's new SMART account representative who attended the meeting. We had an excellent presentation about SLP's 21st Century Learning Tools Cohort, discussed Senteos, and also started to create list of web 2.0 tools that people are using. Nate is looking into a few questions about Senteos and the 2.0 update. There were also a few good tips. We will be adding a "Web 2.0" page to the wiki. Please add tools you are familiar with and/or ideas for tools that are already listed. Be sure to check out the Tips and Tricks in the meeting minutes. Lori shared directions for how to embed Shockwave files in a Notebook page. Happy Thanksgiving and we'll see you in Mahtomedi on December 17th at the next meeting!

Meeting Minutes

Welcome back! Thank you to everyone who made the trip and helped us create a plan for the upcoming year. A couple of highlights to the meeting include agreement that we should hold meetings in other districts whenever possible and also that we would really like to start focusing more on specific files people are creating. Visiting other districts will allow more teachers to attend at least a meeting or two and also give those districts as opportunity to highlight the work their staff has created. So far we have had two more districts sign-up, Spring Lake Park and Forest Lake. **Please note that the November 12th meeting will be in Spring Lake Park**. More information will follow.

Meeting Minutes

Tentative dates for the 2008 - 2009 Northeast Metro SMART Board user group (NEMSBUG). At the September 17th meeting we will confirm dates and locations. If necessary, the Mahtomedi Community Room is available for all of the meetings except November. We hope, however, to be visiting as many other districts as possible for our meetings.
 * October 8th - Mahtomedi
 * November 12th - Spring Lake Park
 * December 17th - Mahtomedi
 * January 14th - Forest Lake
 * February 11th - Mahtomedi
 * March 11th South Washington County Schools
 * April 8th
 * May 27th

Thank you to those who have attended the Northeast Metro SMART Board User Group organizational meetings these past few months. It’s been very exciting to be a part of a group that has such an interest in discussing best practice, sharing ideas, and that has a genuine interest in collaborating. Please continue to reference the wiki and add information whenever possible. As most districts continue to move to Notebook 10, any tips, training materials, and/or examples that we can share will be greatly appreciated.

Topics this month included a follow-up discussion about Notebook version 10, a demo of VoiceThread and Glogster, discussion about NEMSBUG meetings for the 2008-2009 school year, and a few tips and tricks.

Tentatively plan on the third Wednesday of each month for next year’s meeting dates. During the first meeting we will finalize the locations for each meeting.

Meeting Minutes

Thanks for the great discussion at the NEMSBUG meeting. Topics this month included a discussion about Notebook version 10 (getting a registration key, installation process, feedback from people who have been using it, as well as an overview of new features), information regarding Adopting support for multi-level SMART users (cohorts), an exercise to help with creating an implementation plan, and some great tips. We also appreciate the input people have had on the wiki and all of the great resources that we are starting to gather. Our last scheduled meeting is May 14th so please be thinking about how often you would like the group to meet next year (monthly, quarterly, etc.).

Meeting Minutes

Once again we had a great turnout for the NEMSBUG meeting. Approximately 25 people from at least nine different district were in attendance. Topics this month included an the SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE) program, Google Earth, SMART Ideas, preparing subs, and tips & tricks. We did not have time for the SMART Board implementation activity and decided to table it until the next meeting. If you are in the process of trying to decide in which grades/departments future SMART Boards should be installed this activity is intended to help process the task.

Meeting Minutes

Thank you to everyone that attended the February 13th NEMSB user group meeting. Topics this month included an overview of the wiki Matt Oswald (Stillwater) created, a discussion of training and staff development methods in the schools/districts, a brief Senteo demo, several online resources were shared, and a brief discussion regarding file sharing.

Meeting Minutes

Lisa and Patrick hosted the meeting at the district center and presented a great agenda. We introduced ourselves and began our discussions about the organization, make-up, and goals of our user group. Lisa used a SMART notebook file to monitor the meeting's events. The pdf file is available here.

Meeting Minutes

SMART Web Site Resources [|Smart Technologies] [|SMART Teacher's Hub] [|SMART Exchange]

The link to the SMART videos on TeacherTube were not included in Lisa’s notes, but here is the link [|Teacher Tube SMART Board Videos]