Arlington school advocates use of SMART products to enhance teaching and learning
CALGARY, Alberta --- March 10, 2011 --- SMART Technologies Inc., (NASDAQ: SMT) (TSX: SMA) announces that Kenmore Middle School (KMS) in Arlington, Virginia, has been named the first SMART Showcase School of the Year. KMS uses a wide variety of SMART hardware and software products and standardized on both SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and SMART Response™ interactive response systems in 2004. The school has four SMART Exemplary Educators on staff and, in 2010, hosted more than 300 visitors seeking information on how SMART products can be used to support teaching and learning. The school also hosted the third annual SUCCESS conference, a mid-Atlantic II area conference promoting the effective integration of SMART products in classrooms. KMS focuses on arts and communications technology, and its teachers use a variety of SMART hardware and software products to deliver the Arlington middle school curriculum in an innovative and engaging manner. KMS will be formally recognized as the 2011 SMART Showcase School of the Year at a ceremony taking place today at the school.
Today, each of the middle school’s 78 classrooms is equipped with a SMART Board interactive whiteboard. According to school officials, 80 percent of KMS students use a SMART product at least once per week, and the majority of teachers use the award-winning SMART Notebook™ collaborative learning software on a daily basis to create and deliver interactive lessons. Many classrooms are also equipped with a number of other SMART products, including the SMART Slate™ wireless slate, SMART Document Camera™, SMART Notebook SE (Student Edition) software, SMART Notebook Math Tools software, SMART Classroom Suite™ interactive learning software, SMART Sync™ classroom management software and SMART Bridgit™ conferencing software. School administrators encourage all teachers to take advantage of SMART’s online training, and a number of educators enjoy SMART’s professional development opportunities. A group of KMS teachers run a SMART user group, meeting regularly to share information and training tips. Many teachers at KMS are also active on the SMART Exchange™ website (exchange.smarttech.com), an online community with more than 50,000 digital resources, including SMART Notebook lesson activities and SMART Response question sets. In addition, KMS has a repository of SMART Notebook lessons created by their teachers.
“We strive to enable our students to create, inquire, communicate and connect through technology-based teaching and learning opportunities, and being named the first SMART Showcase School of the Year is a tremendous affirmation of the tireless efforts made by our faculty and staff,” says Dr. John Word, Principal of Kenmore Middle School. “The seamless integration offered by SMART products enables us to analyze data that instantly informs our instruction and empowers us to charge into the 21st century with confidence.”
“We are pleased to name Kenmore Middle School as the first SMART Showcase School of the Year,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “The educators at KMS not only understand the value of using SMART products to enhance teaching and learning, but they’re also excellent advocates of the immense benefits offered by integrating and combining a number of SMART hardware and software products to engage students and improve learning outcomes.”
About Kenmore Middle School
Located in Arlington, Virginia, Kenmore Middle School has more than 85 teachers serving more than 700 students throughout Arlington County. KMS provides an environment enriched by the integration of arts and communications technology and promotes academic excellence, personal responsibility, trust and mutual respect for all. The mission of KMS is to provide a balanced learning environment of intellectual, social, cultural and physical experiences designed to meet the needs of early adolescents. For more information, visit apsva.us/kenmore.
About SMART Showcase Schools
SMART Showcase Schools use classroom technology in outstanding ways. They act as resources for other educators who want to learn more about the benefits of implementing SMART products in the classroom. Visitors to SMART Showcase Schools will see how SMART products are used every day to engage students and enhance lessons. SMART Showcase Schools are located throughout the United States and Canada, with a growing number throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. To learn more about SMART Showcase Schools, see smarttech.com/showcaseschools.
About SMART
SMART Technologies is a leading provider of collaboration solutions that transform the way the world works and learns. We believe that collaboration and interaction should be easy. As the global leader in interactive whiteboards, we bring more than two decades of collaboration research and development to a broad range of easy-to-use, integrated solutions that free people from their desks and computer screens, so collaborating and learning with digital resources are more natural.
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