Archives: templates

Word Sort Templates for the Smartboard

Want an easy way to create a word sort using a Smartboard?  Try out these new Smartboard templates:

Basic shapes (to look like a chart) and text boxes:

Using a few Interactive Features from the Lesson Activities Toolkit in the Notebook software:

(For those of you who teach in Salem, you can also get to them from the G drive > Common> ITRT Resources for Teachers > Smartboard > Smartboard Activities > Word Sorts).  These word sorts were actually an idea from Debbie Kier with some input from Angela Hash.

Finally, want some pre-made Smartboard words sorts?  Check out these resources created by Kristi Burke from Orange County Public Schools.

Know of any other resources for words sorts on the Smartboard?  Leave a comment if you do!

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Integration is the Key

Here’s another great website chock full of ready-made templates from last year’s VSTE (but that was passed on by fellow participants this year):  Integration in theKey!!  Sherri Miller and Eric Postman have put together this awesome website with templates for Kidspiration, Inspiration, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.  They promise to keep adding more, so place bookmark this website and come back to check frequently!  I sure will!!

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Resources for Integrating Technology with Marzano’s Instructional Stategies


I have had the opportunity to attend some really great sessions in the last two days at VSTE, and I am trying to get around to posting what I’ve learned. This site, Putting the Pieces Together: Integrating Technology with Marzano’s Instructional Strategies, is at the top of my list because it matches so closely to some of our division’s goals…and it’s just an incredibly huge resource! It was put together by Sheri Miller, an ITRT for Gloucester County, VA. It contains resources to match the instructional strategies from the book, Classroom Instruction that Works by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane E. Pollock. Sheri has taken the researched-based strategies from the book and compiled ready-to-use resources that allow teachers to integrate technology with activities that match the strategies:

  • Similarities & Differences
  • Summarizing & Note-Taking
  • Effort & Recognition
  • Homework & Practice
  • Non-Linguistics Representations
  • Cooperative Learning
  • Objectives & Feedback, Hypotheses
  • Questions, Cutes, & Advanced Organizers.

The section on Summarizing and Note-Taking even includes strategies for integrating technology into Interactive Note-Taking (an upcoming in-service at our March 7 Professional Development Day)! And the best part? The activities are all ready-to-use in programs our schools already have: Kidspiration, Inspiration, Kidpix, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or on the web. It’s incredible!! Thanks Sheri, for a great session and an invaluable resource!

If that’s not enough, Gloucester County has also put together a great repository of websites matching the SOLs on their Elementary K-5 Resource page! I will definitely be spending some time looking through all these resources in the weeks after the conference!

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