Part of my job is to keep "up to date" on the latest and greatest versions, products and features of all the SMART family offerings.  In order to do this, I take a variety of "trainer certifications" at SMART Headquarters.  I enjoy these days -- I often learn some little trick that I didn't figure out for myself, or see a new feature that I missed during my own play time, and I get to be the student for a day, rather than the teacher.  Bonus? It not only gives me cred, it also allows my to boast a little with a bunch of cool little graphics on the right hand side of my blog!

As such, I recently attended the Math Tools Trainer Certification for the new-ish Math Toolbar that you can purchase to add to SMART Notebook (on the Windows side for now).  During this training, we also discussed the new-ish Math measurement tools, which are part of a FREE upgrade in Notebook 10.6 (again, only on Windows machines for now).

I'm not going to lie - I thought I'd figured it all out. I mean really, does it take a brain surgeon to figure out how to use a virtual ruler, compass and protractor? I may have the most experience teaching high school Social Studies, but I wasn't expecting to learn anything new on the Math MEASUREMENT side of things (could cms and inches really have changed all that much since my University Math days?)

Well. I was wrong. I obviously hadn't played around with the tools enough, because I LEARNED A NEW FUNCTIONALITY. Shocking, I know.  This virtual ruler works like a real-life version in that when you pick up a pen and trace along the edge, the pen actually STICKS to the side of the ruler!!

And so, my friends, I thought I'd share this revelation with you via a non-narrated visual demo (sorry, I'm fighting a cold and my voice sounds funny...my self-centered 16 yr-old version of myself doesn't want to record this nasally voice to share with the world). Enjoy! :)