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Lynette Feenstra, kindergarten teacher at Hull (Iowa) Christian School and a member of First Christian Reformed Church of Hull, has a much more interactive classroom now, thanks to “smart” technology she recently won.

Feenstra won second place in the SMART Exchange Content Challenge. Her prize was 32 handheld remotes, valued at $2,000, to go with the SMART Boards that are in each classroom. The whole school can share the remotes.

Feenstra said she was surprised to win. “I thought I had a very good lesson, but entries were emailed from all over the country,” she said.

A SMART Board is about the size of a chalkboard. It’s run by a computer, allowing the teacher to swiftly add and erase items with a touch, among many other functions. The individual remotes allow students to participate by entering their own responses. In math, for example, students “touch” a certain number of tadpoles to “change” them into frogs. Feenstra is able to monitor each student’s progress simultaneously.

 “The SMART Board has opened up a whole new avenue for me as a teacher and how I can present lessons,” she said. “It makes the kids participate more.”