SMART Boards - Basic Use

The most basic use of a SMART Board is to use it just like a projector, to project a movie on the screen, or show a PowerPoint presentation. Really, the only extra feature in this case is that you can touch the board to play the video or change the slide. If you only use your SMART Board in this way, you are REALLY missing out on so many other cool uses! Try the following:

• Use the SMART Notebook software to type up notes ahead of time for students, rather than writing and explaining as you go. With all the information there for you already, more focus can be on the explanation. You can even put practice activities right there in the notes file! (See page on SMART Notebook)
• Create templates for frequently-used charts or graphic organizers (KWL, verb conjugation charts, Venn diagram, etc). You can pull up the organizer and write right on the board without having to draw or plan out the diagram ahead of time.
• Find interactive websites and use the SMART Board as a "center" as students rotate around stations in small groups. Students can interact with the website collaboratively as a small group rather than one-by-one in a whole-class setting. Here are some pictures of my students doing this (no faces are shown for permission reasons):

Interested in trying this? Check out these interactive websites. Many have games that are great for whole-class activities as well!

• Quia - tons of pre-made online quizzes, or you can create your own (if you purchase a subscription)
• Languages Online - plenty of fun, interactive games available - many of them are hands-on and work great on a SMART Board!
• Sheppard Software - interactive games for many different subject areas and grade levels
• Math-Play - interactive math games & activities for various grade levels, from Pre-K all the way through high school
• School Time Games - many subject areas, as well as sub-topics (ie Social Studies; Geography)
• Leap Frog - the well-known creator of many educational toys for kids has a whole section of its website for online educational games!
• Import a document into SMART Notebook with sentences or passages that students must come up and edit. Kids love coming up to write on the board!
• Create daily warm-up and/or closing activities and save them in one SMART Notebook file (perhaps organized by unit). Each day you can simply pull up the file and go to the next page. It's an easy way to incorporate interactive activities into a daily warm-up. Here are some examples of my daily "Do Now" activities in SMART Notebook:

If anyone has any other suggestions, please feel free to share!!