SMART: Board Tools on the Desktop

I'm under the impression that you SMART users are a little more comfortable with your boards since you have had them for a while. Some of you may be new to the school or may have switched from a grade level that didn't have SMART. I know you are overloaded with interims, benchmarks, and just inspiring the kids to pay attention to you, but hopefully today's tip will help you get some extra mileage out of your SMART board and enhance your lessons.

When you turn on your laptop you probably have the SMART board tools open on the side. (If not, you can always open them.) When you click on the arrow button it should act as a mouse. When you use your finger you can click on your desktop just like using a mouse. This means that you can open up websites or Envisions and use the board tools right over the desktop.

Open Envisions from the web (http://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com) or from your CD Roms and make sure the board tools are open too.

Now you can flip pages, zoom in or out, or write over the textbook right there on your board. As I've been in and out of classrooms I've seen people utilizing them with the Envisions Visual Learning Animations which is another great Envisions tool. And students can come up and do it too!

This means other websites and games are literally at your students fingertips. (Pun intended) I'm in the process of organizing my bookmarks so everyone can get to them, but for now you can check out what I have here: http://delicious.com/hilarythomas

Students can play games as a class or for centers.

Or, add notes and highlight pages on the web.

There are many ways to use your SMART board and I know you guys are already doing a great job adding interactivity to your lessons.