As part of the Smart Board Notebook software, the Lesson Activity Toolkit (LATK) contains customizable tools and templates (including activities, games, and graphics) that you can use to create professional looking, interactive and engaging activities. You will find the Lesson Activity Toolkit in the Gallery tab - the same place where images and interactives are located.  Check out this LINK for a very good explanation of the LATK.

INTERACTIVE SITES FOR EDUCATION

All of the best K-5 online, interactive, educational games and simulations in one place! 
Choose from fun, educational, interactive games and simulations for math, english language arts, science, social studies, brainteasers, music, art, holidays and more!  Very comprehensive. 
Check it out at this link.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Take a look at this fantastic chart based on the new Bloom's Taxonomy:

http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm

It is a list of web 2.0 tools that correspond to Bloom's Taxonomy levels. 
Each listing is linked to the site. 
This same site has a very nice list of  INTERNET RESOURCES catgorized by subject.
http://instructech.usi.edu/webresources.asp

Tip of the Day for Smart Board Users

CLONING

Select an object or text on your notebook page by clicking on it.  Drop down the menu button in the upper right corner. Select  ”clone” to make an exact copy. 
Select “infinite cloner” to make this object a cloner until you click off by selecting the words “infinite cloner”.  Infinite cloners keep cloning as you drag and drop.  Use the infinite cloner feature to create virtual manipulatives for math or clone letters of the alphabet for ELA activities.

You can also clone pages so that multiple students complete an activity.  OPen the page sorter, click on the thumbnail of the page, in the page sorter, you can select the drop down menu and clone the page as many times as you want.   Students should sign their pages when they have finished the activity.

Example (excerpt from Mrs. Blossom's blog):

During a recent workshop, one participant showed how she was using the infinite cloner, shapes and grouping features of SMART Notebook software to help students develop their vocabulary.  

All the letters of the alphabet were placed on a page as infinite clones, with the vowels and consonants in different colours. One student chooses a word from a list; the other students drag the letters into a box on the screen to correctly spell that word. The teacher has created a simple hands on activity where students were able to collaborate!

Great List of Resources

Interested in a great list of resources?  Check out the TEQ Educator Resource Center -  Link


This is a comprhensive list of ready made notebook files that you can download and use for FREE!


One of my favorites is a file contains a great variety of cool graphic organizers that can be used in multiple subject areas. Some of the organizers are: venn diagrams, life cycle charts, cause and effect charts, story starters and many more! - Link

Tip of the Day for Smart Board Users

CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR

Brighten up your Notebook by easily changing the color of your page backgrounds.  First of all make sure no objects on the page are selected.  Click on the Properties tab on the side of the Notebook work area.  Click on Fill Effects and select a color. Your background will change to the color that is selected.  Another technique is to right click the notebook page and select “set background”.

Tip of the Day for Smart Board Users

ATTACHING SHORTCUTS AND FILES USING THE PAPERCLIP TAB

Add a shortcut to a website or file easily by using the paperlip page tab.  You can then open up the file or website from any page in your Notebook by clicking on the paperclip.  When you insert a copy of the file it will save with your Notebook file. 

HOW TO ....

Click on the page tab with the paperclip.  Look at the bottom of the open window.  Click on INSERT, select “copy of file” or “hyperlink. Browse and find file that you want to insert or type in address of website that you want to link.  You will see a link pop up in the window.  When you want to access it all you have to do is click the paperclip.

Tip of the Day for Smart Board Users

ADDING A PAGE TO THE SMART NOTEBOOK GALLERY

After you have spent time designing a Notebook page you might want to add the page to the Gallery so that you can use it as a template for future pages. 

Directions:

Select the page’s thumbnail picture in the page sorter.  Drop down the menu button in the right corner of the thumbnail image.  Select”Add Page to Gallery”.  The page will be added to the Gallery under “My Content”.  It will only be in the Gallery of the computer you are working on.  In order to transfer the picture you will have to drag it onto a notebook page and save it to a file and add it to another computer's Gallery content.