SMART Notebook: Why have I been afraid of you?

Today I ventured into the world of SMART Notebook for the first time. Becky and I were working on our unit outline for fieldwork and decided to try using SMART Notebook to make the presentation more interactive than a typical PowerPoint. We narrowed down our topic (Ancient Greece) into the points we wanted to make sure we discussed in our direct instruction lesson and I jumped in.




Now, to be honest, I have minimal experience with the program. We use it during calendar time at school, but the teacher I work with designed the whole thing. I simply slide the pieces around when I need to and fill in whatever blanks are there. So taking on creating a notebook was a little overwhelming.




What I didn't realize was how creative you need to be on your own to really make a successful SMARTBoard activity. One of the pages I designed was for the Geography of Ancient Greece. I found a blank map, added color to it, and added city points. I then listed the different city-states on the side and made them movable. We now have an interactive way to show the students where these places were located.

I love what the program is able to do, and how adding an interactive feature to the lesson will make it more enjoyable for students. I think by experimenting with it today, and what I will continue to do over the next week, will make me much more confident using SMART Notebook to design lessons for my future students.