The Smart Exchange is now the best resource for finding lessons to use on your Smartboard. If you are lucky enough to have access to a Smart Response system (formerly Senteo), you can also find pre-made question sets. There are also other types of Notebook files that can be found there such as attendance files (search term: attendance) or kooshball activitites (search term: kooshball).
To begin with, I always like to start by searching through the "Standards-Correlated Resources" which allows you to search through specific Programs of Study. Make sure you change to the Canadian version of the website, as the US version is usually the default (top right corner, click on the flag).
Standards-correlated searches do not always reveal every resource that relates to the outcomes you are trying to teach, so it is always a good idea to do a search from the main page as well. To take a quick look at your search results without downloading or opening any files, click on the preview window. This will allow you to cycle through the slides in the file, however, any flash interactive pages will not show up properly. For these pages, you'll need to download or open up the entire file.
When you find a file you'd like to use, or a selection of pages, there is a simple way to copy them into your own Notebook file. I quite often take a few pages from each resource and compile them into my own lesson. Watch the video below to see how:
I agree, Andy. SMART exchange is growing in resources because of the willingness to share. Teachers shouldn't feel worried about sharing their SMART Notebook files. Many files may get tweeked, but if there wasn't sharing, people couldn't get their creativity flowing. I get many new ideas by looking at files posted by other educators. Collaboration, communication and sharing promote learning and creativity.
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