When I talk to most teachers, they are familiar with SMART Notebook software. They know how to make shapes, how to use their SMART Ink over Word documents and websites, and most fun of all, they know how to make SMART lab activities. One of the biggest game-changers that teachers don’t know about yet is SMART Learning Suite Online. And because they are unfamiliar, they miss out on some of the most interesting ways to enhance their lessons.

Here’s a few ways you can enhance your lessons with SMART Learning Suite Online.

Share your lesson out to students

A common question I always get from teachers is, “How do I share my SMART Notebook lesson with students?” The answer has arrived: share it on SMART Learning Suite Online. Before class, simply sign into your account with Google or Microsoft, and then upload your file (using the green plus sign) to SMART Learning Suite Online. You will be able to make some additions and changes to your lesson there, but I would advise that you upload your finalized lesson. Next, in class, direct your students to sign in either as a guest or using their email address. Once they sign in, they will be prompted for your class ID (good news – it’s at the top of your teacher page). Give students the number, open your lesson, and boom, you’re sharing your lesson with students!

Invite students to a Workspace

Once you get the hang of sharing your lessons with students, you can make them even more interactive! When you click on a lesson, you are able to press the “Edit” button which takes you to the place where you can make changes to your lesson. With the green plus sign, you can add a(n):

 
The last two are new features! Basically, you can manipulate your pages so that you can share them out to students as a copy for each student (i.e., a handout), or as a Workspace. Workspaces are cool because you share them out to groups of students and then each group can work in their own space together. At this time, students are able to add text, pictures, links, and to draw and move items on the page. It is truly an inventive way to see students collaborate on an assignment, and it can even span multiple days!

Send lessons to students after class so that they can review

When you look at your lessons on your homepage (the page where your teacher name and Class ID are listed), you can see all of your lessons laid out for your perusal. When you look at them closely, three dots are evident in the right hand corner of each lesson. Those dots, when clicked, bring up the option to “Share link.” This will allow you to send the lesson to students for them to view when they are outside of class. If you have a lesson you want to share with them, or even their parents, just paste the link into your Google Classroom as a post. It’s that easy!

Just remember as you try new things out that it’s all a part of the learning process. Take it slow, add new things to your lessons as you feel comfortable, and know that Teq is here and willing to help you take your lessons to the next level with SMART!

To learn more about teaching students with SMART in your classroom, be sure to check out our online professional development courses on Teq Online PD.