Kreider's Contemplations on Teaching & Technology

Today I knew exactly who needed help in an instant, thanks to Chromebooks and NetSupport software! I’m so excited! Here’s what happened:

I was teaching a math lesson, using the Interactive Student Edition in ThinkCentral. The kids followed my instruction from the classroom projector as we learned the concept. Then, when we got to the Personal Math Trainer part (guided practice), I told them to do it independently on their chromebooks, while I watched the mini-images of their screens on the NetSupport app using my Surface Pro tablet.

I couldn’t really see the problem they were working on due to the tiny size of 30 little screens, but that didn’t matter – all I needed to see was when the yellow “Try Again” box popped up on their screen. That was my signal that the student got something wrong. I walked over to the student and looked at his/her screen to give a quick little clarification or guiding question. When I saw several at once, I called them all up to a little group, then projected one of theirs for the group to see and we talked through it while the confident students continued working independently, getting immediate feedback from ThinkCentral. Tomorrow, I think I’ll try sending a peer over to help a struggling student, just to mix things up a bit.

This was so much more effective than my paper lesson when I would assign the Share and Show questions in the book and have them raise their hands so I can walk around and check whether they could move on or not. With the technology, I knew the instant a student got a question wrong (except when they clicked the yellow box so fast I didn’t see it), so I knew exactly which student to go see and the successful ones didn’t have to wait for me. I wasn’t hovering over my typical strugglers, I was letting them try it on their own and see if they can resolve their own mistakes.

In writing, they were to compose their introductory paragraph in Google Docs (previous lessons equipped them with lead and topic sentence strategies). I could see on my NetSupport screen exactly who had not written a single sentence. After a few minutes, I clicked on a screen that looked like it had some sentences on it, and shared it with the struggling writers. We gave that student feedback, and it gave the struggling student a peer example that wasn’t perfect, but was a start! (I also knew exactly who needed to stay in at recess for a few minutes to get something, anything, on their paper!) Best of all, no one asked me how to spell a word! (They can actually speak the word to Google Docs – Tools menu, Voice Typing.)

I am looking forward to being more responsive to students’ needs as I encourage them to practice productive struggle in all areas. I want them to struggle and learn to attack problems independently, but I don’t want them sitting there wasting time. I think this technology is going to help me achieve the balance between struggle and support much more effectively. What are your thoughts and experiences?

Today I had students using base-ten blocks in their teams to model a math problem. I wanted the rest of the students to see what a particular group was doing. However, I had forgotten to pass out the mats that would make it easy to carry their resulting collection of blocks up to the document camera. But then I realized, I’ve got a Surface Pro in my hands (I walk everywhere with it) and it has a camera! So, I just activated the camera and voila, I was able to project a live view of the team’s desk to my wireless projector! We watched as the team performed the regrouping task with their blocks. I was able to walk to each team and have the class compare their work to others. They pointed out other team’s errors, and saw different strategies. Suddenly, there was even more accountability since every team knew their work could be next on display.

I can’t wait to use the camera for a million other lessons! Science labs, progress on projects, etc. Now, any part of my room can be projected for the class to instantly see and discuss.

I’m sure you’ve done this lesson before – hand every group a set of 3×5 post-its to collect their ideas, stick them on a classroom poster at the front of the room, and then discuss as a class to find commonalities, unique ideas, etc. Only problem is, NO ONE can read it, except you! They never write big enough or neat enough, so when it comes to a class discussion, you are stuck reading them aloud while the class is “attentively” listening, absorbing the idea, and then responding to it, or remembering it until they get a turn to respond. NEVER AGAIN!!!

Today, I whipped up a Google Doc in 30 seconds as they were transitioning from the previous lesson. I quickly inserted a table, labeled each row with the group name. I clicked the Share button to get the link to the doc and made it editable by all. In Google Classroom, I posted the link. Ready to go!

In groups of 4-6 students, they used two or three Chromebooks to add their group’s notes to the shared document. I projected it on the screen, and we could all see what every group was doing. I would point out a model response as a guide for other groups, or walk over to a group that seemed to not be contributing. Now we were all reading each other’s work, and it was full-screen size when we started our class discussion. I could easily zoom, highlight, or even edit as we built upon the work each group contributed. WOW! They were so much more involved, the discussion was so much richer! Now if only we had a poster printer so I could hang it on the wall afterward! 🙂