Category — Uncategorized

I’m out sick today, but I could somehow sense the illness coming on yesterday.  Most days that the little angels are being looked after by a sub are a complete waste.  Every teacher knows it.  The sub can’t teach your content, and having the kids work independently under someone else’s watch rarely yields good results.

I, however, have had a large amount of success bringing myself to the classroom even when I’m not physically there through the sound of my voice and some other tools.

The first tool that I use is my LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen which I’ve blogged about before.  Essentially this pen creates videos of me doing practice problems for my physics and math classes.  I usually use it for showing example problems to study from before tests on www.mrkadin.com.

I also recorded narration to a power point presentation.  This processes is explained here.  It is fairly simple.  You just need the time to sit down and record it on the fly.  I sent links to the subtitutes and copies of the power points and they simply showed them in class.

You can take a quick listen to the presentation by downloading it here.  Note that the filesize is pretty large (>30MB) with all of the recorded sounds.

In my experience, the students watch diligently when I use these techniques.  It’s not interactive; the kids can’t ask me questions.  But, it doesn’t keep them a lot more engaged than 10 dittos to finish by the end of the period.

Reports from the substitutes are just now coming in by email.  The classes apparently “went pretty well” and “everyone was enraptured by the video.”  Ever had your kids enraptured with a substitute?

A website I recently encountered, text the mob, allows you to set up instant polls (much like the clickers I’ve blogged about here, and here). Students text their answers to a number given to you by the website, and you can watch a graph of student responses populate in real time. Pretty neat, and much less expensive than a set of clickers for your class. It is certainly not as feature-rich though.

Most schools don’t let the students use their cell phones in school. But I feel like within your own classroom (as many teachers do with ipods) you can have your students take out their phones, turn them on, send the text, and then turn them off. The whole thing would be quick, and would a minor disruption to the rules.