Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Smart Slate- Stupid Teacher

Yesterday's fun:  Day #1 of the wireless smart slate.  I'm not kidding when I say it makes me feel like a totally uncoordinated five year old.  And my writing on the screen looks like it too. (Like signing on those electronic check machines or trying to write on an Etch-a-sketch. ARGH!)

The problem is that you "write" on the slate (with a stylus), but you can't see what you are writing.  You have to look at your projection screen to see what you are writing or have written.  (I'm learning that if I pretend like I can see my invisible writing on the slate, I write almost legibly.)

In the first two hours, the kids were getting a good chuckle out of my struggles.  Finally, 3rd hour rolled in and as they watched me making a mess of it, one of the boys told me that his last hour teacher had them try it out in class.  (Smart teacher.)  He said, "You're doing really well.  That darn thing is hard to control.  I felt like an idiot." 

And he got an A+ from me for the day.

3 comments:

margie said...

by next week you will be a pro.

troutbirder said...

Well yes. I dunno. I loved teaching right up to the end. Still it seemed to me that every technological innovation going back to the overhead projector was supposed to revolutionize education or make it more efficient. Not. And some like the computer didn't save time but just encouraged the people in charge to require more and more paperwork...

Beth said...

I'm next--I should have my set-up by mid-March. The young other Eng. teacher already does and she does everything on it--of course she used it in college.
Nice kid you have---don't you just love it when one of them comes through like that?!