Many (or most) of my students live below the poverty line and don't have the conveniences of other students nationwide (like, school supplies). Yet, they are engaging and sharp in many ways I can't imagine. They are truly resilient in circumstances I couldn't fathom when I was young.
Regardless of their situation, they show up, ask questions, and complete their work without complaint.
And they are fun. I learn quite a bit from them and I want to give them tools to learn from me as well.
My Project
Even my tiny public school has been thrust into teaching remotely through whatever means we can find. And that we will do. But while video links are nice (socialization), to teach math digitally I found I needed to be able to "write on the board" as I do in the classroom.
My students have asked that we flip the classroom, specifically asking me to create interactive slide shows for them to review before video class.
Then they want to ask questions and watch me work through problems “on screen.”
These are reasonable requests in an unreasonable situation. But to create the daily demos, and even more so to work math problems real-time, I need a drawing tablet. That is essential. But that nice tool won’t be of as much help if used on my old, slow computer. To generate presentations for 3 different classes per day and to accomplish ad hoc one-on-one tutoring, a different laptop is needed
You should see my scribbles from my trackpad. These products will allow me to make useful, engaging presentations for my students. The drawing tablet is suggested by many fellow math teachers and the computer, which seems extravagant, though I tried to find a low-end option, is because my current one is on its last legs and cannot handle the load of SmoothDraw and other tools necessary to make math presentations for e-learners.
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