My students need a wireless tablet to integrate with the SmartBoard. This tablet will allow me to continue working on the SmartBoard while standing anywhere in the room. Students could write on the tablet at their desks and this would project onto the SmartBoard from anywhere in the room.
I absolutely love my SmartBoard and its powerful tools. I don't want, however, to feel chained to it. I want to instruct using all modalities from all corners of the room.
My school has strong performing arts and multimedia academies.
Our enrollment is populated with creative unique students. I am routinely enthralled by our talented youth. However, sometimes great creativity in one area is accompanied by a real weakness in others.
I first meet my Algebra students as 9th graders. By this time they have taken algebra or pre-Algebra for 2 years. My statistics show 34% of these students failed math last year. These are wonderful creative kids but they are struggling math students.
These students desperately need to be taught math in a new way. They need to be empowered with their ability to learn algebra.
My Project
In order to instruct these struggling math students teaching must be constantly interactive. I feel it is important to roam the class room checking note taking, gently touching the unfocused student or simply moving towards the misbehaving student. I need to be able to do all these things while teaching a new concept. I really love the Smartboard and its powerful and exciting tools but sometimes I feel like I am chained to the front of the room.
I want to be able to walk and talk and still write on the SmartBoard. Math is extremely visual. However students need the close proximity of the teacher. I have often noted how attentive students are when the teacher is in close proximity. This tablet would allow me to stand and instruct near every student. It would allow me to past the stylus to a student without the wait time of having the student travel up to the board.
I've got a great computer and projector. All I need is the wirelss tablet that allows the student to write on it from his or her desk, and project onto the SmartBoard.
Did I mention how much these teens love technology?
Seven years ago an article in the Los Angeles Times correlated the low graduation rate in the city to the number of failures in algebra.
If you can't pass algebra you can't graduate. I became an algebra teacher in order to find out why students struggle so much with algebra.
As a nation we are concerned with low math achievement. I believe we should use every tool available to inspire, motivate and support these struggling students. Let's replace learned helplessness with empowerment.
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