Skip to main content

My first Pencast!

I couldn't stand to wait too long because I wanted to demo my new pen to my students.  Right now I'm working on a math website for them so that they have a place to go straight to for help with their math topics or math homework.  I'm doing this through a website called CourseSites which is free for up to 5 classes.  Currently I'm only  teaching 6th and 7th graders, so I'd really only need two classes, but if I broke them up by the 5 periods I teach, then I'd need all 5.  Unfortunately I can't show you the site as its an invitation only, and  I only want my students and their parents to have access, but I can show you my first pencast I've made for my 6th graders!




I've noticed several things after viewing my pencast:

1)  I say "so" a lot!

2) It is much easier to teach to active students than to talk out loud to a sheet of paper, and picture my students being there.  I'm sure You Tube users know exactly what I mean, or anyone for that matter who makes tutorials for others who aren't around.  Oh well, practice makes perfect!  Let me know what you think of my new Echo pen!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Inspiration and a Smart Pen

I finally figured out how to work my little interactive white board tablet in my room.  I used it on Friday and my kids loved it.  I like it to, and it was really my inspiration behind getting my Echo smart pen.  When trying to figure out how to use my interactive white board tablet (we will call it IWBT) I thought well I'll just google it and go from there.  Turns out... it isn't made anymore.  Never the less, I was able to figure out what I was doing, and it is great for my classroom.   It operates a lot like a Think Pad.  At any rate, I've seen several blog post referring to smart pens and LiveScribe on several blogs I subscribe to and I thought I would check it out.  I found an Echo pen in Best Buy and fell in love.  I was on a spending splurge today and decided this was going to go one of two ways.  I either was going to get an iPad, or a Smart Pen.  Well... I got the Smart Pen. So I've been sitting at home and right now...

Spiral Review In All Its Glory (Decimal of the Day)

   The school district I am in has cumulative tests covering everything taught each six weeks.  The twist is, these tests are made by administrators and not teachers.  This really isn't a problem to me.  It is a learning tool for me and a teachable moment for my students on the importance of all material covered in class.       We as teachers can really get bogged down in the variables of a test like this.  By that I mean, oh the test question was worded funny or well they were only given one chance to show mastery on this, my students are _______ fill in the blanks, thoughts, and reasoning.  The one thing my school district did was have us put our scores up standard by standard right next to every other teacher in the district who had to teach the same thing we did.  My oh my did I fall short!  I say I fell short even though I had great reasoning as to why my scores looked the way they did... but upon further reflection ...

Incorporating Literacy Into Math...and what about Fortnite?

     The name of the game is engagement, but let us all be honest with each other; if you aren't targeted about your engagement, then it is just fluff.  I think I spend about 1/2 of my waking hours thinking of ways I could incorporate cross-curricular and real-world items into my lesson plans.  Shouldn't we all be though?  Well... maybe not spend 1/2 your waking hours thinking about it, but definitely incorporating cross-curricular and real-world items into your classroom.  I always tell my parents life is not a worksheet, but let's be honest... sometimes you ARE stuck with using them!  I like to break away as much as possible!  Sometimes though, those angelic (cough) students of mine could care less.  We know they don't!  They don't care how much of our own money we spent, how long we spent planning something just for them, the only thing they care about is whether it is fun, and not "boring".        I would l...