What I did at school today: 5/20/13

Not everything goes the way you plan. With teaching, the key isn't expecting every lesson to be a complete success. It's being able to reflect on what went well . . . and, well what went awry. Then, and most importantly, it's about making adjustments. Often, as an ETF, I teach the same lesson multiple times. Last week I taught a second grade lesson on probability that went well enough, but I felt that the students needed to be more hands on to be more engaged. 

Today, I worked on modifying that lesson. I had used the Notebook software for the SMART board but without a board. The tools had (what I thought was) a "wow" factor, and that did draw the students in.  I tried to make it relatively interactive by passing around a wireless mouse, but with only one student clicking at a time, the thrill didn't last long.

Tomorrow, I am teaching the lesson again.  Instead of using the SMART Notebook software, I'm using an app I found for the iPad.  I have enough devices to pair the students up.  They essentially will do the same a activities they did last week, but this time they will have much more control over the flipping of the virtual coins, the rolling of the virtual dice, and the spinning of the virtual spinners.  Here's hoping that the second time's the charm.