Dan-
I can’t wait to see your observations on other classrooms. The remote w/ projector is the best way to walk around and check, keep kids on task, give feedback. Many older teachers just refuse to embrace the technology, and it really is quite a bit of work at first but worth it on many levels. The sage teacher, is she older and not accustomed to using the projector and remote?

Our principal has the same perspective that you do, she said in numerous meetings that class size isn’t as big of a variable as teacher quality which is pretty clear to me.

As a new teacher who is stuck in her room all the time, but has toyed with the idea of using her prep to observe other teachers (oh, for the freedom of having the extra time to do so!), I’d be curious to see your observation form.

And as always, thanks for the insights – your posts always force me to consider what I teach and how I teach it in a different light.

@dan: I figured as much. My sarcasm doesn’t translate overly well through text.

I’ve been thinking of trying a similar observation program for myself, but thus far have been pretty bogged down with planning. I probably should just take this post as a kick in my pants to just do it. There’s always sleep you can cut back on for more planning time. ;-)

I believe that this wandering around bit is vital to gauge student progress in math-related or problem-solving tasks, but does the necessity for wandering the room decrease for other subject areas or tasks? I’m all for circulating the room even if it’s just because it increases my interaction with (and therefore relationships with) students, but might it be harder to gauge a student’s understanding of history, English, or science related material by wandering? I’m curious what people think.

@ Dan – it is possible that your use of technology could invoke bad practice. In fact it is not the technology that makes you an effective or ineffective teacher, it is how you use that technology that makes you an effective or ineffective teacher. Base upon what I read in this blog (for I have not observed you in your classroom) it seems that you use technology effectively and your student’s benefit from it.

I don’t use student response systems a.k.a “clickers,” but I have seen them in use. I think that they can provide immediate feedback for both students and teachers in a way that no test or other assessment can. I am not arguing for the absolute replacement of other assessments – that would be bad practice.

I argue that “clickers”, like other technology, can enhance student experience, allow them to make safe attempts at problems to help them build their confidence anonymously, and quickly let a teacher know what more they need to do (i.e. jump off script and get their hands dirty with some one-on-one instruction!). They may even be able to help inform the teacher how differentiate instruction.

I think the root of the problem is that when teachers only teach from a textbook, or a script, or a . . . that there is little room for anything but being a “sage on stage.” This I think is due to the lack of time and effective and available resources. Teachers get burned out by having to create a new wheel because the textbook sucks and does not meet the needs of the specific subset of students in their classroom.

I think what Dan is arguing for, especially in a Math classroom, is that there is so much more that students can do with the concepts that they learn than what the textbook asks them to do. And, it is our job as teachers to create or find opportunities for students to experience their math beyond the textbook or the standardized tests. A question remains, “how can technology help in this endeavor?” Can it save some time that I can use to create an opportunity or do research, rather than just grade a bunch of papers?

I am dubious about the CPS clickers too.

@ Micheal, yes a tool is just a tool and it’s all about what you do with it. But… some tools seem to seduce you into using them a certain way, ie the tool suggests a use. Give me a hammer and the world becomes a nail, give me clickers and learning becomes selecting the correct answer.

I also worry that these clickers make poor practice look good.

And yes, the students may be very engaged – for a while, by the novelty – but engagement with multiple choice? why…

To me the price (purchase, training, etc) is too high for what these offer.

I just don’t get this one.

I had a math teacher who due to physical disability sat at the front of class and wrote on a projector with a scrolling transparency.

It was a fantastic class.

While I’m a mobile teacher, I don’t believe for a moment there’s one and only one way to do things.

Have any of the teachers you’ve observed used student whiteboards? (That’s where they do the work on their personal whiteboard and then hold it up when they’re done.)

What a great post! Look at the discussion that followed from your simple post. Imagine sitting in a classroom and asking a question that did not have a clear answer, like an opinion question. In a classroom without clickers, you’d see kids looking around and the vast majority of kids would vote one way or the other (with the majority because they want to be right). Put a clicker in each student’s hand and you will see what the student’s really believe. Then, you can ask for students to support their choices.

Clickers are great for math assessments for the simple reason that assessments are graded immediately. Interventions can be put in place. The clickers I use have numeric capabilities as well, so math isn’t pigeon holed into multiple choice.

@Chuck
I have this setup: MacBook, Wacom Graphire Wireless and for the most part Skitch. It really is pushing Skitch a little far as it was never meant for presentations, but you can quickly get a blank screen to draw on, easily clip a picture from the web to draw on, and easily import any photo from your computer to draw on as well. When I want to do a presentation I make it in Keynote and then if I am going to be drawing on it I output the Keynote slides as jpgs into a folder. Then I grab the photos out of the folder from Skitch. You can also save the Keynote as a PowerPoint which has drawing tools you can use on each slide (but not save for later like Skitch).

What a great form! You are very inspired! Thank you.

Dan,

curious: I’ve been told by the blog police that one should ‘praise locally and criticize globally’.

how does your staff (presuming they read your blog) handle the stark difference between informing your own instruction versus identifying their “limited mobility”?

Here’s another bone, Dan: Most likely to succeed, a New Yorker post by Malcolm Gladwell. The first part describes how a football scout tries to predict who will succeed in the pros, and then moves to teachers examining video tapes of teachers teaching.

@ Eric J: I don’t think either is accurate. Some teachers feel compelled (pressured even) to use technology because it is being thrust upon them by the “21st Century Teaching” movement. I wouldn’t call these teachers techie wonks that don’t care about their students.

Others use projectors to deliver a breadth of notes they would otherwise have written on the chalkboard. And this is what you are referring to. And no, we should praise them for using technology to engage the students, because, well, they’re not.

But don’t blame the LCD projector.

The solution: You’ve got to convince said teacher that this is not an effective way of delivering content. Just because technology is being used does not mean it is effective. Technology is not always the answer. I think the good teachers realize that. They use it when they know it’ll be effective, omit it when it’s not.

And I guess you could argue that the “21st Century Teaching” movement should be training teachers when and how to use that technology, and when to say, “Okay, it’s not going to work here. You’ll need a pen and some paper for this one.”