I think that there's going to be a phrase that becomes a regular part of my day job this year.
"Show me how you did that!"
My school started a BYODevice program this year. Which means, I now teach groups of kids whose heads are hidden behind big laptop screens.
If I could draw, I'd insert a picture here. But I can't, so you'll have to imagine it. I'll just say it's very cool to have twenty heads buried behind laptops with their fingers tap, tap, tapping away.
But in so many ways, us teachers are now students. These kids are so much better with technology than most of us teachers (we're old, give us a break!) Today, I was walking around my room checking out progress and came across a student who had blacked out his entire screen so that all you could see was his word document.
No distractions. Just his writing.
So I said, "Show me how you did that!"
He said, "Ms, all I did was touch this button."
So I tried that out on my Mac. Very distractions free. My next thought, was too bad we couldn't do this with all word programs.
Apparently you can, which was the second thing I learned today.
I have a feeling my writing might become a lot more focused now. I can't wait to see what else they teach me that makes me a more focused writer!
Because I'm sure they know all the tricks.
"Show me how you did that!"
My school started a BYODevice program this year. Which means, I now teach groups of kids whose heads are hidden behind big laptop screens.
If I could draw, I'd insert a picture here. But I can't, so you'll have to imagine it. I'll just say it's very cool to have twenty heads buried behind laptops with their fingers tap, tap, tapping away.
But in so many ways, us teachers are now students. These kids are so much better with technology than most of us teachers (we're old, give us a break!) Today, I was walking around my room checking out progress and came across a student who had blacked out his entire screen so that all you could see was his word document.
No distractions. Just his writing.
So I said, "Show me how you did that!"
He said, "Ms, all I did was touch this button."
So I tried that out on my Mac. Very distractions free. My next thought, was too bad we couldn't do this with all word programs.
Apparently you can, which was the second thing I learned today.
I have a feeling my writing might become a lot more focused now. I can't wait to see what else they teach me that makes me a more focused writer!
Because I'm sure they know all the tricks.
When I was teaching, I had a Smartboard my last year, and thought I could get around pretty well on it. Yeah, all my kids knew how to use it better than I did. Oh well, I got by. (and I used it nearly every day!)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to do the black out thing either, but I don't know if I would like it - sometimes, I think I write better with distractions!