The image (a bit lame, I know) is the first page in a presentation I just made for my students in my IMP2A math class, for tomorrows review of the homework on counterexamples. I thought it was a funny joke at the time, but now after working on this presentation for 20 minutes it seems a bit old.I spent the day today with a fellow ELL teacher (Oakley Rocks) getting trained on the Interactive Whiteboard software from Promethean. I got home wanting to work more and create a few things to use tomorrow in class. That may seem like a lot of work, but in reality it isn't.
The presentation I just made states several conjectures about geometric figures, like "if two polygons have their corresponding angles equal, then the polygons are similar." Students then have to, in groups, go up to the board and state whether that conjecture is TRUE or FALSE. Then, if they think it's false, they have to draw a counterexample that proves it false. If they believe it's true, they need to state why.
Took me about 20 minutes to make the presentation, and it's the first I've ever made (although I have done a lot of stuff like this using Open Office, so I'm not a total noob). Twenty minutes is hardly anything compared to what I'll get out of this in class. When you get students up at the board using the straight line tools and grid background to draw geometric counterexamples--well, let's just say it sure beats pencil and paper. The buy-in by the students is incredible compared to before, when a group would maybe make a poster or draw on the chalk board.
After creating the original, I saved it. Then, I make two copies of it for each of my IMP2 classes. That way I can save the student drawings and responses right on the presentation, export it in a variety of formats, and post it on the web that same day. Now THAT is cool.
For those of you that are regulars in the edublogosperical universe, you may find it interesting to know that Bud the Teacher did the training. You can't have Bud. He's at OUR district and we won't let him leave.
2 comments:
I don't know of which I'm more envious - the IWB or having Bud in your district.
I hope you year with the IMP2's goes well. (I'm loving IMP4 so far).
Jackie,
Glad to hear you like year 4 in IMP.
Bud was a lot of fun yesterday. It was just the right blend of instruction and applied experimentation. I'll post the final result of todays classes on the net in a few days and will put a link here....
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