Last week I had one of those “Wow” moments and once again realized the Power of Using Tech in the Classroom.
Here’s the set up: (This shows all of the reasons why the children should NOT have been engaged during our afternoon lesson.)
Wednesday was 3rd graders “Business Day”. The children were very excited from the moment they stepped into the classroom, this event is a highlight of the year. The hallway (right outside our 2nd grade classroom) fills up all morning with 3rd graders setting up their wares to sell – from pizza, to small toys, to cookies, to smoothies. The 2nd graders did shop before lunch and consume way too much sugar. After lunch we had a longer recess (as business day was still going on outside our classroom.) We returned to the room and did some reading (My attempt to calm them.) Then unifix cubes were passed out to all students. We haven’t used them a lot lately so they were a “new” toy to play with. They had used them briefly the day before, but we did not have much free explore time.

Here’s the lesson:

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I set up the SMARTboard with 3 large rectangles and a couple of object options. I asked a student, Katie to come up to the board and show us how to multiply 3 times 3. As Katie made her way to the SMARTboard, I said, “Why don’t we film it and we can add it to our Mathcasts?” It took a minute to set up the camera. When the children saw I was ready and Katie was about to begin, they QUIETED RIGHT DOWN. The room was SILENT! I had not given any directions as to use of unifx cubes during Katie’s demonstration, however I did not hear one child playing with unifix cubes. Katie stated the problem, and began to drag apples into the rectangles. EVERY EYE WAS ON HER and all were QUIET. It was amazing! Not just amazing that they were quiet, but that they were pin-drop quiet on an exciting day, near the end of the school year, in a class that was not known for being pin-drop quiet, or even somewhat quiet. I just sat back in wonder. What had so engaged them? It wasn’t me – I wasn’t talking or doing anything. They were watching a classmate use the SMARTboard and they knew it was being filmed. It was the tech that grabbed them and the tech that kept them engaged. They will also watch this Mathcast, and the others we filmed over and over – reinforcing the idea and making connections. It was just so amazing. Wow.