Join In

So much has happened in the past week, and I haven’t had time to put it all in writing, and I realize events will be out of order, but it is important that I get it down in writing.

On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, the 4th grade teachers at Indian Rock asked me to come and review the Solar System Unit with their students. I decided to take my JoinIn TurningPoint student response system and create a review game for the 4th graders.

The pressure was on, because it also happened to be Parent Visitation Day for American Education Week. In the first class I handed each student a “clicker” and immediately their eyes lit up. Right then and there they could tell that this was not going to be the usual paper/pencil review sheet.

I projected my questions onto the screen and the students quickly buzzed in their answers. After each question, we analyzed the percentages each answer got, and then revealed the correct answer. The students clapped and when 90% of them had voted for an answer, and then the room erupted with cheer when it was finally revealed that 100% of the students had voted for an answer…could it be…yes every student selected the proper answer. All students were actively engaged, actively participating, and in the end took much more away from the interactive review game then they would have with a paper/pencil worksheet.

Several parents, stopped to let me know how much they enjoyed the review game, and commented on how actively involved the students were in the class. It was even nice to have my assistant superintendent present for one of the sessions, as her son is a 4th grader. Afterwards, she told me that she is really beginning to get it. She sees how today’s students have come to depend on the technology, and we need to embrace it and use it on a daily basis.