Individual work

We had a student with some processing learning disabilities. He could not easily go from looking up at the screen where I was projected, and then down to his book or papers. As a result, he was becoming more and more frustrated, and as always happens, more and more of a distraction. I had the idea of putting him on his own computer with headset and microphone, so he could concentrate right in front of him and not be disturbed by the peripheral distractions or be a distraction himself. He was very excited to try this out, and it works very well. He is more productive, he listens better and does better work. A success story!

One of the other requests I made at the beginning of the school year was to be able to work one-on-one with students and their work. If French, we do a lot of grammar and editing in the writing process. The technicians have set up an individual camera, headset, webcam and document camera both here in my office and in the ZP classroom. With this, I can ask a student to show me his/her work with the document camera, and we can work together to improve their written production. I have the ability to 'write' on their work with the editing capabilities of the document camera, so they can see my underlining or red marks or checkmarks. It is a very good tool.

I can also use this individual computer for individual oral work. Often, I request that the students read to me, have discussions with me, present their work to me, all on the individual camera. I can then respond to them individually without disturbing the rest of the class.

Bonus: this also works when I have to have a little chat with someone who is in need of personal guidance....