Big Video Arrives

After school yesterday, Kevin and Keith arrived to assemble and mount a new 60 inch monitor/TV!

All day as students entered today, there were exclamations of happy surprise. Since many US History students have been out for the GQE (basic graduation test) the last few days, I had started the movie "Thirteen Days," which yields a pretty exciting look at the Cold War. We're just starting the unit on the Cold War, so it helped to establish the risky nature of the era. In Geography, we're doing a walk-through on South Asia, so the provided text's provided video was a natural. All were impressed.

I also demonstrated the connection to my computer monitor, using the iTalc software (which shows a mini version of what each student is currently working on).

As I demonstrated how I had been looking at each station in a kind of classroom picture, it occurred to me to walk through the new South Asia unit by having a web search for pictures as we did an overview of topics. The whole class could see when an individual had found a picture We easily found "competing" pictures of the Taj Mahal (inside and out), the Himalayas, and the results of a monsoon. When a picture would appear, I could quickly make it the size of a (large) screen and we could comment on it. Geography students enjoyed the competitive nature of the search, as well as the INSTANT recognition.

Generally, it was a good day.