Whether tossing around a blue foam ball microphone to record verbal book reviews or using interactive displays for multiple small hands to track migration patterns across the Serengeti, teachers are using AV tools in creative ways to engage their students.
MICHELLE COOPER
Library Media Specialist
White Oak Middle School, East Texas
“The students enjoy using the Epson iProjection system. I teach a sixth-grade English class about responsible digital resources versus unreliable sources. The students enjoy finding fake news articles and sharing their screens to display an array of news. All students can connect to the projector wirelessly and mirror their screens. The teachers manage which students’ screens are projected at any given time, up to four at once.”
DEBORAH MARSHALL
Department Chair, Career & Technical Education
Granby High School, Norfolk (VA) Public Schools
“We use Microsoft Office Suite 2016, GMETRIX, Certiport for MOS Certifications, Code.org, CAD, and Inventor to enhance learning in all four pathways we offer (Business, Culinary, Marketing, and Technology). The After School Girls In Engineering Program hosts a Lunch-N-Learn every November. The young ladies use display boards to show their past and current underwater robots, competitions, collaborations with the community, and grants won. They create and present a 15-minute PowerPoint and then eat lunch catered by culinary students with the guests, to learn about their areas of engineering or the school/company they represent.”
PAUL SANFRANCESCO
Director of Technology
Owen J. Roberts SD in Pottstown (PA)
“We use our interactive Epson short-throw projectors for student engagement with News-O-Matic (each daily edition includes five news articles on a wide range of topics, written at age-appropriate levels and allowing for interactivity and reactions by students). We used it with our third-grade class to do a Skype interview with an author from the site. Then we virtually toured the offices in New York, and they interviewed the students for an article.”
CASSIE GILLESPIE
7th and 8th Grade Special Education
Wolf Branch Middle School, Swansea (IL)
“Geography comes to life as the classroom project table turns into a map of the world, easily accommodating a dozen kids. I use Boxlight touch light pens that work with the Vimeo interactive whiteboard to engage students with learning disabilities. Since so many of our textbooks are online, it is a fun and motivating way to work our way through lessons. It’s easy to pull up sites on the various tabs to provide supplemental enrichment activities to really differentiate the learning.”
ELIZABETH CHAVEZ
Technology Integration Specialist
Green Bay Area (WI) Public Schools
“QBall gives students a louder voice! This tech allows students to pass around a foam blue ball with a microphone on the inside to help students project their voices and share answers, opinions, etc. One third-grade teacher observed how a quiet student held the microphone up, covering her face, but they were able to hear her voice. The teacher saw this as a phenomenal benefit of using the tool.”
