Thursday, September 20, 2018

Unexpected Reaction


Seventh grade science. As we're in the first month of the school year, they're working on things like "how to measure".

One of the questions had a couple boxes that they were to find the volume of. One problem: the numbers on their copies were illegible. So, I made a reasonable guess.

The quickest way to communicate "these are the numbers we're using for that problem" is to write it up on the board. Alas, the board was full of information they needed. But it was one of those sliding boards (here's a link to what the board looks like; I couldn't find an image that wasn't copyright protected, and someone *ahem* forgot to take a picture of the board in the classroom), so I slid the board over, drew a couple boxes, and labeled them with the numbers they were to use.

Problem solved.

When the next class had the same question, I slid the board over. They...



But these were seventh graders, so the look on their faces was way more. Apparently they'd never seen a sliding whiteboard before. Which is astonishing as they'd been in that class for four weeks now.

I have to assume that she spends more time using the projector and not the whiteboard.

Of all the things to shock them, this would have been the last thing I'd expect.

19 comments:

  1. It's nice they can be wowed by the simple things. Better than being dismissive over it and taking the ingenuity of it for granted!

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    1. Good point. I think they're young enough to still find wonder in things.

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  2. I don't think I've seen a sliding whiteboard like that so I think I would have had a look of wonder on my face too!

    betty

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  3. That's funny. It reminds me, I need to update my little whiteboard. Be well!

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  4. I've never seen a sliding white board, either. Now you're a cool teacher. :)

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    1. Really? They used to have sliding chalkboards, too.

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  5. Old school things like that are always shocking. It's like, "This must be how people used projectors in the stone ages."

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  6. Chalkboards to whiteboard to sliding whiteboard. Stone age, indeed.

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    1. I remember sliding chalkboards. They just updated the sliding bit when they updated to whiteboards.

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  7. Wonder if they've seen the ones that roll from top to bottom and up the back? Or the ones that print what is on the whiteboard? Funny how "old" technology is the stuff that amazes them.

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  8. I don't recall if I so called learn to measure in school or not.
    Coffee is on

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  9. Replies
    1. Oh, it was. I even had a high school student helping out in class, and he was amused by the reaction.

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  10. Liz, I'm impressed and in awe that you had a sliding chalk board. I've only seen them a few times, never got to use one, but I'd still jump at a chance to do so. Doesn't take much to amuse me.

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