Don't Try This @ Home!

This is the disclaimer I repeat to my students every time I introduce another use for one of my favorite teaching tools...

Here's how it works - I create a power point file for a skill that I need students to practice (letter recognition & letter sounds, high frequency words, etc.). Typically, I make a slide for each letter or word and I record narration so that the students can now see and hear the skill they are practicing. My kids are really good at clicking through power point slides, so management is not a problem at all.

You might have noticed that with the slides, we've covered auditory and visual modes of learning, but what about kinesthetic?

What about kinesthetic/tactile, you ask???? When I make the slides, I create them using a traceable font. I then supply the students with a dry erase marker and an eraser. The screens on the desktop iMacs erase just like a white board (maybe better). Students can practice skills independently in a way that addresses all of the modalities and all of this happens while I am uninterrupted, teaching the whole group!

This technique also serves as a make-shift interactive white board when I use my laptop, T.V. dongle, and dry-erase marker -- a low-tech solution for a high-tech wanna-be!