Friday, December 10, 2010

We're Crazy about Clickers!

I am very excited to announce that our school now has a set of "clickers"! These electronic devices allow students to respond to a question by pressing a button. Their answers are recorded by the teacher's computer, and a special program keeps track of each student's response. Rather than calling on students to provide a verbal response to a question, the clickers allow every single student to respond (even the shy ones!). Plus, the clickers eliminate the problem of students answering a question based on a cue received from another student. Best of all, the computer program gives the teacher and the students immediate feedback. With one click, the correct answer is revealed along with information about how many students selected each possible response. This allows the teacher to review the answers with the class and re-teach as necessary. (And of course the students love them because they feel like they're on a game show!)

This is the very first week I've used them. These pictures are from Mrs. Breault's first grade class, but I have lots of ideas on how I can use them in the other grades, too! :)