Posted January 7th, 2009 by melissa
Clean hands are not the only thing Jeff Caswell, a 7th grade math teacher at Arlington Middle School, has gained from using the eBeam. Caswell’s class which began with a calculator, paper and pencil, has since evolved into an interactive teaching environment where he incorporates a MacBook, projector, the eBeam, videos and the internet into his daily regimen. Caswell calls the eBeam “the end of the overhead projector.” Caswell uses the eBeam stylus to create lessons in a Word document and then captures it into scrapbook with the camera. Caswell loves using the different marker colors available on the scrabook wheel. “I incorporate colors as much as possible as an extra advantage (to the students).” He shows me a slide where the fractions are written in red, the decimals in green, and the percentages in orange. Caswell remembers last year leaving school every day with a rainbow of colors on his hand from marking on the transparencies.
Caswell is enthusiastic to show me a lesson on the Mexican peso crisis. He begins highlighting key information in the word problems using the eBeam. Caswell looks for real life examples to teach his seventh graders how to analyze data, understand a graph, and work with percents. “The eBeam opens up so many opportunities,” replies Caswell. At the end of each class, Caswell posts the notes on his school website. He likes to teach his students responsibility; if they miss a class there are no excuses.
Caswell said the biggest challenge he faces in the classroom is motivating the children. “If I lose the kids, I can get them back with the eBeam.” Caswell recalls a recent lesson on where the eBeam’s spontaneity allowed him to bring in an image of a pizza from the internet and discuss pizza toppings as it relates to possible outcomes. “I take a lesson and turn it into a show,” says Caswell. Just last month, Caswell added the Wacom Graphire 6×8 Bluetooth Tablet to his instruction which lets him teach from anywhere in the classroom.
Caswell’s advice for the new eBeam user:”start simple with a warmup at the beginning of the class.” Warmups at the start of each day, also known as bell work and early birds, are a great way to introduce the eBeam technology into the classroom.
When I mention an update for the eBeam Interact software for Mac is coming soon, Caswell shakes his head as if he can’t believe more features are on the way. Looks like it is just the beginning of many more interactive shows for Jeff Caswell’s classroom.
