Help a Teacher Stay Organized!

Funded Oct 25, 2020

I want to thank you for the second monitor that you so graciously donated to my school East Bronx Academy. In this new school experience of remote learning, it is very easy to teach students who are overwhelmed and stressed by the demands of school and not knowing how to balance all of their responsibilities. Unbeknownst to the students, when they become stressed, their work sometimes shows less effort or diligence making it more difficult for teachers to be engaged.

One plus I noticed immediately, with this double monitor is when on a website called Peardeck. i use Peardeck almost everyday to deliver my lessons. It is an add-on for Google Slides which helps makes presentations more engaging, interactive, and they have built in assessments. Peardeck is awesome because they have two screens that can be projected to students, the anonymous screen where student names are not shown and the teacher dashboard where teachers can see names of those who have responded. With the double monitor, I am able to keep the screen that shows students names private to only me while I share the anonymous view on my main screen (the screen that all students can see). This allows me to target particular students when there is a need for correction or a more thought out response should be given. The best part is students work harder and put more thought into what they are doing because of the fact that I now have access to who is writing what during class without other students knowing. This way, students actively participate to avoid being called out and they also feel safe knowing that teachers are the only one knowing what they are writing down.

The double monitor is also great because I am able to put my attendance sheet on the double monitor and take attendance seamlessly as students come into the zoom/Google meets as opposed to going back to recall who joined after the fact. I can even have my lesson plan up and out of sight so there is no pausing to look for it which takes time away from the students. I thought the double monitor would just be a way to keep teachers organized during this new reality however, it has been even more beneficial by allowing students an environment to thrive in knowing that how they respond to prompts given during live class actually matters; they are being held accountable. Seeing my students get "back to work" is the best part about the double monitor. It is the closest thing to being in "real" school. Both my students and I need that feeling. Thank you.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Lake