got me good

My SmartBoard arrived the day after I told my principal I wasn't coming back next year. By the reaction on my students' faces, in one week I've probably used mine more than other teachers have used theirs to date....

For those of you who are not familiar with the SmartBoard, it looks like a dry erase board, but with a touch sensor. You use an LCD projector to project your computer monitor onto the board, and by touching the board, you can do everything that a keyboard and mouse can do. Plus, you can write on top of everything projected and save those notations.

Most of the time, I'm learning to use the SmartBoard as I'm teaching class. In fourth period, it occurred to me that I could write the answers to the bellwork on the bellwork, instead of just calling them out orally. My students shared my enthusiasm with "oohs" and "aahs" (and of course, requests to write on the board). I walked around between questions with the "pen" in my hand, explaining something when KS interrupts me kindly.

"Ms. Chang, you got ink all over your fingers."

Me, well, I gasped, "Oh, no!" and looked down at my hands.

The whole class erupts in tee-hee-heeing. It took me a second longer than it should have. You see, the SmartBoard pen doesn't really mark; it only writes on the screen because it's sensing the contact of the pen against the board. There was no ink on my fingers. Basically, KS got me good. :-P