news to take home to parents...

One things I LOVE about our school is how well they keep up with current technology in the classroom. They really make a concerted effort to ensure teachers needs are supported by technology to make their lives easier. This year the administration bought me a bluetooth compatible drawing pad to use while I walk around the classroom so that I don't have my backs to the students...so smart. They also bought me a high resolution document camera, which I must say is amazing. It allows me to draw, sketch or do a demonstration which is projected onto my whiteboard. The students no longer have to gather around my table, craning their necks trying to see my latest demonstration. It's amazing and has simplified my life in the classroom tremendously.
One of the major pitfalls of the document camera is the high resolution...it is so good, a little too good. Earlier this week I was doing a sketching/shading demonstration for my 8th graders. They asked me to put down the blinds cause it was causing a glare and they couldn't see very well. As I reached and put down the blinds they started laughing. I asked them what was so funny. One of the girls in my class replied "when you put down the blinds the document camera showed right down your shirt!" I wanted to die, just shrivel up and become very very small and invisible. I thought to myself "don't make a big deal of this and they won't", I took a deep breath and said "well, it sure is a good thing there isn't much to see there isn't it, that sure is a great piece of news to bring home to your parents I'm sure they'll appreciate that...ok back to our shading exercise". And...that was the end of it, at least I hope so. I realized that if ONLY I were just a few inches taller that blasted document camera wouldn't have had a clear down the shirt viewpoint, yet another thing to blame my vertically challenged frame on.