Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 18:57     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:I imagine the money for the boxlights may have come from federal funds and therefore didn't detract, necessarily, from the general accounts. But, beyond that, paper simply has been expensive for some time now and is an on-going consumerable. If anything MCPS needs to train staff on proper print jobs, whether sending to CopyPlus or knowing better to send a b/w job to a color laser printer. (IYKYK.)


It's all taxpayer funding. Taxpayers are paying enough money for books but that money is being used for screens to show YouTube videos instead
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 18:56     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:It's one data point, though. I mean, out of some forty teachers, is it likely that everyone else is doing the same approach? (I doubt it. Some staff members are reluctant to use the boxlights. Others are definitely all in.)


Ah ok if it's just happening to my kid, that's ok 🙄
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 18:12     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
It's one data point, though. I mean, out of some forty teachers, is it likely that everyone else is doing the same approach? (I doubt it. Some staff members are reluctant to use the boxlights. Others are definitely all in.)
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 17:22     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:I teach a class with 31 kids. I read the book aloud, but there are too many kids for them to be able to see the pictures, so I project the book on the screen as I'm reading. Is that acceptable for you all?


That's totally different from playing a literal video, which seems to be the norm in my kid's school from her telling of it
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 13:45     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
I imagine the money for the boxlights may have come from federal funds and therefore didn't detract, necessarily, from the general accounts. But, beyond that, paper simply has been expensive for some time now and is an on-going consumerable. If anything MCPS needs to train staff on proper print jobs, whether sending to CopyPlus or knowing better to send a b/w job to a color laser printer. (IYKYK.)
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 13:41     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
I do use the boxlight for my read-alouds but in a different fashion since I usually show up with a microphone. The display size makes it possible to pull up an ebook edition and then encourage students to volunteer reading out a number of pages. They get a big kick out of it and the class is fully engaged. Even when I'm not there with a microphone, I will use the read-alouds interactively with the class. And all the students can see it, whether or not it's an ebook or if I'm using the document cameras. The Boxlights are just a convenient tool.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 13:33     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
I teach a class with 31 kids. I read the book aloud, but there are too many kids for them to be able to see the pictures, so I project the book on the screen as I'm reading. Is that acceptable for you all?
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 13:23     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Back to the main point. Adding sound effects isn't ruining reading for your six year old.

Are you ok of those people who thinks that Shakespeare wrote books not plays?


The fact you don't see the problem, is the problem.


Your small-mindedneas is the problem.


All the benefits cited for screens in classrooms apply to screens at home, but y'all seem to think only screens at home are bad and all parents that allow them are neglectful. Either they are addictive tools that are detrimental to student attention and behavior, or the are not. Screens in schools are not immune to the well documented harms. It sounds like you all are just as addicted as the kids.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 12:13     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This morning my 6 yo asked me if she could "watch" a book that she had "watched" in school. We happened to have the actual book at home, but when I read it, she said the "real" book has sound effects.

Is there any chance of getting rid of these giant screens or at least avoiding having kids regularly watch videos under the guise of "reading"?


I would give up a part of my salary to work in a school with projectors and no chromebooks as long as I didn't have a limit on the amount of copies I made. Sorry to the younger teachers but I actually got good results with spelling and reading when I used those 'evil' packets. Not saying that all schooling should be old fashioned, but there's something to be said for the muscle/mind connection. But when the county started limiting our paper, we were forced to switch to screens.


In other words MCPS used the money that could have been used for paper to buy expensive screens that harm children. Stinks of corruption.


Corruption, no. Bad choice? Yes hindsight is 20/20. Many parents who complain about the screens in schools hand their children iPhones the minute they’re bored. Attention spans are at an all time low, so some teachers feel like they can’t keep the children’s attention like they used to.

The whole educational system and parenting practices can use an overhaul (but no, not in the way Trmp is doing it).


Who is making money from those contracts? To be clear, I know nothing but I always found it odd that MCPS loves to spend money on every new educational fad while simultaneously screaming poverty. It was with great reluctance that we ultimately withdrew our kids.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 12:10     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Back to the main point. Adding sound effects isn't ruining reading for your six year old.

Are you ok of those people who thinks that Shakespeare wrote books not plays?


The fact you don't see the problem, is the problem.


Your small-mindedneas is the problem.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 11:27     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:Back to the main point. Adding sound effects isn't ruining reading for your six year old.

Are you ok of those people who thinks that Shakespeare wrote books not plays?


The fact you don't see the problem, is the problem.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 11:05     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Someone brought up advertisements. Most teachers I know know how to insert the videos in Google Slides, which prevents anything other than the embedded piece to play.

The Boxlights are a standard 65-inch TV display size, nothing too unusual. I like it because students generally don't have to strain their eyesight to see it, in the dark or with the lights on.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 10:30     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Back to the main point. Adding sound effects isn't ruining reading for your six year old.

Are you ok of those people who thinks that Shakespeare wrote books not plays?
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2025 10:23     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The problem is not the interactive boards themselves, they can be very helpful in a variety of ways and it is definitely far more efficient to have content on a slideshow than have the children have to wait while the teacher slowly writes words out on a blackboard or whiteboard. Opposing that seems just reflexively anti-technology to me.

I agree that showing videos of read-aloud books is inferior to actually reading them in person and should be kept to a minimum (but teachers in here have given good reasons for why it makes sense to use them occasionally, and I don't think doing it occasionally is a problem.) Also for everyone saying "you should just pick a different book," I think teachers are often told what books they are supposed to cover based on the curriculum? So if they are told they are supposed to teach a specific book that day and can't access it, they really have limited options besides showing a video of someone reading it...


This teacher clearly doesn't remember that seeing the teacher write out the problem helps understanding. It's definitely not the same as seeing a slideshow of the quadratic formula already written out.


The Promethean board can absolutely be used as a whiteboard, and that's generally what the math teachers are doing.

I actually agree with the op about using the boards to read books to children in early grades, but also take the pp's point about how there are times in a classroom when this might be necessary, in the absence of funding for a second adult in the room
Anonymous
Post 03/15/2025 20:36     Subject: The giant immersive screens in classrooms
Btw back in the day we had GLOBES (Google it if you need help)