One of the most difficult jobs a teacher has in the classroom is to keep the students engaged, on task, and comprehending.

How do you know if students are learning? How do you know who needs help?

The typical way of checking is to pose a question to the entire class: “I have one apple and my friend gives me another apple. How many apples do I have?”  Some of the students will raise their hands while others may sit quietly and just look at you.

You call upon Johnny, who is waving his hand in the front row. He answers, “Two.”

This is the correct answer, but how do you know if the rest of the class can answer this question? The truth is you don’t.

The good news is that KleenSlate Concepts has a solution for this age-old problem

Give each student their own personal KleenSlate Response Paddle. Now when you ask a question to the entire class, every student writes an answer on their Paddle and raises it in the air to show you. You can easily see which students know the answer and which ones don’t.

Let’s say most of the class gets the correct answer, but you see that Jamie, Ryan, and Maria need some help. You make a note. Later you pull these three aside for some extra help to get them up to speed.

Something dynamic happens when the entire class is engaged and responding. Everyone gets to practice, and those who are not mastering the concept are easily identified, so they can get additional instruction. If a large percentage of the class is not “getting it,” the teacher can re-teach and/or adjust the presentation.

The KleenSlate Response Paddle is a low tech, kid friendly teaching tool that gets everyone raising a hand.