#RemoteLearning: A Peek Inside My AP Calculus Class Today (Using a @Wacom One + Pear Deck)

I’ve enjoyed having a chance to talk to so many educators recently about ideas for setting up class in a remote learning environment and sharing some of my lessons learned as an online teacher. But I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking what this all looks like.

This is a clip from my AP Calculus class today. My students are all logged into our Google Meet session. I can see them all on my screen but I’ve clipped that part out of this video and blurred all faces for privacy.

I am using the Wacom One to write and I’m signed into Pear Deck as a student so that I have the drawing tools within Google Slides. In my ideal world, all students would have a Wacom tablet that they could plug into their laptop which would enable them to draw with a pen. They would then be able to log into this Pear Deck with me and illustrate their thought process. But let’s be real — what’s “ideal” right now, we are just doing the best we can.

The power to draw cannot be understated, though.

In this clip, students are doing the talking & I’m able to draw out what they’re describing with my Wacom tablet so that we can visualize the solution process together. Many times, I have students draw with their mouse but this problem was too complex. So students talk & I write.

After class, I publish the Pear Deck Takeaways so all students have a copy of our notes.

Here is a look at my setup (though during the session, all student faces were actually on my laptop screen & I was using my Wacom One as a second display. Again, for student privacy, I’ve chosen not to show that here!):

I hope that this short clip might provide some ideas. I’d love to hear what you’re doing with your students. And please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my process.