VIPKID Teacher Tools: Epic Pen!
September 22, 2017Let's talk pronunciation corrections! Particularly when students are reading passages several sentences+ long.
We aren't supposed to interrupt to correct them (lest it mess up their flow/confidence) and should instead wait until they're done reading before going back and reviewing the trouble words, right?
Well, what do you all do when there are a bunch of such words? 🤔
(Or just, like, one, and your memory is as bad as mine?? 😜)
^ This was one of my slides yesterday. As I instructed the student to read the passage, I opened the Epic Pen toolbar, and clicked the highlighter. As she read, I highlighted the words she mispronounced. So, my student couldn't see my highlights, but I could! Then when she finished, we practiced pronouncing "empire(s)", "ancient", and "quite". 👍👌😊
To write on the PDF (or otherwise use your computer normally), all you have to do is hit the eye button again, and the menu bar closes & the highlights (or marks, as you can toggle the highlighter to Pen Mode) disappear, so you have a clean view of your screen.
Click the eye again, and it will all open again, including your highlights/marks.
To clear all that from your own view, you just click the trash can. Easy peasy! 🖰
If you mostly do pre-VIP and very low level students, you probably wouldn't get much use out of this (at least, I haven't used it with anyone under level 3 yet, I think), but if you teach students who are reading big chunks of text at a time, this is a great little tool to try out. :)
I downloaded the free version to check it out first, but here are the costs for the various licenses. Remember, as a contractor, you can deduct all purchases like these, as they are business expenses! Just remember to keep track of such costs & keep your receipts! :)
What do you all do to help you remember which words your student said incorrectly? Can you just remember, or do you do something to mark them? Are any of you going to give Epic Pen a try?
Let me know in the comments! ⌨🌈
- 🍎Teacher Lindsay DB🍏
Since I haven't wanted to distract/dishearten the kiddos by marking the words on the slide until we go to review that particular word, I'd just been using my fingers, splayed across my monitor. But it was annoying to do, in the bigger passages and stories, especially.
I kept saying I needed to get some pointed sticky notes tab-things to just slap on my screen itself, but when I went to buy them on Amazon I thought, "This is silly! I'll have to keep buying more as the sticky runs out! There has GOTTA be a way to draw on my own screen without drawing on the PDF itself!"
...ET VOILA, MY FRIENDS!
By the power of my google-fu, I now bring to you my newest favorite teacher tool: Epic Pen!
(I'm not getting paid for this post and that's not a referral code, I just legit like it! :) )
(I'm not getting paid for this post and that's not a referral code, I just legit like it! :) )
I'm already in love with this thing. I don't use it every class, but I do open it up every morning before I get started. It looks like this, unobtrusively sitting in the corner of my screen (clicking on the pen tip lets you move it wherever you want):
It doesn't interfere with my computering at all until I need it! Then I just click the closed eye (that weird blue thing above ^) and it toggles the toolbar open/on.
(I blurred out everything not highlighted above for copyright reasons,
Epic Pen does NOT make your screen blurry at all!)
^ This was one of my slides yesterday. As I instructed the student to read the passage, I opened the Epic Pen toolbar, and clicked the highlighter. As she read, I highlighted the words she mispronounced. So, my student couldn't see my highlights, but I could! Then when she finished, we practiced pronouncing "empire(s)", "ancient", and "quite". 👍👌😊
To write on the PDF (or otherwise use your computer normally), all you have to do is hit the eye button again, and the menu bar closes & the highlights (or marks, as you can toggle the highlighter to Pen Mode) disappear, so you have a clean view of your screen.
Click the eye again, and it will all open again, including your highlights/marks.
To clear all that from your own view, you just click the trash can. Easy peasy! 🖰
If you mostly do pre-VIP and very low level students, you probably wouldn't get much use out of this (at least, I haven't used it with anyone under level 3 yet, I think), but if you teach students who are reading big chunks of text at a time, this is a great little tool to try out. :)
I downloaded the free version to check it out first, but here are the costs for the various licenses. Remember, as a contractor, you can deduct all purchases like these, as they are business expenses! Just remember to keep track of such costs & keep your receipts! :)
What do you all do to help you remember which words your student said incorrectly? Can you just remember, or do you do something to mark them? Are any of you going to give Epic Pen a try?
Let me know in the comments! ⌨🌈
- 🍎Teacher Lindsay DB🍏
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