Last week, I was shown an excellent instructional movie created by one of my colleagues here at Littleton High School. I wanted to highlight it to address a question that we often get during our workshops: “How can I use SAM with students when I only have 1 computer in my classroom?” Usually, we answer this question by describing what we call “whole class animations”. During a whole class animation, student groups work on their own part of a movie. The teacher coordinates when groups come to the SAM computer and film their movie. The end result is a movie made by all students.

Last week, Littleton teacher Larry Kaplan reminded me of another use for SAM in 1 computer classrooms: teacher made movies. Rather than conduct a geometric proof on the board, Larry animated his mathematical lesson.

Not only does this teacher made movie serve as a moving lesson, it also serves as an example for students when they make their own movies.