Creating a Living and Life-Giving WASL
by Tim Fahlberg

Did I just hear you mutter “Yeah – right.” under your breath?  I would have agreed with you except that three years ago as a middle/high school math teacher I saw life breathed back into my students through something called Whiteboard Movies.  Let me explain.

The idea of Whiteboard Movies in education is simple: students or teachers record their thinking, writing, and voice explanations while solving problems on a virtual or actual whiteboard and then share them via the internet, CDs, or handheld computers.  Tools and methods for creating and producing movies are relatively inexpensive and easy to learn.

What we have learned by doing this is that pretty much all students love to create whiteboard math movies. This even includes those with low math skills, special ed, and ESL students.  More importantly we’ve seen evidence of significant improvements in math and communications skills, and in attitudes towards learning math in our students.  Why?  One reason is that creating Whiteboard Movies is incredibly engaging and requires the use of all senses, and this improves the development of thinking, writing, and verbal skills.  In addition, watching movies allows students to replay and relearn from their teachers as often as needed. This gives them immediate and expert homework help – for which parents are extremely grateful. 

Another reason is that when students finish creating their own movies they get to watch and hear themselves, and they like this because it expresses their own spirit and knowledge.  When students share their movies with their peers, parents, and even people in far away places over the Internet, it changes how they feel about themselves and their work for the better.  You can watch and listen to some current student “Whiteboard Movie Stars” here:   Student movies

So here’s my idea:  What if instead of just taking paper WASL tests in April/May and getting typically discouraging results in September we instead empower students and teachers with inexpensive tools (graphics tablets, headsets, and some special software) so that teachers can support student learning outside of the classroom, and students can weekly create living WASL pieces for their electronic portfolios?  With these and other tools like Student Response Systems (which are common in other states) we can then support and give mini-WASLs regularly and observe significant improvements in student learning, student attitudes towards learning, and teacher morale.  Then in April/May and September our annual WASL could become just an annual checkup that will reveal the greatly improved health of our students and their entire learning communities.  

Tim Fahlberg, founder and president of CoolSchoolTools.com, is a former math teacher in the Seattle, Issaquah, and Lake Washington School Districts.  His work with Whiteboard Movies was originally supported by a grant from the Issaquah Schools Foundation.