East Bronx Academy is a grade 6-12 public school in the poorest Congressional District in the United States. Over the years, various grants and gifts have equipped the school with technology including a wireless Internet infrastructure upgrade last year.

In October of 2013, EBA teachers Erick Odom (social studies), Carrie McCormack (language arts) and Kevin McCormack (music) discovered Doceri through the New York Schools Gap App Challenge.

This series explores how these three teachers have implemented Doceri in their classrooms.

Erick Odom – social studies

Erick teaches US History, Economics and American Government, AP Government and a Legal Studies elective. He’s been teaching for ten years; this is his 7th year at East Bronx Academy.

The biggest difference in Erick’s classroom now that he uses Doceri, is that he can walk around and interact with students more closely while he’s giving a lesson, keeping tabs on students more closely.

“Normally, when lecturing from the front of the room, teachers can’t tell that a student is having trouble understanding the material until their homework is turned in – and then it’s too late,” he explains. “Using Doceri I can move around among my students, create a more interactive lesson and correct misconceptions as they happen.”

Accessing his classroom computer wirelessly from his iPad using Doceri, Erick not only has access to all of his files and materials, he can also remotely project presentations, images and websites for the class and annotate them as he moves around the room. He can take a picture of a student’s work with the iPad camera, import it to Doceri and project it for the class as an example.

“My students love the ‘new projector’ as they call it, and have been more eager to share their work using the classroom iPad,” Erick says.

Erick also creates Doceri screencasts for test prep and when students are absent, so they can catch up quickly. Students who don’t have computers and Internet access at home can use school facilities to watch the screencast lesson videos.

Read Part 2 of this Teacher Feature Series, on language arts teacher Carrie McCormack

Read Part 3 of this Teacher Feature Series, on music teacher Kevin McCormack