There was no chalk. Cross did not walk around and check the students' work. Nor did the students raise their hand to answer questions. They typed them. Six classrooms across the district are using the program, which displays each student's answer on the teacher's computer screen as they type them in.
Students read the question on the screen and went to work on their individual keypads.
Responses are in the students' own words, not in a yes or no format. Cross sees immediately if a student is not typing or when he or she is falling behind and needs special attention. Cross continually talked to her students as they typed answers in, praising each of them by name for their use of complete sentences, imaginative answers and just for trying even if they didn't know the answer to the question. Normally you'll have five kids who raise their hand you don't know how well the rest of them are understanding it. This way they can try without the risk of being embarrassed in front of the class.