Elizabeth...go up to the blackboard and show us how to solve the problem...spell the word...use proper penmanship...The list was endless.My stomach still hurts when I think about it and I carried that stomach pain all the way to grad school when I had to stand up and defend my papers and died a thousand deaths every time. Nowadays kids are told to go up to the “whiteboard” but I am certain it is no less traumatic for them than it was for me.

Kind teachers in the age of technology I beg of you: let the fearful among your students prepare his or her contribution on paper ahead of time and utilize a document camera to project it onto the whiteboard while they sit in the security of their own desk.

For those of you who don’t know what this device does, it instantly displays real-time images of any static or moving object onto the whiteboard for your entire class to see. There are even some projectors with integrated document cameras--just use them. If you heed my advice there will be at least three fewer kids in your class hiding out in the bathroom.