Math Tutorials

Tried something new today and it was a total success! I recently read Who Owns the Learning  a book about bringing technology in the room in a way that makes students feel ownership over what they are learning. It is a quick read with lots of take away tips so if you are looking to learn something new I would recommend it.

The books brings up a few ideas of how to help students take charge of the learning. One of the ways is through tutorials. The idea is that students learn but then kick there learning out to others so they can become the teachers. Today we did this in math.

To start on Friday I had the students practice teaching each other so they could start thinking about what needs to be considered. Then today during math we tried it out.  I went through math like I would any other day. I started with a mini-lesson and taught the students how to do multiplication with multiple digits. Then I sent the students off to work on there tutorials. While all students have chromebooks we used ipads to do this so kids worked in groups of two or three.

Students used the free app Screen Chomp to record there videos. This took almost no instruction, it is

very user friendly. Students can write what they want and it records there voice during it. When they finished there tutorial. They submitted the link to our math website.

I set up a math website using weebly.com My goal is to have a page set up for each math unit. Then within those math units will be a list of websites to review concepts in addition to the videos the students make.

Today students all made a video. In the future two students will be chosen per topic to create a video on a rotating basis.

The most important part of the process is that anyone can view there work and use it to help themselves. This way the students see value in what they are doing. Though I told the class to use fake names for internet security. Also two of the videos didn't have sound because the students forgot to click on allow the mic to be used.

Check our what students came up with today.
http://math218.weebly.com/

Get to 50 - Word Study

This is an alternative to traditional spelling activities. As we all know students learn in different ways. I was always a bad speller, to do well on spelling quizzes I would practice tracing my words in rice. It was the only thing that helped, so when I had to do things like write my words three times each I felt like I was wasting my time.

Years ago a teacher share the idea of Get to 50 with me. I am not sure who any more but I can't take credit for this idea. The teacher creates a list of activities that students can do to practice spelling. It can be anything you can think of. It is important is to think of the multiple intelligences and try to allow multiple chances for all activities. Then the more challenging the task the more points it is worth. The students have to Get to 50 points by the end of the week when they have there quiz.

Get to 50 - These are some of the activities we do in spelling. This list has grown every year I teach. Anytime a student has an idea that relates to spelling I add it. This year I have a boy that builds his words in Minecraft and takes screen shots.

Triangle Words

Feel free to take ideas from my list but I always suggest you have students share out there ideas. Most of these ideas came from other students.

The down side of Get to 50 is that it would take me hours just to check. So this year with our chromebooks I have a solution.

I created a google forum for students. Every Friday when students come in they have to hand in any papers they have for activities, and digital activities are in there drive. Students then log onto their chromebooks and fill out a forum. This forum has them put in there name and the activities they did and how many total points they got. The great thing about google forums is you get a google sheet with all the response. So in a matter of seconds I have one sheet that says who did the there homework. The first few weeks I was very careful with checking the google forum next to the papers handed in. By now I know which kids to keep and eye out for so grading spelling homework only takes a minute or two.

To see a little bit more about what I am talking about see my screencast below.

Kahoot

My school district has started an initiative for 1:1 chromebooks. The initiative has just begun but in the end all 5th-8th graders will have a chromebook. This year everyone 5th grader in our school has one. So we teachers are faced with the challenge of finding ways to teach to the same standards using technology. I have always been a bit of a technology 'nerd' so I wanted to start sharing out many of the various things I am doing in my classroom.

To begin with I am going to talk about Kahoot. Kahoot is a game that can be set up by teachers for the entire class to play at once. You can create any kind of multiple choice questions you want. To begin go to getkahoot.com  signing up is free. From there you can create a quiz. The quizzes need one place to project a main screen and individual devises for students. When you run a quiz from the teacher devise it shoots out a four to five digit pin number that students use to get into the quiz. Students enter the code at kahoot.it and put in there name. (No error there, make sure students don't enter .com)

The projected (teacher screen) shows the screen above with a question and the multiple choices. You also have the option to add images or videos. 

Meanwhile students all have a screen that looks like this. This one i ran form my phone but we can do it from a computer, phone, ipad, etc.

Students have to look at the screen and then use their device to answer. I was worried about this part at first in 5th grade. Some students have a hard time following multiple step directions still and I was worried that having to look at the answer in one place and selecting the answer in another would be challenging. I have been using this for two years and have not had a problem with students using it. 

The part that makes it fun is you get points for getting the answer right and more points for answering quickly. Then after each question it tells them what place they are in within the classroom. While other teachers use this as formative assessment, I find it is just a fun review game. Students can get rapped up in the speed part and make mistakes that shouldn't count against them. When the quiz is over Kahoot collect information about who answered what questions correctly, but keep in mind errors due to speed. 

So here are some ways that I have used it so far. 

1. Classroom Community- The quizzes are easy enough students can create them so I set up one quiz in the back of the room and had students one by one add a single questions about themselves. Then we played as a class to see who we knew well and also learn something new about others. 
2. Social Studies/Science- The day before a test or quiz I have used this to help students practice the content they know well. Many times I have used questions right from my test or quiz. When I do this I have students jot down on a post-it any questions they missed. 
3. Vocabulary- Pretty self explanatory. See how well students know the words. I have also used it for vocabulary within subjects. 
4. Math- Mental Math and terms. Since Kahoot is all about speed I have used it to practice mental math so students have to use mental math strategies. The quiz from above I did this week to practice math properties. If you are in a lower grade this can be used for basic math facts. 

Feel free to post ideas you have for using kahoot below or ways you have used it in your classroom.