Learning at Their Pace

3.19.13

Geometry Honors

Objective: To learn the Area and Perimeter of Parallelograms and Triangles

Differentiation: The lesson was student lead instead of teacher led. Each pair went at their own pace and asked questions as needed.  

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the smart notebook app and the Qrafter app

                                      ThinkPads: none (no smart notebook app)

Description: Students downloaded the examples that we would normally work as a class on the smart board. They worked the problem within the smart notebook app and got an answer. They then found the problem on the wall and scanned the QR code that went with the answer they got (it was multiple choice so they scanned answer A, B, C, or D). Then Qrafter told them if they were right (then they moved on to the next one) or if they were wrong (then they found their mistake or asked me to give them a hint).

Reflection: I love love how this turned out. The students were so much more engaged than in a normal lesson setting. How often do you teach a lesson and every student does every problem on their own before you explain it to them? Rare. The students took ownership of their learning and went at the pace appropriate for them. They enjoyed it too! I would and will definitely “teach” a lesson in this manner again.

Dream Home and Circuit

3.1.13

Geometry Honors

Objective: To practice parallelogram problems

Differentiation: Students played a parallelogram game either on their own or with a partner instead of watching the game on the smart board from their desk.

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the smart notebook software app

                                      ThinkPads: none

Description: I used the idea for a game called “dream home” from our math technology coach for the district. The students virtually tour an HGTV dream home by solving problems to “turn on the light switch” in each room. The game is created in smart notebook software and includes images and links within the file.

 

Reflection: This will be short and sweet. This activity was greatly enhanced with the iPads. The students were much more engaged than when we go through it as a whole class. They enjoyed it, they learned, and they talked about math. It’s a win win win situation! Students could go at their own pace and could draw on the diagrams with the pen in notebook. Would definitely do this one again.
 

 

Geometry On Level

Objective: To complete a QR code circuit to review Quadrilaterals

Differentiation: The same amount of differentiation as a regular circuit with the added excitement of using the tablets.

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the Qrafter app and the skitch app

                                      ThinkPads: none (tried to and could not open the images from google docs)

Description: Students scanned a QR code, took a screen shot of the picture that appeared, opened the picture within skitch, solved the problem, and that dictated where they would go next to begin the cycle all over.

Reflection: Making this circuit was quite a task (thank you Kim and Amber!) They made the lines of the quadrilaterals bolder, then placed the pictures into google docs, then turned them into QR codes and pasted the codes back into the circuit. If I had two wishes, it would be for the students to be able to immediately draw on the picture once scanned and for the thinkpads to be able to open the pictures. We are working on a solution to the latter (upload images to epsilen first instead of google) but the former might not have a solution. I realize students can easily switch between apps but it might get to the point where it becomes too complicated to complete the circuit with tablets which defeats the intent and purpose.

 

                                That’s a lot of tablet usage in one day! I have to admit that my eye was literally twitching from the stress, haha. Next on my to do list is to plan an activity where students are working problems and recording their solutions with a program like explain everything. Should be fun! Maybe I will have them explain a problem they missed on the test… J

Discovering Parallelograms

2.21.13

Geometry On Level

Objective: To discover the properties of parallelograms, rectangles, rhombi and squares using geometer’s sketchpad and to fill out the Quadrilateral “family tree” using Prezi.

Differentiation: Students were able to open the sketchpad files and play with the shapes and the data to discover the properties of parallelograms. Each student pair spent however long they needed with the sketchpad file to feel acquainted with the properties.

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the geometer’s sketchpad explorer app and the prezi viewer app

                                      ThinkPads: none

Reflection: As much as I love when students “discover” the lesson instead of me spoon feeding it to them, many of the students walked in to class knowing most of the parallelogram properties. Therefore they flew through the discovery faster than I thought. I had hoped they would spend more time dragging the shapes around to see if the property holds true but many just wrote the property down and moved on. Nevertheless it was still more effective than me showing the whole class the sketchpad file on the smart board. Students seemed to really like taking notes from the prezi (just something different) rather than me present them on the smart board. They filled out their whole family tree and will spend the rest of the unit looking into what those properties really mean.

Apple/Android  Pro/Con: iPads performed really well for both parts of this lesson. Androids do not have the sketch explorer app.

 

 

 

 

 

Making a Worksheet Interactive

Geometry On Level and Honors

Objective: To take a multiple choice worksheet and make it interactive .

Differentiation:  Instead of playing a game as a whole class, each student played on their iPad. This let them go at their own pace, view hints if and when needed, and get feedback whether or not their answers were correct.

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: Smart Notebook App

                                      ThinkPads: none

Description: I took a multiple choice worksheet and made it into a “game” or a better description would be an interactive worksheet. Students downloaded the notebook file and read the question. If they needed a hint, the “revealed” the hint. Then they clicked on the answer they thought was correct. The link then sent them to a slide letting them know if they were correct or incorrect. They could try again or move on to the next problem.

Reflection:  Is this the best way we can use the iPads in the classroom? Maybe not, but it was definitely better than students doing the MC worksheet by hand on paper.  I really liked how they could zoom in, draw on the diagrams and even add segments to connect points on a graph. I think the greatest benefit was the immediate feedback. They knew right away the areas that were lacking and the areas where they were good to go. Some of these topics had not been covered since last semester so the hints were very beneficial in the way of quick reminders. I would definitely do this again especially once the notebook file is already made (it took a while to type up and add all the links)

Apple/Android  Pro/Con: Many of the animations and fonts do NOT translate to the smart notebook app. Big disappointment because I use those a lot in my lessons. The androids do not have the notebook app at this time.

Initial Tablet Use: Differentiation

2.5.13

Day one of using tablets in my geometry classroom.

Today can be described as pure chaos. But it was beautiful chaos, and best of all, it was differentiated chaos. Overall I am pleased with how the tablets went but I definitely learned some tips for next time!

Geometry On Level

Objective: To review for tomorrow’s right triangle test

Differentiation: Students had three options:

                            1) watch a video on the thinkpads where I worked out the latest quiz problems one by one so that they could make corrections on their quiz,

                            2) play a review game (HGTV Dream home) to prepare for the test on the iPads,

                            3) work on the review worksheet to avoid having homework

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the smart notebook software app

                                      ThinkPads: used Safari internet with headphones

Reflection: I need to make sure to have headphones handy anytime a student wants to watch a recorded video or lesson. Doing three different activities at once was challenging the first time. I could not meet everyone’s needs and felt as if I was running around the room like a chicken with its head cut off! This will improve over time as the students use the tablets more and are less needy with the navigation. There were some issues with how my smart notebook game appeared on the iPads. If I had rotated a triangle, it was “unrotated” in the smart app. Hopefully they will fix this in future updates. In the future, I need to test the game out on the iPad before letting the students play. I caught a couple of students off task on their tablets. Next time, I will have them all face the same way and have them set the tablet up so I can stand behind them and see all screens at once. ** But overall, wow. What a neat idea that I can be teaching the remedial students through my recorded video, engaging and challenging the higher students with a review game, and helping the rest of the students with a review ws ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!**

Apple/Android  Pro/Con: iPads did not have a flash update needed to view my recorded videos so students could only use the Thinkpad for the videos. The Thinkpads do not have a smart notebook app so students could only use iPads for the game.

Geometry Honors

Objective: To expose students to higher level thinking problems at the end of a unit

Differentiation: Students had two options:

         1) grab a partner and a thinkpad and work on stations (a series of challenging outside the box math problems)

         2) work on correcting problems missed on a graded quiz

Programs/Software Used:

          iPads: none

         ThinkPads: used adobe reader with the stylus

Reflection: Overall this activity went really well. The advantage to doing the stations on tablets rather than rotating around the room is obviously the novelty of the tablets but also the fact that student could draw directly ON the diagram given instead of having to redraw it and then solve.  Later in the day we figured out how to erase(press hold on the marking to select it and then an option to delete will appear) and change the pen color etc, we are definitely learning as we go! I am researching ways for students to save and “turn in” to me without having access to an email account. Maybe epsilon courses is the answer? I loved being able to work with the small group of students that needed remediation on their quiz while the rest of my students were being challenged (with a partner to bounce ideas off of) on the tablets.

Apple/Android  Pro/Con: We do not have a stylus with our iPads so the thinkpads were the hands down best choice for this activity. The reason being that students were downloaded a PDF with diagrams and need to write all over them and to the side to solve the problems. A big con right now is our inability to save and turn in work shown on the PDF, so when they were done, I had them delete their work because I cannot sign in to every tablet to look at their saved work.