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.