Lesson Learned

If you read my last post, you know my students were in the middle of a cool app-smashing project involving Desmos, Skitch, and Showbie. At the end of class, they saved their work to the camera roll to finish up the next day.

In our building, we have three iPad carts with 30 iPads each. The iPads are numbered in the settings, and at one time they had numbers on the lock screen and home screen. Unfortunately, many students feel the need to change the photos on the screens, making it difficult to quickly and easily identify the iPad. Also, when students are done using the iPads, they don't get returned to the correct slot in the cart either, so it's like finding a needle in a hay stack to find the exact iPad you need. I always remind my students to check the number in settings and record it on the sign out sheet in case we need to use the same one the next day (as in this case). Some did, others didn't. 

Our wonderful technology teacher Ruth Davis just happened to be in my classroom at the start of class because she was bringing the iPad cart to me. She and I spent a good 10 to 15 minutes going through all the iPads trying to find the iPad that each student had saved their work on the day before. It was a disaster! I finally gave up and scrapped the idea of finishing the project.

Lesson learned: don't save work to the device, save it to the cloud!

The project was supposed to include the student saving their completed project to Showbie. I had lost track of time towards the end of class and in my haste, I told them to just save it to the camera roll instead of signing into Showbie and adding it to today's assignment folder. I will never do that again. Showbie is such a great app, and every project we have ever done could be saved to Showbie for safe keeping. Then it wouldn't matter which iPad, or which cart for that matter, the student ended up with the next day -- they would always have access to their work. Lesson learned.

App-smashing with Desmos

Click on the image above to open the PDF

On Friday, we learned the basics of slope - how to find slope from a table or a graph. Today, I wanted to reinforce the concepts and help them make the connection between the table and the graph, so I designed an app-smashing activity for my students using Desmos, Skitch, and Showbie. 

First, I walked the class through completing the worksheet (see left). They were basically picking random numbers to help them build their own personalized input-output table. Their choices for boxes A and B became their first ordered pair. Then their choice for C and E became their rate of change for the x-coordinates, and their choices for D and F became their rate of change for the y-coordinates. They completed their input-output table and found the slope. They then completed the same thing on the opposite side of the worksheet so they had two input-output tables to work with. The only stipulation I gave them was that if they chose the same signs for E and F on one side, they had to choose different signs for the other side (so they ended up with one positive slope and one negative slope).


Next, they opened up Desmos and I walked them through how to recreate their two tables that they had just created on paper. I had them change the graph to be a connected line with points instead of the default of just the points being displayed. They needed to make sure the axes were labeled in increments of 5 so it was easier to count the rise and run. When both tables were set up, they took a screen shot to save it to the camera roll.

The next step was to open up Skitch, import the screen shot, and label the following things: the change in the x and y values in the tables, the rise and run of each line, the slope of each line, and whether the slope is positive or negative. I asked them to color code the labeling so the color they used for the table and the line matched.Then they tapped share and saved the image to the camera roll again.

The final step was to go into Showbie, open today's assignment, and tap the + sign at the top right to add the photo from the Photo Library. They just had to tap done, and it was submitted to me.

It sounds like a lot of steps, but everyone did well with the process. A few students actually finished the whole project by the very end of class. Most of them will finish it up in the first few minutes of class tomorrow. They really liked working with Desmos, so I will be definitely planning some other app-tivities with it in the future.

First Impressions of Gmail

First impressions aren’t always accurate...

I have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of Gmail at first. When my district first started using Gmail, I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to use it, I wanted nothing to do with it. That’s because I didn’t know enough about it. I didn’t want to stop using my Apple mail app, which I had grown very attached to.

I’m so glad I decided to take part in this journey with my fellow educators to become Google certified. I’ve learned so much already and it’s only our first topic! I feel much more confident with Gmail and actually really like it more than my Apple mail now!

I think I'm label crazy! I love using labels to categorize my email and appreciate the fact that I can use more than one label for each email. I also find being able to use filters to automatically handle any incoming email a real time saver.

Right now my favorite feature of Gmail is the task list. So many times I have forgotten to add a task to my to do list after I read an email. Now I can do it as soon as I read the email. And I love being able to cross off completed tasks - makes me feel so productive!

With all of Gmail's features, it's like having a personal assistant. I just switched over my personal email from Yahoo to Gmail so I can take advantage of all Google has to offer me in my personal life too.

Earlier this week, a colleague asked me to help her with a problem she was having with her Gmail account. If she had asked me that same question a week ago, I would not have been able to help her. But thanks to all I have learned from the Gmail training, I actually could help her! We were both thrilled!!

So, if you're not already using Gmail, you should give it a try. And if you are already using Gmail, keep reading through all of our posts to learn how you can utilize Gmail to its fullest. Follow our blogs over the next several weeks to learn about great features of all the other Google apps too!

An InLinkz Link-up

Google Certification

I normally only blog about the experiences I have with technology in my classroom. But for the next several weeks, I will be joining a great group of educators around the country in blogging about our experiences in our quest for Google certification. We will be contributing to a blog series entitled "Teacher Training Bootcamp" as we journey through the training sessions for our Google certification. We will share the tips and tools we discover that will help you in your classrooms. Here's the schedule:

• March 16 - Gmail
• March 30 - Calendar
• April 13 - Drive
• April 27 - Sites
• May 11 - Misc. electives

Check out this YouTube video preview of our endeavor, created by our organizer Jennifer Kimbrell: http://youtu.be/AEVe0EZtkMs

So join us for our bi-weekly link-up and find out how to use Google to make your life easier and more organized!

BINGO!

Everyone loves a good game of old-fashioned Bingo, right? But those chips all over the floor at the end of the day -- not so good. Enter the iPad and BingoBaker!

This is a great activity to use when you have quick-to-solve problems, not long multi-step problems. We were working on simplifying expressions with square roots, so this was a perfect skill to practice with a bingo game.

Setting the game board up is easy -- go to www.bingobaker.com. You can use the site even if you don't sign up for an account, but if you do, you can save your games and, if needed, print more than 8 paper copies. Check the website for current account pricing and features.

Enter what you want to show up in your 24 boxes and click Generate at the bottom. The next screen will give you a link to play your bingo game online. I create a QR code for the link so my students just need to scan the code to get to their bingo board. The great thing about this is every student's board will be different! BingoBaker randomizes the board every time someone else accesses it. (If you print the boards, it will do the same thing.) Instead of placing a chip on a box, they simply tap on it and it changes to a yellowy-orange color. (The first time you play this with your class, let them "play" with the board first, making patterns, etc, to get it out of their system!) If they tap on a box by mistake, simply tap it again and it goes back to white.

Almost forgot to mention -- even if you don't have a class set of iPads, this also works great on smart phones. This is actually how I did it the very first time I used BingoBaker. I told the class to bring their own devices, but for those who did not have any to bring, I was able to print out the bingo boards on paper for them.

Although I use BingoBaker for math problems, I can see it being used for practice with vocabulary in any content area, learning capitals, chemistry symbols, foreign language, or just about anything. I put the problems up on the SmartBoard so it's easy to flip through the slides quickly. You could also have some type of photograph up on the SmartBoard that they have to identify it and find the name of it on their bingo board. The possibilities are endless!

The class loved this fast-paced game (they don't even realize they're doing all those math problems!) We were running out of time at the end of class and they all begged me for just one more problem!!

Thank you, PLN!

How did I get started in Twitter and growing my PLN? That's a question I asked myself recently. I had to think for a few minutes about my first experience with Twitter, and what (or who) made me decide to give it a try. I guess I'd have to credit @ipadsammy (Jon Samuelson) for getting me started. I'm not sure if he'll even remember this, but back in December 2012 he encouraged me to start a Twitter account and following other educators across the country. I'm still not quite sure how I even found Jon. It's kind of like "what came first, the chicken or the egg?". I started following him around the same time that I discovered @mathycathy's (Cathy Yenca) blog, and I'm not quite sure whether I found her blog because of Jon, or I found Jon because of her blog. But either way, they were my original inspirations. (Thank you so much to both of you!!)

At first, I just Twitter-stalked. It took me a long time to feel like I had something to say that others might think of as interesting enough to read. I just absorbed anything and everything I could about using iPads in my math class. After an almost full year of utilizing these wonderful tools in my classroom, I finally decided I wanted to begin blogging about some of my experiences so I could possibly help others, as everyone in my PLN did for me.

With that said, here's a list of those in my PLN that I feel have really been the biggest inspirations for me in either iPadding and/or blogging. Most of you probably don't even know me, but you have made a difference in my work, so thank you!

• Jon Samuelson, Alison Anderson (@tedrosececi), and Curt Rees (@CurtRees) - I learned so much from your Techlandia podcast, not to mention had a lot of laughs!
• Cathy Yenca - the fact that you blogged about your first experiences with iPads and you teach middle school math like me has been a huge plus!
• Lisa Johnson (@TechChef4u) - so many great ideas from your blog, you're so creative!
• Fawn Nguyen (@fawnpnguyen) - love your stories and your attitude!
• Aimee Bartis (@aimeegbartis) - thanks for the advice!
• Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) - thanks for sharing my Stick Around puzzle on your blog!
• Jenny Magiera (@MsMagiera), Sue Gorman (@sjgorman), Jeff Herb (@InstTechTalk), and Jeff Bradbury (@TeacherCast) - love your podcasts too!
• Rafranz Davis (@RafranzDavis), Andrew Stadel (@mr_stadel), and Julie Reulbach (@jreulbach), - fellow math techies with great blogs!
• Jen Kimbrell (@TechwithJen) - great ideas from the Technology Tailgate crew!
• Terri Eichholz (@terrieichholz) - you engage my mind!
• Erin Klein (@KleinErin), Drew Minock (@TechMinock), Brad Waid (@Techbradwaid) and Courtney Pepe (@ipadqueen2012) - great AR ideas!
• Emre Firat (@EMREFIRAT2012) - thanks for the Google assistance!
• and to everyone else I failed to mention, thank you too!

My Observation

Today, my supervisor came in to observe me. My lesson was focused on practicing converting between scientific notation and standard form. I introduced this concept to my classes on Friday, but with a snowday on Monday, most of the students forgot what they had learned after the three-day weekend. I had my work cut out for me!

I started by having everyone sign into Showbie and look at the comments I made on their classwork from Friday. Many of them still needed a lot of practice to get close to mastering this concept. Next, they completed the Do Now, also in Showbie, which asked them what type of exponent a really, really small and a really, really large number would have, positive or negative. Then they had two problems to complete and submit.

The next part of the lesson was where the fun came in! I had 12 stations set up around the room for the students to visit. At each station, they used Aurasma to view a Tellagami video (Gami) that I created, with the avatar reading a word problem to them, asking them to convert a number from scientific notation to standard form, or vice versa. I tried to make each word problem something that would be interesting to them, like the number of burgers sold at McDonald's, the amount of the national debt, the age of the Earth, or the speed of the fastest computer. The room was filled with the sounds of the various accents of the avatars reading the problems, and students moving around the room solving the problems. My supervisor walked around the room too, looking over the student's shoulders to see the Gamis. 

When they had completed all 12 stations, they scanned a QR code on the SmartBoard that led them to a Google form survey. The first question asked them how they were doing with this concept, ranging from "I totally get it" to "I'm totally lost" (only one student said they were totally lost). The second question asked them which fact they found the most interesting - not surprisingly, the McDonald's fact won. The third question asked what was their favorite activity that we have done so far this year. QR code scavenger hunts won this one by a landslide! (Guess I'll be doing them more often!)

If the students finished the survey, they could start a Versatiles activity that I created for practicing scientific notation. Since we had a 2-hour delay today, classes were 20 minutes shorter than usual, so only about half of the students actually completed all 12 stations and got to the Versatiles. My supervisor sat down with several of the students to see what they were doing and they explained to him how to use the Versatiles.

When we were just about at the end of the class, I asked them to put their iPads back in the cart and grab the homework from on top of the cart on their way out. As one student looked at the homework, he said, "This'll be a piece of cake!" That was like music to my ears!

As for my observation, my supervisor was impressed with the technology being used in my classroom, and how comfortable the students seemed with using it. He also said he now totally understands why I'm teaching a professional development class on using iPads!

Error Analysis & Self-Evaluation, iPad Style

OK, I admit that I stole this idea from Andrew Stadel. Our unit on exponents is coming to the end (the quiz is on Wednesday) and some of my students are still struggling with the concepts. I decided today would be dedicated to reviewing and preparing for the quiz. After reading Andrew's post, I decided to write up a similar worksheet of all of the common errors I've been seeing. I put the "worksheet" in Showbie as the Do Now for today. The students annotated the problems, trying to correct the errors that I had made, then we went over the problems together. This was a great learning experience for them, and I think it really helped them with the rest of the problems that they encountered today. Seeing the errors someone else makes gives them a more objective look at the mistakes, and helps them to see what not to do.

After the error analysis, I explained the next activity, designed to give them feedback on how they're doing. This is something I tried once last year and it went well, so I thought I'd try it again with the exponent unit. Using the MasteryConnect website, I set up 5 mini-assessments (3 questions each). Each mini-assessment focused on a particular type of exponent problem. Then I printed out the "bubble sheets" for each. I had 5 stations corresponding to the 5 mini-assessments set up around the room, each with an iPad opened up to the MasteryScan app, and a pile of extra practice problems. 

At their desks, students completed one of the mini-assessments, then went to the corresponding station to scan their bubble sheet. The app gives them instant feedback on how they did with those types of exponent problems, along with recording the result for me to view later on the website, which I love. For their own benefit, I suggested they take note of which problems they had incorrect and go back to try to correct them. If they scored anything less than 3 out of 3 on each assessment, they were to take one of the extra practice problems sheets to try more of the same type of problems. Everyone was very intent on getting all of their problems correct. If they just couldn't figure out what they did wrong, they came to me for help. A few students even sought out help from their peers who understood it better than them, which I love to see!

My goal was to give them additional practice so when they are completing the study guide tomorrow, they will feel more confident and be better prepared for the quiz on Wednesday. I overheard someone say "This is fun!", so if they enjoy all the hard work and appreciate the feedback, it just makes it even better!