Guinea Pigs (My students evaluate 4 math practice sites)

Having wrapped up our unit on volume with a test on Thursday, my students asked what we were going to do on Friday.  "You're going to be my guinea pigs!" I replied.  Looks of horror crossed their faces.  They had visions of being put in cages and having a mad scientist (me) performing tests on them.


When they came to class on Friday, they were relieved to find that they were simply testing out and evaluating 4 math practice websites for me.  We've been using IXL and BuzzMath through the year, but after attending NCTM in Boston last month and hearing a lot about TenMarks and LearnBop, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.  I wanted my students to help me decide which sites to use next year.

I set up userids and passwords for all of them and created similar assignments in each application.  I asked my students to work on each site for 10 minutes (I set a timer).  I wanted them to purposely make mistakes so they could try out the built-in feedback/hints/videos that each application provided to assist the students and scaffold them to the correct solution.  A few of my students just don't like to be wrong -- I saw them actually writing out the problems, showing their work, using the calculator -- really trying to get the questions right.  I explained again that I want them to just guess, just pick any answer.  I didn't realize how difficult this would be for some of them!

After they had tested out the 2 new sites, I had them complete a survey to let me know the site they liked best and least.  I gave them a text box to leave any additional comments as well.


Here are the results for the site they liked best:

BuzzMath		62.5%
IXL		12.5%
TenMarks		0%
LearnBop		25%

Here are the results for the site they liked least:

BuzzMath		0%
IXL		25%
TenMarks		37.5%
LearnBop		37.5%

Here are some of the comments my students made:

• TenMarks is the most "PARCC-like"
• TenMarks should teach you what you got wrong and help you if your struggling like LearnBop
• IXL is basically a online test
• In TenMarks, the hints are too general
• LearnBop is the complete opposite of TenMarks because it some how figures out your learning patterns and helps out
• I think they both did an excellent job. The videos did help a lot if I needed help with anything and I like how it showed me tips on how to do things
• TenMarks is not as great IXL because IXL and BuzzMath give details when you get something wrong

So it looks like BuzzMath is the overall winner!  

This year I used the basic (free) subscription for BuzzMath, but I think I'm going to upgrade to the Premium subscription for next year so my students can see the detailed solutions if they get a problem wrong.  That's the one thing they said they would like to see changed with BuzzMath.  I also think they'll like the ability to have problems read aloud and the gaming aspect of unlocking "missions".  And I'll appreciate the detailed reporting tools.  What I like about even the basic version is that it scaffold the students through solving the problem and gives them immediate feedback, allowing them to retry a similar problem until they master it.  It also has multiple styles of problems which are "PARCC-like".

I'd love to hear your feedback on these sites as well.  Feel free to take the same survey that my students took:

Make sense and persevere

I teach 8th grade Pre-Algebra in a Special Education resource room.  This year I have been blessed with an amazing group of students!  They all try so hard every day to grasp the concepts I am teaching them.  

This week I was particularly proud of them.  We are coming to the end of our unit on linear equations, and I came up with an activity which would really let them demonstrate their knowledge of linear equations and the flexibility to represent the information in various forms.  I knew it was a very challenging activity, but I had confidence that they would all give it 110% of their effort.  

Before we started, I warned them this was going to be really challenging.  They moaned and groaned.  I explained to them that this activity combines everything they've learned so far in this unit and will really show that they understand linear equations.  I first displayed a similar but blank problem up on the SmartBoard.  I pointed out that there were three forms of equations, a table, a graph, and the slope and x- and y-intercepts that needed to be identified.  I told them to all put their detective caps on because they were going to solve a puzzle.  I was going to give them just 1 piece of information, and they have to fill in every other piece of missing information.  You should have seen their faces!  Looks of panic, disbelief, and total lack of confidence.  

I get really math-geeky and excited at this point.  I explain to them that this is soooo cool because everything interconnects with everything else.  That there is more than one way to figure out each piece of the puzzle.  That there is more than one path to get from start to finish.  They look at me like I've totally lost it!

(Warning: I'm about to ramble!)

So, I put one piece of the puzzle up on the board -- a standard form equation.  I ask them what we can do with this?  What information can we get from the standard form of an equation?  They look at me with blank stares and shrugging shoulders.  I guided them to finding the intercepts.  Then I asked them what the intercepts could do for us?  I started to see some light bulbs go on.  I graphed the line using the intercepts. Then I explained that they could have also transformed the standard form into slope-intercept form first in order to graph it.  Then I asked them what we can get from the graph?  Someone volunteered "the slope!"  So we found the slope (and I reminded them that if we had found the slope-intercept form first, we would already have the slope), and I asked what can we do with the information we have so far?  No responses...  I asked if we could write one of the missing equations?  "Oh yeah!"  So we wrote the slope-intercept form of the equation.  (OK, here I go again with more questions -- I really had to drag it out of them the first time through!)  Can we fill in the table of values yet?  I saw mostly blank stares and shrugging shoulders again.  "Substitution" was my clue to them.  One students remembered that they could substitute the x-values I had provided them into the slope-intercept form of the equation to find y.  So we went through that process, painfully...  Then I erased all the y-values and asked them if they could think of another way to fill in the table without substitution.  No responses.  Which order pair do we already know?  What's the special ordered pair in the table?  "Oh, the y-intercept is the one with the zero for x!"  OK, so how can we fill in the rest of the table if we know this one ordered pair?  Can we use the fact that we already know the 'change in y over the change in x'?  "Oh yeah, we know the slope, so we can use that!"  We finished filling in the table using the slope.  Once we had the table complete, I asked if we could now write the point-slope form.  After we did, I explained that they could have also done that without the table since they had the slope and intercepts already and could have used one of the intercepts for the point in the point-slope form.  Phew!  Finally done!  It was exhausting...

But when we were done filling in all the information in, they said "Can we do another one?"  I was so excited that they wanted to do more!  I thought since they seemed so confused and frustrated by the whole process, that they would never in a million years want more!  But they were so persistent and determined to figure out how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.  We did a few more "puzzles" where I gave them different pieces of information such as just the completed table of values, or just the graph.  When the class was almost over, they asked if we could do this again tomorrow!

My hope is that learning to be flexible and complete all the missing pieces of the puzzle from any starting point will help them truly understand linear equations.  They really demonstrated Mathematical Practice Standard #1 - Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. I've never seen them work so hard and I was very proud!

Slope and Intercepts Review with ThingLink and Zaption

Before the holiday break, I had taught my classes about slope and intercepts.  Twelve days later, I did not expect them to recall anything about either of these concepts, so I planned a "Slope & Intercepts" review for the first day back. 




In the beginning of the school year, I had set up a "Know Your Fractions" review using ThingLink and ThatQuiz.  It was a self-paced review where students watched a video tutorial that I had created using Explain Everything, worked on some practice problems, and then took an assessment with ThatQuiz.  I decided that since it worked so well, I would use ThingLink again for this review, but as for the assessment piece, I changed from ThatQuiz to Zaption.

For those of you not familiar with it, Zaption allow you to create interactive videos by inserting text, images, or drawings, and assessment pieces such as open response, numerical response, multiple choice, checkboxes, or draw responses into the video of your choice.  You can also restrict viewers from skipping forward, allow them to skip backwards to review, and require viewers to answer all questions.  Zaption calls the final product a "tour".  You can share your tours by providing the link to your viewers or embedding it into a website.  (While my students used their Chromebooks to view my Zaption tours, Zaption also has an iPad app.)

notes were found throughout the videos 

questions were found at the end of each video

So I reused my own tutorial videos that I had created a few years ago, added some notes throughout the videos, and then 3-4 questions at the end of each video (you can add them at any point during the video, I just chose to place them at the end).  Zaption saves the analytics from your viewers' sessions so you can see how they did later on.  I kept an eye on the analytics as my students were completing each video so I could be proactive and meet with each student to discuss their errors and prevent them from repeating their errors on the practice problems they were to complete after the videos.  I also used the analytics to compile a list of the top 4 errors that were made by all of my students.  I used these 4 problems as my 'Do Now' for the following day to address the common errors with the entire class.

overall statistics for the tour

statistics per question

I really like the way Zaption made my videos more engaging and interactive, and the fact that it collects data for me.  One of my goals this year is to use data such as this for my formative assessments in order to address student error as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Zaption made this super easy!

I get a kick out of Classkick!

 

Last week I tried the Classkick app for the first time. It was so much fun to use with my students that I felt I had to share it with everyone!

Classkick allows me to create my own assignments and share them with my students via a class code.  Creating assignments is so easy.  I can write 10 problems in Classkick in much less time than it takes me to type them up and make sure all the formatting of my document looks just right.  You can also import images from your camera roll, including screenshots of documents.  

Students use a stylus or their fingers to write the answers to the problems, or they may type text as well.  One thing they appreciated is that they aren't limited to writing in just one screen and can scroll down if they need extra space to solve their equations.

The really cool part is that I can see every problem of every student in real time on my iPad!  I can see their progress, and I can select a specific problem to view.  I can add comments or provide help by writing on their problem right along with them.

If a student needs my help, they can tap on the hand icon (like raising a virtual hand) and I see the indicator on my iPad that they need my help, and for which problem they need my help with.  I'm not one to sit at my desk, but I theoretically could help every student from the comfort of my chair.

As I am checking through their work, if I notice an error, I can send them a message like "check #3".  If I see a student daydreaming or goofing around, I can send a message like "please focus". 

Teacher view

Student view

Another plus is that I don't have to stand in line at the copy machine and I'm saving some trees too!  I had so much fun using Classkick with my students, and they seemed to like it too.  I've used it three times so far, and when I asked them to go to Classkick, I actually heard a few of them say "Yay!"

Problem Solving in the Classroom with CueThink: #makemathsocial

 http://bit.ly/getcuethink

Solving word problems is one of the most difficult concepts to teach math students.  Just mention the phrase “word problem” and students moan and groan and run for cover!  Yet, students need to be able to communicate their problem solving metacognition so teachers can actually ‘know what they know’.  And the Common Core Standards are asking them to be able to do more high level thinking and communicating about math, not just answer multiple choice questions.  As teachers, we need a better method for teaching this concept, and a way to make it more engaging for students at the same time.  

Scaffolds for student learning

Hungarian-born mathematician George Pólya is famous for documenting his four phases of problem solving.  CueThink has used Pólya’s phases to build an app that scaffolds students through the problem solving process.  Here’s an overview of Pólya’s four phases and how they connect to CueThink’s phases:

Pólya’s phase	What it means	CueThink’s phase
Understand the problem	In order to solve a problem, you must first understand what is being asked.  You need to know what all the vocabulary terms used in the problems mean.  You should be able to restate the problem in your own words if you truly understand it.  You should identify what information is important and what is not needed.  At this stage, you should try to estimate what a reasonable answer would be.  You should try to visualize a picture or diagram that could help you solve the problem.	UNDERSTAND
Devising a plan	This is where you chose a problem solving strategy.  Some of the most common and useful strategies are: draw a picture or diagram make a table solve an easier problem work backwards guess and check make an organized list act out or model with manipulatives write and solve an equation look for a pattern	PLAN
Carrying out the plan	Use the strategy you have chosen to solve the problem. Persist in finding a solution.  If it is not working, go back and choose another strategy.	SOLVE
Looking back	Reflect on your solution.  Is the answer reasonable?  Did you show all of your work clearly and explain your solution so someone else can understand it?	REVIEW

Modeling for my students

I began my adventure with CueThink by working through a problem as a whole class discussion (see screenshot of the PLAN phase below).  I wanted to model how to use the app properly and not just have them jump in and do any old thing with it.  I reflected my iPad onto the SmartBoard so my students could see exactly what I was doing.  The students used scrap paper to come up with their own solutions, and after I had checked them and we discussed all of their solutions (some good and others needing some refinement), I modeled how to use CueThink to enter our information and then recorded our solution.  My classes have used the Explain Everything app several times so they are familiar with how screencasting works and how to use the tools provided, so using CueThink’s Solve phase should be a very easy transition for them.

Future plans

For my students, I should have first reviewed Pólya’s four phases of problem solving with my class so they could make the connection between them and CueThink’s phases.  I plan on doing this before the first time I actually let them all use CueThink independently.  I am also planning on introducing my classes to some of the more common problem solving strategies (see table above).  Initially, I will pick one to focus on at each CueThink session.  I will scaffold their learning of the different strategies by first telling them which strategy we are going to be practicing on that day, and eventually get to the point where, after they have identified and practiced the most common strategies, I will then give them a problem to solve and let them decide for themselves which strategy they want to use.  I also want to make sure they know that there can be more than one strategy that they can use to solve a problem.  Hopefully, some of them will use different strategies so we can explore and discuss each of them.  The CueThink gallery is where they can go to view all of their classmates’ thinklets.  After seeing other strategies for solving the problem, they can even go back and edit their original thinklet, revising just the portions of it they’d like to change, instead of starting from scratch (technology rocks!).

#makemathsocial

As for the social aspect of CueThink, I think this is where my students will be super engaged in using the app.  When my students use CueThink independently for the first time, I will just have them focus on creating their “thinklet”.  This may take longer as they are getting familiar with the phases, options, and tools that the app provides.  The second time they use CueThink, I will introduce annotations.  I will model this up on the SmartBoard before turning it over to them.  We will have a brainstorming session to create a list of appropriate and inappropriate comments and feedback to give to another student's thinklet.  I might even leave a list of sentence starters hanging up in the classroom for the next few CueThink sessions as a reminder for them to check before posting their annotations.

I feel that giving my students the background knowledge of what good problem solving looks like will improve their work.  Stay tuned -- I will update you as this adventure unfolds and my students and I #makemathsocial!


(I recently started working with the great team at CueThink as an Implementation Specialist. Check out this demo video to learn more about CueThink!)

Join my fellow bloggers Mondays for "Don't Worry... Be Appy Monday":

An InLinkz Link-up

Flipped Classroom without the Flip

(This is an update to my July 23, 2014 post "Fraction Review with ThingLink".)

Fractions is one of those concepts that my students always struggle with.  It's not something I should be teaching according to the eighth grade common core curriculum, but it's a skill they really need for some of the other topics this year.  In the past, I have spent way too much time reviewing fractions (like a whole month!), so this year I decided to take just one week and have the students use my "Know Your Fractions" ThingLink for an independent self-paced review.  It's sort of a flipped classroom model without the actual flip -- they weren't watching videos at home and coming to school to practice and apply what they learned.  Instead, in class everyday they watched the video(s), completed practice problems, and took one or two ThatQuizzes.  Some of my students were able to complete the classwork without any help from me, but for those who needed me, I had more time to devote to helping them than if I had been teaching a whole group lesson. 



This concept of self-paced learning worked so well with my classes!  The students were all very engaged in the lessons, did well with the practice problems, and the classroom management was a breeze!  They all knew the routine and moved from one activity to the next with minimal direction from me.  Some of them even went back and watched the video again if they were having trouble before they asked me for help.  The class completed a section per day, with the exception of "Fraction Operations".  I actually split up that section into two days, one for adding and subtracting, and the next for multiplying and dividing.  Each day there were a few students who finished the classwork early, so I had some additional activities for them.  

I will definitely use this again next year, with a few tweaks.  I did not have a review of simplifying fractions, which all of my students could really use.  I actually took a day off last week from my ThingLink lessons to review simplifying fractions before they moved on to the next topic in the ThingLink.  I will be adding simplifying to the first section of my ThingLink which is currently just "Equivalent Fractions".  I will also be switching the "Mixed Numbers" section and the "Fraction Operations" sections so that students will be able to write their answers to the operations problems in mixed number format instead of leaving them as improper fractions.  I don't know why I didn't think of these things when I created this, but we learn from our mistakes, right?

Even though this went super well, I would not use this style of instruction all the time.  It was perfect for these review lessons, but as for teaching a new concept, I really prefer the more traditional lesson for my special education students.  When I asked them what they thought of learning like this, they all said they liked it, but I miss the interaction with them and the class discussions we have in my usual style of teaching.  

Another added benefit of this flipped-but-not-really-flipped style is that I was out sick on the last day of the fraction review, but the lessons went on as planned without a hitch.  I wonder if they even knew I wasn't there??? 

2 birds...1 stone

For the first few days of school this year, I tried to "kill 2 birds with 1 stone" so to speak.  First days are usually for going over classroom rules and teacher expectations, and most teachers conduct some sort of icebreaker activity for everyone to get to know each other.  This year my goal was not only to do these standard activities, but to use this opportunity to introduce and familiarize my students with some of the technology we will be using throughout the year.

Day 1 goals:  

• explain my rules and expectations
• introduce Nearpod

Day 1 activities:

My students participated in a Nearpod presentation in order to become familiar with the format of Nearpod and the various types of interactive activities that can be included in a NPP.  The first several sides displayed the same information that in the past I had presented with PowerPoint, such as my contact information, how much I LOVE math and hope they will too by the end of the year, supplies they will need, an overview of my teaching methods and classroom routines, and my favorite quote:

Created with quozio.com

Then I had a slide which instructed them to put in their earbuds and watch the following video, reminding them to pay close attention because there would be a quiz afterwards.  (I purchased a class set of cheap earbuds at the dollar store so every student will have them whenever they need them. They are all in ziplock bags labeled with each student's name and do not leave the classoom.)  They all seemed engaged in the video (which I created last year with VideoScribe).

Screenshot of the final frame of my video

When everyone was done, the quiz began!  I created a question to go along with each of the nine expectations that had just learned about.  Some of the questions were fill-in-the-blank, some were multiple choice, and others were draw-its.  My hope is that when we do our next NPP for a content topic, I won't have to go through explaining how Nearpod works because they should all already be familiar with it and this will save some class time. 

multiple choice question in Nearpod

Day 2 goals:

• icebreaker activity to get to know each other
• become familiar with Explain Everything

Day 2 activities:

For the second day of school, I had the students interview their partner and then create an Explain Everything video about their partner.  I did this same activity last year and you can read my blog post about it here for more details.  The only thing I changed this year was the order of the activities.  This year I started by showing them the video I made about my partner (my roommate Mr. Basso).  Then I had them interview each other.  When all the interviewing was complete, I had them follow along with me in Explain Everything as I demonstrated what each tool did.  I gave them a few minutes to try each tool before introducing the next one.  This allowed them to become comfortable with the app before they had to use it to create their video.  Once I felt they were ready, I explained how I wanted the final product to be organized (I had them answer 2 of the interview questions per slide, with a total of 5 slides altogether in their video).  Then they all went to work.  Most students only completed 2 of the 5 slides, so we will be completing the videos on Monday.  But the next time I ask them to use Explain Everything they will know exactly what to do, and this was a perfect way to get to know my new students!

Chromebook Training Week

Photo via us.acer.com

If you've read any of my recent blog posts, you'll know my district will have 1:1 Chromebooks (Acer C720P's) for grades 7 through 11 this coming school year.  To prepare the teachers for this new adventure, we were given the opportunity to participate in four days of Chromebook training, with teachers from our district leading the sessions.  Whenever I attend a workshop or conference, I like to reflect on what I have learned, and I'm happy when I can walk away with having learned one new valuable idea.  The purpose of this post is to do just that, and share my favorites with you, my readers.


All attendees met in a large group for each day's opening session, then we broke out into individual sessions based on experience and interest.  After our lunch break, we met with our content area colleagues to discuss how we can apply our new technology to our curriculum.  We ended the day back in the large group to answer any questions from the day.  Here's the overview of each of the days' sessions I attended and what I feel was the best thing I learned on each day.


Day 1

Photo via www.bettshow.com

The sessions I attended on day 1 included Hapara, Google Add-ons, and Best Practices for Google Docs.  I'm really intrigued by Hapara and I'm excited to be able to try it out with my new group of students in September.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Hapara, it's a Google Apps for Education add-on that consists of two components, Teacher Dashboard and Remote Control.  Teacher Dashboard allows for workflow management and monitoring of students' activity.  Remote Control gives teachers the power to remotely open or close tabs on students' Chromebooks as needed.  With the new Google Classroom being release August 11th, just in time for the new school year, it will be interesting to see if it can be a replacement for the Teacher Dashboard portion of Hapara or if they will just work well together.  I plan on comparing the capabilities of the two applications by using Classroom with one of my Pre-Algebra classes, and Teacher Dashboard with my other Pre-Algebra class.  I still plan on using Remote Control for both classes since Classroom does not have that functionality (yet).


Day 2

Photo via techsmith.com

On day 2, I attended a session on Flubaroo, another on Socrative, and one of screencasting with TechSmith's Snagit and Movenote.  I was already familiar with the first two applications, but Snagit is what caught my attention on this day.  I have been using the iPad app Explain Everything to make videos for my students (and for my students to make their own videos as well).  While I absolutely love Explain Everything, sometimes I need to do a screencast of something on the Chromebooks, so Snagit will be my go-to app for this purpose.


Day 3

My "Do Now" mini-NPP

Day 3 was all about tools for our content areas (math for me), differentiation, and sharing learning.  My math team worked with Nearpod.  Since I had experience with it, I demonstrated how to use it.  I had the other teachers take the student role so they could see how it will look to our students.  They absolutely loved the "Draw It" feature, especially since our Chromebooks are touch screen!  I shared my favorite stylus with them (TruGlide) and one of my team jumped onto Amazon right away to order one!

Photo via lynktec.com

 After I showed them how to create a quick Nearpod Presentation (NPP), we brainstormed how to use "mini-NPP"s for our "Do Now"s, homework checks, and even exit tickets (thank you to Cathy Yenca for that great idea!).  I have used Nearpod for full presentations in the past, but never for these shorter snapshots of learning.  What made us decide to use Nearpod over some of the other tools we tried was the "Draw It" feature and the fact that we can save the data from each session.  We also liked InfuseLearning, except that we couldn't use the draw feature during a pre-made quiz.


Day 4

Photo via blogger.com

On the final day, I attended sessions on backchanneling, Google Sites and Google groups, and blogging.  We played around with TodaysMeet for backchanneling, which had my wheels spinning trying to figure out how I could use this tool in my math classes.  (Any ideas? Please let me know!)  But the most exciting idea I took away from this day was having my students using Blogger for their math journaling.  I had set up a Google Sites with the announcement style pages for my students to blog and keep all their blogs connected under one site to make it easier to monitor all of them.  But during the blogging session I found out that Hapara will monitor my students' posts and comments as long as they use Blogger as their blogging tool.  This is definitely the way I will go.  Now I just have to plan a digital citizenship/how to blog lesson.  I'm excited to try this new way to improve my students' writing about math.


On the last day of training, everyone who didn't already have a Twitter account signed up for one.  Eisenhower Middle School and Roxbury High School teachers will be busy tweeting now!  All-in-all, the week of Chromebook training was terrific!  I found a new tool to experiment with during each of the four days.  As much as I am enjoying my last few weeks of summer break, I look forward to my new "Tech Adventures in a Middle School Math Class" in September!