Friday 23 December 2016

Official Formative Educator!

Badged!


 





I know it is not a real word, but it is appropriate I think!  Thanks to GoFormative for acknowledging me as a Formative Educator.  I love the tool, and the students are comfortable using it.  It makes gathering data and sharing student work with the class anonymously simple and straightforward.  






Thursday 15 December 2016

Games Alive

21 C Learning

I am lucky and pleased to be part of a group of innovative and interesting teachers and consultants who like to explore Math from a 21st Century perspective. 

I am also a technology geek.  I like to use technology and explore new ways to incorporate it.  It adds engagement for our students who, even at 12, are often glued to their cell phones.  They are comfortable accessing technology and find it easier to communicate and use it to solve problems.

But, sometimes, we need to put the computers and tablets away.  Today I learned, thanks to a long time teaching colleague, that a deck of cards and a game of war can instill some very basic and important number skills while having fun and forgetting that we are doing some Math!  You can do arithmetic such as multiplication, you can do Integer concepts (basic gain and loss) as well as working with positive and negative values and you can work with place value and powers of ten.  It was a fun session.  

If you Google Math games, you will get a plethora of ideas.  There are books, videos and whole websites dedicated to the concept.  Some are good, some not so much, but the basic idea of having fun with numbers and concepts is worth the exploration.  Parents should be encouraged to play Math games at home with their kids.  You can use dice, cards, or just pen and paper not to mention the technology based games such as Dreambox or Prodigy.  

Family Math nights are becoming very popular as well as full STEM or STEAM nights to encourage families to learn together.  Literacy studies have long shown that kids who read with and to their family have higher grades and a better grasp of reading and writing.  The same is true for Math.  And, family members might just discover that Math is not so scary after all.

Saturday 10 December 2016

The Digital Breakout Journey



First Digital Breakout: The Journey


I have been interested in the Breakout.edu idea since I first saw it at the KW Google Summit last April.  I couldn't get into the session but found the idea intriguing.  I investigated getting an actual box but I have so much stuff already and the price caused a bit of a pause so I put it on the back burner.

Last weekend I was asked if I'd heard of a Breakout activity that was digital.  I had, but decided to investigate further.  Once I learned a little bit by reading http://www.breakoutedu.com/digital/ I decided to try and make one for my grade 8 Math classes about Integers.  I think I had as much fun making it as they did trying to solve it!

The tools, videos and resources listed at Breakout.edu were helpful.  I used the Ransomizer, FakeTextMessage and the FakeReceiptMaker.  I already use Blogger so decided to use that to display those last two items as they are better seen in colour and the students can zoom in if necessary to see better.  I also used several forms to create digital locks by utilizing the Data Validation function. The old fashioned paper and pencil were also used.  I finally had them go to GoFormative so that I could watch and respond live with clues one question at a time that they need to find "the gang".

Here is how it lays out:
  1. A Google Form with some quesitons to get them warmed up. When they have answered them correctly and submitted form, then they will get the link to a web page with the next clues.
  2. On the Web Page: http://mrsfriermath.blogspot.ca/p/integers-break-out.html they will find the receipt and a web page taking them to the next form with the digital locks that they can solve with the information from the web page.
  3. Once this one is submitted correctly, they need to go elsewhere in the school based on the clues given and find the paper with the next piece.
  4. The questions on the page will allow them to solve the lock on another Google form listed on their page (in shortened form).
  5. iphoneInteger2.jpg
    One of the Text Messages
    That form will direct them to a Google doc with the text messages that have the clues to solve the questions available in GoFormative assignment. There are four questions and each one gives them one part of a location. In this case they have to go in sequence as I won't give them the clues out of order.
  6. Because mine was a "crime" involving them having to find these "people" I hid people cutouts in their final location.
  7. Once they found them, they had to bring them to me, and give the location in the final GoFormative question then put them back for the next group. That released the prize which happened to be small Gingerbread men (same shape as my people cutouts).

I realized as I was making it that I needed to actually create a document to keep track of the steps, clues and answers so that I knew where they were going and what prompts they might need when they got stuck. I also needed to ensure I wasn't sending them in circles and that one clue actually led to the next.

It is not perfect but it was a great experience for all of them - even the ones that didn't find the gang. I need to change some things in the clues for the next time, but we all learned something and had fun. The engagement and perseverance seen was awesome.

You know a task is going well when you hear "Can we do this again?" and can't get them to leave your room for lunch! Math is such an anxious subject for many and they totally love my crime solving and challenge days as they forget they are actually learning and practicing their Math skills.

The Digital Breakout is just another one of my tools, and it was a good one and I will definitely try it again. We will be doing a family Math night this year, and I might just have the kids create our class game as a Digital Breakout. Hmmm, .....




Wednesday 7 December 2016

Beginning Math Mayhem

Math Mayhem

This blog is about Math and for Math.  It surrounds us.  We use it everyday and it is nothing to be afraid of for anyone.  It is okay to struggle and speed is not the point.  Try, fail, and try again.


There is a fine line between a numerator and a denominator.  Only a fraction of people will find this funny.