This week's teacher feature comes from the high school where Mr. Todd Gantz is helping his students to understand exactly what math means for life after high school. Yes, the students have a hard time understanding this concept! Mr. Gantz gave the students the following assignment: "Students often are unsure about what math classes to take and where mathematics will be used outside of their secondary education. Your job is to answer this question. You will be making a presentation about what mathematics are required for your potential career and the schooling that will help you arrive at this career. To answer these questions you will follow the following guidelines: pick a career, 2 schools that offer that line of study, the types and examples of math they would be taking, and a presentation to summarize their findings." Of course, Mr. Gantz gave more detailed instructions for his students, but I summarized for this article. Most students used Google Slides or another similar platform to present, but a few thought outside the box. One student actually used Python.org to create his presentation. If you are unfamiliar with Python it is a coding language. That is about all I know as well! It was great to see students making connections to math that will extend beyond their education here. Great job Mr. Gantz and class!
This week's teacher feature takes us to Rolling Acres where Ms. Erin Hahn and her star Kindergarten students are learning to use Google Classroom. I know most of you are probably thinking, but how could they possibly be using this in Kindergarten? Ms. Hahn actually has students practicing typing in the question response areas. This not only familiarizes students with keyboarding skills, but how to answer a question. The students really liked being able to see everyone's responses in the discussion forum. If that wasn't enough for you, Ms. Hahn also posted resources here for the students to access. Great job Ms. Hahn and Kindergarten class!
This week's teacher feature takes us over to Rolling Acres where fractions are becoming fun?!?!?! Ms. Nancy Cook and her wonderful third graders embarked on a journey to solve the problem of creating equivalent fractions. I shared with them Google Drawings and then asked the question how can we create fractions? The students began discovery learning by searching for ways to show not only fractions, but equivalent fractions! There is no way to "shade" fractions in Google Drawings currently, but the students discovered they could just place an X over the pieces they wanted "shaded." I loved seeing the students as the problem solvers and the looks on their faces when they found an answer! They really became the teachers. Great job Ms. Cook and third graders. Way to show us that students are problem solvers as well!
This week's teacher feature takes us to Alloway Creek where Ms. Sandra Hartzell is using the tool Flippity with her students. Flippity easily turns a Google spreadsheet into a set of online flashcards. If that wasn't easy and cool enough, it also creates a Jeopardy game of sorts with the Google spreadsheet! Her students love practicing vocabulary using Flippity because it turns it into a game. Here is what Ms. Hartzell had to say, "My fourth grade Wilson phonics students were reviewing words with a beginning and medial schwa sound (compliment, /i/ sounds like /u/; vanilla, /a/ sounds like /u/). Flippity allows them to read a flashcard of a real word and then a similar sounding nonsense word on the the flip-side of the card. The word compliment morphs into a nonsense word like comshinent and vanilla, morphs into a word like vamidda. After that they used the Flippity Quiz Show to practice and review the meanings of those same words. We followed up with a quick Kahoot game to practice quickly recognizing the correct spellings of those same words. The kids were very engaged and loved all three activities." There are some other built in features like a random name picker, a badge tracker, a progress indicator, and a certificate quiz. The students enjoyed the competition that Flippity presented. Great job Ms. Hartzell and class!
This week's teacher feature takes us to Rolling Acres Elementary where the Kindergarten class is rocking it with Symbaloo! Justine Garman and her Kindergarten students were completing both math and literacy stations using Symbaloo as their homepage. What is Symbaloo, you ask? Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking tool that makes it simple and fun to organize the web. I refer to it as a "home base" of sorts because you can place all your favorite websites to visit in one spot for easy access. Kindergarten decided as a grade level to create a Symbaloo (led by their tech leader Mrs. Erin Hahn) so that their students could have a "home base" to visit many websites pertaining to their grade level and various subject levels. This makes it easier for students to visit different websites in a quick way. Ms. Garman's class could show me many different websites they could use to practice their math and literacy skills! I was so proud of how they could navigate their chromebooks like champs! Great job Ms. Garman and class! |
AuthorThis blog has been created by Mrs. Gabrielle Sipe, the K-12 tech integrator in the Littlestown Area School District, for the purpose of sharing tech tips with the school community. Archives
May 2016
Categories |