The Optimism of Youth

Today I wanted to share a TedTalk with everyone that I saw for the first time last night. It is an amazing testament to what curiosity, optimism, and the internet can do to change our world. The work of this remarkable young man will end up saving lives of people he never met. As a high school teacher I sometimes have concerns about the younger generation, but this talk shows, they are capable of anything.

EVERNOTE - What can it do for a teacher?

As promised I'm sharing out more of what I took away from the Mobile Learning Experience 2013. In today's post I'll be sharing all about EVERNOTE. If you're not familiar with this program I've included an introduction from the company.

Now that you have the basics, let's talk about what it can mean in your classroom.

BYOT - Bring Your Own Technology

I have just returned from the Mobile Learning Experience from the Arizona K12 Center and my mind is overflowing with technology wonderment. I cannot capture all that I have learned in a single blog post, so this will be the first of many.

BYOT means Bring Your Own Technology. Students have miniature computers in their pockets most of the time and they can be a great asset if we start putting them to work for us! My campus has an open Wi-Fi network and I would say that it is necessary to becoming a BYOT campus. I'm going to share a lesson that I did with my students today that highlights some of the possibilities of BYOT.

My lesson was called Photocabulary. It's a combination of photography and vocabulary. We have been learning about systems of equations and how to categorize them by the number of times they intersect and the way they intersect. 

• Students had 10 minutes to go out on campus and find examples of parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines and take pictures of them.
• Then we came back to class and they shared their photos on a web album.
• Next, we used our clickers to vote on what type of lines were in the pictures and discuss our answers.
• Finally, students completed a free write about their experiences.

I had students pair up or make groups of three to make sure each group had a camera phone. I also brought in my old phones for them to use just in case. This forced them to work as a team since they were sharing a device. I assigned roles of keeping track of the subjects of their pictures and the types of lines they had recorded as well as a role of hunter for those who were looking for more lines while the pictures were being taken, we even had a time keeper role to make sure they finished.

 

I have a Google account so I had students email pictures to my Picasa drop box to share them out. I prepared a QR code with the email and I gave them the actual address in case they couldn't scan the code. Sometimes this process took a little longer, depending on how busy the Wi-Fi was at the time but we passed out clickers at the same time to make it more efficient.

This lesson addressed several of the Mathematical Practices from the CCSS. Students were learning to attend to precision with their academic vocabulary which I assessed by listening to their conversations in their group and with the data collected from their clickers. Students were constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others during our conversations on categorizing the lines and discussing how we felt about the votes. Students used appropriate tools strategically by using their camera phones to support their vocabulary learning. And finally they were modeling with mathematics by finding examples of the math in their every day lives. And of course they were learning the meaning of the three words and what the relationships look like to meet their content standards as well.

This was my first lesson back from the Mobile Learning Experience and I will continue to post my adventures as they come up!

Systems of Equations

In chatting with some of my math friends I have found that they would like me to share not just my thinking maps, but some vocabulary strategies as well. Ask and ye shall receive!

• Defining the Vocabulary - I created this "Read for Understanding" activity to help students define their terms while practicing their reading comprehension skills. I will support this activity with dictionaries.
• Word Puzzles - I continue to believe in the power of Word Searches and Crossword Puzzles as ways for students to practice their vocabulary. (These links might not work in Internet Explorer, but Google Chrome should work)
• Dictionaries - One more resource to afford, I know, so here is how I keep it cheap;
• You can have students use their phones to look words up on the internet or download a dictionary app, or collect old cell phones with WiFi access
• You can buy used dictionaries, sometimes even math specific ones, for a dollar or two at Goodwill
• You can print your own thanks to AZWorksheets.com

Thinking Maps - So far I have a double bubble for this chapter, but I'm working on more...

It's VOCABULARY day my math friends!

I don't know about you but I'm always looking for ways to strengthen my students' math vocabulary. I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas and resources with you today:

• A word wall can be a wonderful tool, but it doesn't reach its potential if it's not an active wall. The Granite School District in Utah has a great one page flyer of ideas that are fun and easy to implement in your classroom to reinforce your vocabulary and bring your word wall to life.
• I'm sure that I have shared my Frayer square worksheet before, but it remains one of my favorites.
• The Virginia Department of Education has released some great Word Wall Cards that are really helpful in illustrating vocabulary concepts.
• The Discovery Education Puzzlemaker remains my favorite word puzzle creation software. Word searches make students repeat the words in their head while they search, it's great for repetition. Word scrambles are a wonderful way to practice spelling because students will pay special attention to the letters used to make vocabulary words. And cross word puzzles help students practice connecting definitions to vocabulary words. Word puzzles are not busy work!
• The website A-Z worksheets.com has a great printable math glossary if you need one but I have started letting my students use apps and internet on their phones to look up words with great success.

I hope these ideas help you out. My feeling is that precise vocabulary is the difference between understanding math and being afraid of it! Go do math!

Resources for Common Core

This post is dedicated to my high school math teachers. I have been scoping out some online resources for implementing the common core and I thought I would share.

• Common Core Standards – go to the source! 
• Illustrative Mathematics offers examples aligned with each standard to give a better understanding of the meaning and intent of the common core standards.
• Math Issues Papers by McGraw Hill will keep you up to date with the issues facing math teachers in our brave new world of common core.
• Progression Documents from the University of Arizona and the Brookhill Foundation help to outline how students will progress through their mathematical understandings throughout the common core standards.

I'll end with a video because I think it helps to understand the ideas that have fostered the new common core...

I hope these help you!