Students photographed at least 4 types of track configurations and also drew and wrote about their findings.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Recording "Rollercoaster" Findings
Our current science unit is balance and motion. Last week we studied rolling using marbles and tracks.
Students photographed at least 4 types of track configurations and also drew and wrote about their findings.
Students photographed at least 4 types of track configurations and also drew and wrote about their findings.
Making and Labelling Arrays
We are working on arrays and repeated addition right now in math. Pairs of students chose either the number 12, 15, 16, or 20. For their given number they made all the arrays possible using linker cubes. They annotated a photo in Skitch with the matching repeated addition equation. Adding a multiplication equation was optional.
CueThink App
I first heard about the CueThink app at the EdTech Summit San Diego. I used it for the 1st time this week. I created a very simple question to start and walked my students through the use of the app during a center rotation. Once everyone was comfortable with the app I assigned them a new question that was more appropriate for our current learning.
What I found helpful about CueThink is the very clear understand-plan-solve-review steps. Then within each of the 4 steps there are specific breakdowns to solving the math problem. For example, students need to write what they know from the problem, what they need to find out, and what they estimate an answer would be.
These are skills we have talked about all year but have been difficult to get every student to include in their math problem solving. Most students want to jump in and find the answer. The boxes and 4 steps of CueThink make it more "mandatory" for students to slow down and think first.
I have modified the language a bit my for students. For example, on the understand page I tell the students to write what the problem tells them, what they need to find out, and their estimate.
After each student completed and submitted their assignment I put them in groups of 3, trying to put students who used different strategies in a group together. The students share their solutions with each other (in the app) and then discussed what they noticed about how their peers solved. The discourse during this part of the less was fantastic, I was so impressed!
What I found helpful about CueThink is the very clear understand-plan-solve-review steps. Then within each of the 4 steps there are specific breakdowns to solving the math problem. For example, students need to write what they know from the problem, what they need to find out, and what they estimate an answer would be.
These are skills we have talked about all year but have been difficult to get every student to include in their math problem solving. Most students want to jump in and find the answer. The boxes and 4 steps of CueThink make it more "mandatory" for students to slow down and think first.
I have modified the language a bit my for students. For example, on the understand page I tell the students to write what the problem tells them, what they need to find out, and their estimate.
After each student completed and submitted their assignment I put them in groups of 3, trying to put students who used different strategies in a group together. The students share their solutions with each other (in the app) and then discussed what they noticed about how their peers solved. The discourse during this part of the less was fantastic, I was so impressed!
Create a Holiday Activity Update
Back on March 30, 2013 I wrote about my students creating a new holiday after studying existing federal holidays. We completed this project again this year with a couple of additions. First, Epic has a number of excellent books about federal holidays. There are books in the "Celebrations in My World" series which are at an appropriate reading level for my students and there are books in the "Let's Celebrate" series for students who are reading far above grade level. I still offered students paper books, but 19 of the 21 students (reading in pairs/1 group of 3) picked digital books.
The other addition is that students created an Aurasma overlay on their holiday wall poster to link their Educreations advertisement video.
The other addition is that students created an Aurasma overlay on their holiday wall poster to link their Educreations advertisement video.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Cooties App
This week we used the Cooties app to discuss the transfer of virus and bacteria. It's a cute app with graphics that appeal to young students.
I had each student log in to the game I started. Then I choose 1 student and "infected" them (without their knowledge). Students "bumped" iPads with each other to simulate daily interactions such as sharing pencils, shaking hands, touching the same door handle, etc. If an infected student bumped with a healthy student the infection was transferred. That newly infected student would then transfer the infection to other students they bumped iPads with. As a teacher I was able to change the incubation period duration. We played 3 times. First with no incubation, next with a 15 second incubation and finally with a 30 second incubation. As a teacher I see on my iPad all the interactions that are happening. Each time I stopped the activity after about 55 student bumps/interactions.
The students loved it and it helped us refresh the idea of keeping germs from spreading. We did a unit in September about this topic but now that it's allergy season and students are also going through another round of colds it provided a fun refresher.
I think next week we'll play again. This time I will let the infected student know they are infected (this is an option in the app) and we will discuss how this might change behavior.
I had each student log in to the game I started. Then I choose 1 student and "infected" them (without their knowledge). Students "bumped" iPads with each other to simulate daily interactions such as sharing pencils, shaking hands, touching the same door handle, etc. If an infected student bumped with a healthy student the infection was transferred. That newly infected student would then transfer the infection to other students they bumped iPads with. As a teacher I was able to change the incubation period duration. We played 3 times. First with no incubation, next with a 15 second incubation and finally with a 30 second incubation. As a teacher I see on my iPad all the interactions that are happening. Each time I stopped the activity after about 55 student bumps/interactions.
The students loved it and it helped us refresh the idea of keeping germs from spreading. We did a unit in September about this topic but now that it's allergy season and students are also going through another round of colds it provided a fun refresher.
I think next week we'll play again. This time I will let the infected student know they are infected (this is an option in the app) and we will discuss how this might change behavior.
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