One of my favorite twitter math teachers, @druinok, mentioned Edmodo the other day and one of my favorite companies, Discovery Education, actually uses it to easily facilitate discussions among its leadership council. I had explored quickly glanced at Edmodo before and didn't see how it would work for my dual enrollment math class that is packed with, at times, ugly equations. There was no obvious "ENTER YOUR EQUATION HERE" buttons and I didn't readily see how it would be possible to type in problems that were properly formatted for student quizzes. In desperate need of finding something to help pull my class together, I revisited Edmodo last night. We have been in school for 5 weeks and I have collected many assignments electronically. In that time I have had students who were absent (and some did not join us until 2 weeks in and now are going back to complete missed work!!!) This past week, I have attempted to chase down missing assignments stored in numerous locations around the web; while I have my class website with specific assignments on specific dates, I still feel a bit disjointed as I run reports from a plethora of quiz generators. To further add to my feelings of the class getting away from me, half of the students I teach are not in my district, so I do not have an online gradebook for the kids to monitor their progress in the course or recognize when they have a missing assignment. Since my students are from different ends of the state (about 3 1/2 hours apart), the collaborative aspect of Edmodo appealed to me. I had heard so many great things about the social aspect of Edmodo that I wanted to check it out again and see if I could make it work.
But how do you add equations to Edmodo's quiz???? I worked diligently last night and finally gave up around 3AM this morning, only to wake up with Edmodo still on my mind. After a leisurely cup of coffee and a late breakfast, I tackled it again. It is amazing how much clearer one's mind is after a little sleep. Umm..how about googling it?
Oh yeah, great idea! There were a few articles:) After checking out the first result, I quickly had my answer...you CAN add equations to the Edmodo quiz!!!
Here's how:
Vision Objects' converter can be used to transform equations written in your own hand writing into a LaTex format that is recognized by Edmodo's Quiz creator; you only need to add [math] at the beginning of the equation and [/math] at the end. You can see from the video that it is really quite easy!
So, fingers crossed, Edmodo will help me regain order to my class of 40 new friends:)
Last week's Fabulous Finds Friday helped keep me organized. This week's favorite find focuses on keeping students on track. The Interactive Student Notebook was a new find for me this summer. Interactive "Notebooks are a tool to strengthen student learning of curriculum through increased student participation. They are used in class daily to help the student learn and keep track of their learning. This style of notebook uses both the right and left-brain hemispheres to help sort, categorize and be creative with the newly attained knowledge." - MyMathClass From what I have read, they can be used in any subject and any grade. One side of the notebook is more teacher directed (class notes, examples, etc.) and the other side of the notebook is more student centered with lots of illustrations, reflections, and evidence of student processing. There seems to be many approaches to organizing the notebooks, but I liked the common idea of including student reflection and using graphics to illustrate main ideas in students' notebooks. While I may not incorporate the whole ISN idea, I am challenged to find a few foldables that can be incorporated this semester. I hate to admit it, but it has been a while since I have included these hands-on creations that allow students to organize, display, and arrange information, so I did a quick search and found tons of ideas online.
Another great idea came from Tammy author of Forever in First via Pinterest. Her idea...take pictures of students' ,math strategies, name them after the students who invented them, and display them in the classroom. I love this idea because it cultivates ownership of the content by everyone in the room!
I am always looking to learn, especially during the summer and definitely from the comfort of my own kitchen table. Leave it to Discovery Education to fill that need for me this summer. This just announced...Discovery Education Summer Institute will be broadcast live during the week of July 23 - 26. As one who has attended, this is an event you won't want to miss! From the posted schedule, I see one of my favorite presenters to hear, Hall Davidson, will be talking about one of my favorite technologies, iPads!!! I guess I know where I will be on Monday the 23rd at 11:10am :) On Tuesday, Patti Duncan will be discussing notebooks and journals in the media rich classroom. As a member of the Discovery Educator Network, I have had the privilege of attending several DE events, all are inspiring.
Lastly, something just for fun... how adorable is this!!! I think I will try to find red lollipops instead of hand dipping oreos. Maybe school colors: blue pencils and red suckers with school logo in the middle... or maybe more polka dots! Just a thought. Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by:)
I love summer! The sun on my nose. Popsicles in the frig, hours to spend surfing the web and ambition to re-create what you see :D This week, I found an organizational idea to incorporate into my class this Fall. First, let me say I am a binder girl. There was a time when my whole life was filed in one binder after another. I somehow migrated away from the binders and I have never felt quite as "together". So, when I saw this Teacher Binder, I was InSPiRed to make one too! The binder includes sections for calendars, meetings notes, and lesson plans. I am not quite finished putting it together, but I do have the calendars, week-at-a-glance, and section dividers ready to share.
With summer officially here (my last day for the school year was Tuesday), I have found myself surfing the web looking for fresh ideas and fabulous finds to make next year's teaching and learning even better. I have found so many amazing resources shared by educators from around the globe. I thought I would share a few of them here in a Fabulous Finds Friday post (I confess, I have been searching for a theme:)
My first incredible discovery is Janet Benincosa's fabulous website filled with numerous resources including technology resources, curriculum maps, and electronic lesson plans (which I had never seen and thought how easy it would be to customize for my state standards). The electronic lesson plan allows the user to utilize a built-in drop down menu to choose standards, level of Bloom's, Marzano's strategies, modifications, and so much more!
Kutztown University's Methods of Teaching Secondary Mathematics class has shared many ideas for interactive bulletin boards. Photos, directions, and lesson integration are all available on their website. Though the bulletin boards were designed with specific topics in mind, they can be easily adapted to fit any mathematics concept.
via Pinterest
This teacher makes 5 New Student Packets in which she an extra of everything at the beginning of the school year. When a new student comes in midyear, all of the first day items are handy and in one place. I will definitely be doing this!
Erin Eberhart shared a tip for creating Running Records using address labels, clipboard, and a pen. She makes notes on the address labels as she observes students. For example, John is struggling with... At the end of the week, she places the address labels on the large index card she keeps for each student. It makes it easy to keep track of each student's progress and share observations with parents.
Birthday Treats
Classroom Happies
Finally, two fun things to make for my sweet students. I love the erasers; they remind me of salt water taffy and the fair the way they are all wrapped up. And then, the birthday Pixie Stix... which was from Success in Second Grade and though I teach students 10 grades higher, I still think they might like this birthday treat:D
Wishing you a great weekend. I am off to discover more FaBULoUs FiNds!
