Thursday, November 29, 2012

Purposeful Padding in the Math Classroom - Post 7

Today I was in the room before the tardy bell.  As students arrived, they took their seats.  

“Do you want to grab your iPads and get started playing Meteor Math?” I asked.

They quickly grabbed  jumped up and got their iPads and those walking in the room joined them. Before long, everyone was working away on the Meteor Math app and the tardy bell had not even rung.

When the bell did ring, students were already engaged in the app! The head fake is they think they are playing a game and moving up levels, but they are really solving lots of math problems even before the day officially started.

In our quest to be paperless, I wanted to see if we could scan a QR code projected on the screen to move to our bell ringer, rather than sharing it on paper.  We discovered that the QR code must be bigger in order for them to scan it from their seat. So, we moved ahead with plan B, e-mail.

“Ok, tap the mail app. You will see an e-mail from me about your homework and you will also see a link to a Google Form for our bell ringer, “Gina Stukenholtz, 7th grade math teacher, said.

Efficiency. That would be the word for it.  They transitioned from the Meteor Math App, to the Mail App, to a Google Form and Doceri seamlessly and effortlessly. No shuffling papers, looking for pencils, finding page numbers, just a tap of the home button and all was well.

Another tap, they started a new Doceri project and began notes on fractions.  Instead of just e-mailing a homework problem in today, we took a bold new step and had the students explain their reasoning.  Using the Doceri app, students tapped record and then talked us through how they solved they converted a mixed number to an improper fraction.  It was a delight to hear the room full of students talking like mathematicians.  

Sharing the file was very easy, just a matter of dragging the recording to the mail icon, and voila, it was off to Mrs. Stukenholtz’s e-mail.  


 

Lessons Learned

1. E-mail is transforming classroom workflow for papers.  The two way communication is great.
2. Scanning a QR code works best on paper.  It is a great way to connect to the digital world without having to type a URL.
3.  Google forms seemed to be easier for the kids to use than
Socrative.  It was less frustrating for some students that had issues getting Socrative to start correctly on their screens.
4.  Students are engaged, solved many math problems, and are competitive playing Meteor Math.


Written by Ann Feldmann 

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