Techie Tuesday - Version 2.3 - I'm absent today! Now what will my kids do?!

School's back in session!

But now you're sick after inhaling all the germs that the students brought into your classroom.  What do you do?  Do you just make it a study hall (not recommended, by the way)?  Do you have the kids just work in groups to learn new material?  Or do you give a review assignment, even though it is going to set you back a day off of your schedule?  

With the invention of technology, you do not have to choose any of those options.  Instead you can create some visually stimulating lesson plans for your students.  Ever wonder what that large paper weight some of us like to call an iPad is for?  You can use it, with a multitude of apps, to create your lesson plan for students to view.  Last year I shared Mr. Painter's great use of the app Educreations and how he used it to share his lesson plan with his students.  (Excellent work, Marcus!)  

Educreations, ShowMe, or Explain Everything are all great apps for writing and/or inserting images on your iPad.  However, what if you want to make your video interactive.  "There's an app for that."  I call it TouchCast.  Touchcast is an amazing (FREE) app that lets you create videos with interactive elements in the actual video.  Here is a TouchCast video I shared with my students last year when I was going to miss a day during 2nd semester.

I LOVE this because all of my links (called vAPPS) are interactive and the students can just click, or touch, them to go to that website, vote on a poll, or send me a message on Twitter!  Do you think this could be useful in your classroom?

Featured Techie Of The Week - Nikie Jenkinson

Lesson Paths gives teachers the option to offer a fully-integrated digital lesson that is located online for all platforms. Teacher-generated components are not excluded, as the tool allows document uploads and comprehension quizzes as formative assessments throughout. The best part of Lesson Paths is the clear linear organization of each unit. Students may easily access each step of the lesson, called a "playlist," by hovering over the menu pop-up on the left of the screen and scrolling down to the correct step. However, students are encouraged to work through the lesson one step at a time with a large, clear "next" button on the top of the screen. A title bar on the top left indicates the lesson title and page heading while a horizontal bar on the top right shows students' progress through the lesson. To draw student interest, each link is fully clickable within the tool's window, so the student may access other dynamic content within the specific lesson. However, when a student is ready, the linear organization of the lesson allows him or her to easily jump right back in at the last step visited. I appreciate the opportunity to encourage student engagement with content while sharing educational and informative digital materials.

Thanks, Nikie!  If you would like to see an example of how Nikie used Lesson Paths in her classroom, just click HERE.  As always, feel free to contact the Featured Techie of the Week if you have any questions.

Math Notes are Borrrriiinng!...Or Are They?

Last week I read an article that was sent to me from my brother-in-law, who is an assistant principal at a different high school.  It was titled, "Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction".  The most influential passage from that article is:  

"On a broader note, much of what happens in most classes is a waste of everyone's time. It is neither teaching nor learning. It is stenography. Instructors recite their course notes and transcribe them onto the board, the students do their best to transcribe as much as they can into their notebooks, and the information flowing from one set of notes to the other does not pass through anyone's brain."

After reading these couple of lines I immediately thought about my Algebra 2 lesson for the next day.  It was 11:30 at night when I read these sentences, but it made complete sense.  Is what I am doing with direct-instruction being received and consumed by my students brains?  Or will they just be transcribing my thoughts? When in my lesson was I going to give the students time to question or to think about what they were writing down?  (Hmm...good questions, Kyle.  Now you are starting to think yourself!)

My original lesson called for me to cover seven different examples on the whiteboard in front of the classroom.  Granted, I was going to go over half of these problems, and then have the students do the other half in "Try It" mode.  It was basically just seeing if they could solve a very similar problem to the one I just showed them.  (Great idea!  Let's just see if they can reproduce the exact same type of problem you showed without them having to think and search for a solution on their own.  Rote memorization = NO individual thinking.)  So I scrapped that idea and decided to go with different stations where students could work with partners instead.  Here is a list of the different stations and their descriptions of the activity each group of 2-3 students had to complete.  (These are separated according to the examples they already had copied off for them on their blank notes.)

Station 1:  Write down the steps written out on the board.  Then complete the last 2 steps with your own work.  Once you have arrived at your answer, you need to check it with me.

Station 2:  Solve the given example.  You may use your book or partner to solve the problem.  Your last resort is to ask me for hints.  After you solve the problem, log in to Edmodo and answer the 1 question quiz that is posted.  (Only one member of your group needs to answer the question.)

Station 3:  Use your smartphone or my iPad to record your partner explaining how to solve the problem.  If you use your smartphone, upload the video to Edmodo and send it to me.

Station 4:  Record the steps to solve the problem from the board.  After recording the work, explain to your partner the steps to solving the problem.

Station 5:  Lay out all the blue cards.  (These contain the different steps to solve the example problem.)  Place them in the correct order.  Once your group thinks the steps are correct, call me over to double-check your work.  When they are in the correct order, record the steps into your notes.

Station 6:  View the example that was created on the iPad.  Once you are finished, discuss with your partner the steps that were taken to solve the problem.  What patterns were there?  What properties were used?

Station 7:  Solve the problem.  Once your group has agreed on an answer, login to www.socrative.com and answer the question that is presented.

Station 8:  View the example shown on the Promethean Board.  Once you have viewed the example, finish the last step.  Use the ActivExpression remotes to submit your answer.  Did you get it correct?

These were the different stations I had set up for the students.  While they were working in their groups, I was walking around answering different questions and interacting with the different groups.  It also enabled me to speak with individuals more person-to-person than usual.  It took about 15 minutes longer than usual, but the students were up and active learners on this day.  I called today, "Kline's Krazy Klassroom".  I loved this day!  However, some of the students were not big fans.  I truly believe it was because I made them "think" today.  They are used to getting the information spoon-fed to them.  On a typical day, they just sit and write down the notes I provide on the whiteboard.  They are typically "transcribers", and not "thinkers". 

I plan on posting a poll on Edmodo so I can get some feedback from the students.  I can guess their answers, but I am looking forward to seeing their responses.  Feel free to add any comments at the bottom as to how you could make this activity better and/or how it could be enriched.