Integrating Technology in the Secondary Math Classroom

It's been a hot minute since I have written a post, but I am back. As teachers, you know how crazy life can get and it has been exactly that for the past few years. Yes. Years.

My goal this past school year was to integrate technology into my daily lessons as often as possible. This ranged from using the TI Nspire calculators with the Navigator system, to ipads, to just booking the computer lab. We are also a "bring your own device" campus, but with 7th graders that can open up a can of worms that I am just not interested in managing, mmkay?

One of my favorite things that I did this year was dive head in with Schoology as a platform to house all course materials. Students still received paper copies of most things, but files were housed on Schoology in our course materials folder in the event it was lost or students wanted to re-do an assignment. This also saved me a lot of time from standing at the copier since I could load a digital copy of a resource on Schoology and students could access on their ipads. Students were more engaged using technology, and I had an extra 10 minutes to drink HOT coffee before school started. I know, I can't believe it either.

Screenshot of my course from the 1st semester 

It was so easy to navigate for students and parents. I am all about things making my life easier and this was it! By the end of the first month of school, I am able to provide simple instructions about where their activity is located and they can find it. It leaves me more time to go work on on one with students who need it most. 

When you put students in purposeful groups, and provide tools to not get bogged down in the math, real magic can happen. Don't get me wrong, I am all about students having the skills they need in order to solve basic math problems without calculation devices. But, if that is not the main skill that I am assessing, I am going to allow my students to have a calculator available to them. Here, they are working on a Pythagorean Theorem task. While they all have a calculator available to them, they chose NOT to use it. That is powerful. 

Many people think that teaching an accelerated course means that your students are all above grade level. That is simply not the case. In my class, I will have students who range from having barely passed the state test to scoring perfectly. There is a lot of differentiation that needs to occur in order to meet my kiddos where they are and grow them all. I want to be able to extend the learning for my truly GT students but also not leave behind my strugglers. Technology allowed me to do that this year. I am looking forward to incorporating it even more next year!

Enhancing Basic Skills Without Losing Class Time

Hello, friends! I hope that you have had a wonderful summer so far. It is about that time for me to start thinking about going back to school (as hard as that is right now!) and I began reflecting upon some things that worked for me last year. If you are in Texas, then you know how hard of a shift we made with new standards this year. I found myself feeling a great need to "fill in all the gaps" that my kiddos had. However, we simply didn't have the time. I had to come up with a way to help them without using class time.

I taught two grades last year: 6th Grade On Level Math, and 7th Grade Pre-AP Math. Needless to say, they had very different gaps. 

On my campus, we have 5 minute passing periods. If you are on an elementary campus or don't have as long of a passing period, you may need to tweak this for your campus.

Here's what I came up with: I made flash cards (using index cards and a sharpie that still had some life left in it!) for whatever skill it was that my kids were severely struggling with. For my 6th graders, it was multiplication facts at first, and for my 7th graders, it was integer operations. (Can I get an AMEN?!)

Anyhow, I made about 60 flashcards of varying difficulty for each set and used different colors so that I could easily identify which set was for which grade level. At the end of each class, I would dismiss my kids, and wait at the door for my next class. They were already trained to wait until I told them they could go in, so this was an easy transition. 

The first kid would get a card that looked like this:

They weren't necessarily this easy, but on the back would be the answer like this:

I had them reversed as well, where a larger factor would appear first.

And, again, the answer was on the back.

If the student got the right answer, they went into class and completed whatever task was on the board for them. If the answer was incorrect, I did one of two things. Sometimes, I let the student take the card with them to the back of the line and when they got back up to the front they would need to explain why the answer is what it is. Other times, I would send them to the back of the line to review their notes and when they came back up, they would get a different card. It was a great way to hold them accountable for skills that they should have mastered. 

If I had hall duty, I would have the first student who answered correctly show the cards to the rest of the class. The kids would compete to get to class first to have this honor. It was hilarious. Who rushes to get to MATH!?

I'm going to be completely honest here. I didn't think this would work as well as it did. I would use the same exact set for a week or two before switching to something a bit more difficult based on what we were learning in class. I had amazing results! The kids cheered each other on, which was great, and were so proud of themselves when they got the answer right on the first try. They enjoyed being challenged. Which made me ecstatic.

The best thing that ever happened was this:

Remember when I said that my 7th graders were struggling with integer operations? Well, that is because it was now a 6th grade standard and it used to be a 7th grade standard. My students unfortunately did not get very much instruction the prior year and were frustrated big time. This was about the time that my 6th graders were learning integer operations and as a 6th grader walks by during the passing period, he sees the card I am showing to a 7th grader and he yells out, "Hey! How come the 7th graders get easier cards than we do?!" This really motivated my 7th graders to master this and move on to a new stack of cards!

So, if you are looking to start something like this in your classroom, but don't have time to make the cards yourself, my first two sets are available for purchase in my TpT store. More sets will be coming soon. If you have any requests, leave me a comment or send me an email and I will add it to my list!

This particular set has 120 cards used to practice multiplication facts complete with answers on the back of the cards. Click the image for more information.

This set has 96 cards (24 for each integer operation) with the answers on the backside. Click the image for more information.

Have a great school year!

Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Book Review

I am so excited to be participating in this Math Book Blog Hop today! I have teamed up with a bunch of awesome math bloggers to bring this to you.

I am a reader. It seems as if I read more for school than I do for me. BUT, when I find something that is good, I want everyone to know about it. My team is probably sick of me talking about this book, but if I could only have one teaching resource in my classroom, this would probably be it!

Let me tell you how this book works. It is divided up by strand according to the Common Core Standards. Being from Texas, this doesn't bother me at all even though we do not follow the common core curriculum. Within each strand, it is broken down in to grade levels. This particular book has content for K-8th grade. If you are looking for high school, you might want to check out the "sequel" that can be found here: More Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Secondary Mathematics Instruction  

Within each grade level, there are two types of questions: open ended questions and parallel tasks. The open -ended questions are exactly what they sound like--open ended. These are great because they not only correlate to the big idea from the standard, but they also have suggested answers, teaching tips, and examples. My favorite question that I asked from this book last year was:

"You divide two fractions and the numerator of the quotient is four. What could the two fractions be?" 

(taken from page 47)

I love this question for so many reasons. The vocabulary used is vocabulary that we want our kids to use. This reinforces the proper academic vocabulary for the content being assessed. Also, it requires students to come up with a strategy that may be different from their classmate's strategy. There is no "right" answer, there is an infinite amount of correct answers. It also allows the kids to all be able to share their solutions instead of one student answering and moving on. 

Starting to ask questions (especially warm-ups or exit tickets) in this way totally transformed my teaching. I was now asking purposeful questions. They were planned. I got excited to get the part of the lesson when we could share responses. We did this every day, and the results were amazing!

The parallel tasks are just as good, if not better. Parallel tasks are based on one topic, but there are two questions. One is sometimes more challenging than the other, but it is always disguised by having what students would refer to as "friendly numbers." The point is that you tell them they only have to answer one question. In my opinion, they end up working out both to see which is easier! Kids are so funny. Here is an example of one of my favorites:

"Lisa's dad was driving 16 miles every 15 minutes. 

Choice 1: How far would he drive in 20 minutes?

Choice 2: How far would he drive in 2.5 hours?"

(taken from page 65)

Both questions involve some analysis before proceeding. Students inherently want to figure out which one is "easier" or will take less time. Many students of mine started out by answering choice 1, but then qiuckly switched to choice 2. 

These are just two examples of types of questions in this wonderful book. I encourage all of you to give it a try! 

Want a chance to win it?? I am raffling off a copy of the book and will send it to you directly. Because I am incurring the cost of shipping as well as the book, please only enter if you live in the contiguous 48 states. I apologize in advance!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the image below to be taken to the next blog: Miss Math Dork!