MTBoS Directory & Post-it Plus App

Hi everyone!

I just want to give a quick list of 3 awesome things:

1. MTBoS Directory!
Wow this is going to be amazing - one comprehensive list for our little math world!
Go to http://sites.google.com/site/mtbosdirectory to sign up! Click add entry, and let us know who you are. I've been having some fun today looking up teachers in my area, and finding some amazing new blogs to follow.


2. Post-it Plus App
This is random, but I read a blog post today that just ROCKED MY WORLD. I do so many sorting, matching, and ordering activities, and I've finally found a way to digitize this process. Check out the idea from Teaching High School Math here. I tried it out very briefly while my students were working on the warmup, and I'm already planning to use it tomorrow for students to practice switching between log and exponential form.


3. ScoodleJam and Nearpod App-Smash
Is it still called an App Smash if it's only smashed by the teacher? Hmm....I'll have to think about that.
ScoodleJam is a great doodling app - I downloaded it last week when it was free, and have been using it to create some cool activities. It's easy to save an image created in ScoodleJam, and I imported them into Nearpod to create some introduction puzzles based on this blog post. I used it at the beginning of my lesson for solving exponential equations without logs. You can check out the Nearpod presentation I used here. It's not too fancy, but it really made this lesson so much easier on my students, and it only took me about 10 minutes to create!

BINGO 2.0 (Nearpod App-Smash)

I had a moment during 1st period today, where I realized how different my classroom is from when I started teaching. (Yes, we were at school for a half day on a Saturday, for a snow make-up day)

My plan was to play bingo with my Math 2 students, who are working on simplifying radicals today. We also had the Ipad cart checked out, which I had intended to use for a quick Google Classroom update. Instead, the Ipads ended up being exactly the thing that took this activity to the next level. 

Whenever we play bingo in my classroom, I print out a Kuta (or similar test bank) worksheet with questions and an answer page. Usually, I print out 1 copy with 40-50 questions. I put the answer sheet under the document camera, and students copy random answers into squares on a blank bingo card. 

Quick ideas/suggestions for a last minute bingo game:

• Any worksheet with an answer key works - just copy the answers onto the board for the students to choose from. 
• Quick, repetitive type questions work best, such as complex number operations, simplifying expressions of any kind, or switching forms of linear or quadratic equations. (I'll be repeating this activity Monday with Math 3 for completing the square)
• Students can use a blank template if you have time/resources to copy one for each student. I usually have 1 class set, which we put inside sleeve protectors and use as dry erase boards. Students write on the cards with either pencils/dry erase markers. 
• Bingo chip ideas: I use foam sheets from the dollar store that I cut into 1-inch pieces several years ago. I've also used the small glass vase-fillers from the dollar store, although they make much more noise. On the few occasions that students have their own copy of the bingo template to write on, they've used markers to mark their squares. 

But here's how it changed today. We used the Nearpod app's "Draw It" feature. That meant that each time I called out a question, they showed their work and sent it to me! Each question, I had a student sample that I could scroll through, so that we could talk about any mistakes or misconceptions along the way. Below is a screen shot of the teacher's view from the app.

Nearpod has this great "share" feature after using the Draw It slides. It allows you to send the picture of any student's work, without their name, to every other student. This is such a game changer. They can see their peers' work, and discuss it without the pressure of going to the board. This is a view of what the teacher sees from the app, with the blue "Share" button in the top corner of each response. 

My students also figured out that they could take a picture of the projected question, import it into Nearpod, and then complete the work over the image.  Some choose to write the question out, as shown above.

When we review homework, this feature means they're able to snap a pic of their work from their homework page, then send it to me, without having to rewrite anything. Then we look over several responses together, and sort out any confusion. This is a great time saver, and it's definitely an app I hope to find more uses for in the future.