Today I wasn't just solely impressed with the overall project, but what went on in the rest of the classroom as well. There were many aspects that went smoothly. For example, Mr. Carls came in and called students over to use the iPad2 to one table and I did the same at another table. As students were patiently waiting their turn to try out something new and exciting, they were practicing math around the room. At the SMARTboard students were working together to solve problems using Thinking Blocks, one of our new favorite sites that uses the bar model. Other students were working with Grama Linda on subtraction problems on their dry erase boards. Lastly, Ashley assisted her classmates at the computer station as they solved student-created word problems on a collaborative VoiceThread.
It was great to have our grandparent volunteer, a student-leader assisting, as well as our tech integrator joining our class today, since it gave students the opportunity to work one to one with the iPad2s. Math is so personal. There's so many ways to solve a problem and each child is unique in their thinking. I valued the chance to see my students "show me" their thoughts today.
I'm so glad that Mr. Olson, our middle school math teacher, shared with us this app. It has a LOT of potential for continued use. Plus, since it's super user-friendly, the kids can already use it independently after today's introduction.
Thank you to everyone who made today's "Math Morning" a success. All of the pieces fit together nicely for a purposeful math morning. Thank you to all who helped today! We'd love to hear how you subtract! What's your strategy of choice?
Hi, JamieLynn.
ReplyDeleteGreat learning going on in your classroom! We used the ShowMe app in a very similar way but with 2-digit addition. There is no way a teacher could listen to every student's math talk during class, but by recording it with ShowMe now they can!
Also, as a parent, my own children were doing math in a way that was new to me and I didn't always understand how they were solving problems. These serve as a great tutorial for the different processes of solving..and the best part is they're created by students!
Thanks for sharing and please pass along to your students that people outside their community are watching what they're doing and to keep up the super job! Take care.
Chris Hyde (cehyde9)
Sounds like a great class where the kids were able to explore and have some fun while practicing and learning Math! I'm glad the Showme App worked so well for you. And again, nice job to all of the students!
ReplyDeleteMr. Olson