Consider the following:
First thought that comes to mind with gaming and gamification is that I’m totally sold! For my 792 book review Kris and I are reading Good Video Games + Good Learning so I’m finding all sorts of support for using games of all types in my classroom. I have already found some games that I really like, one of them being Kahoot! As of right now, all I’ve done with Kahoot! is use it as a review game with my students. It’s engaging, and competitive. There are some kids that don’t like it because they’re not as quick at math as other kids...that’s why I always try to do two short Kahoot!s, one totally fun and not math related, and the other one math related. This usually starts off all kids engaged. One of my next goals with Kahoot! when we come back from winter break is to have my kids make their own Kahoot!s to review with the class before a test. Since anyone can start a Kahoot! account, they can do this together in their groups and then try them out on each other. I think I’ll start really small by having them build a 5 question Kahoot! Another game that I use in class for pre-test review is called Grudgeball. Students are put in rows and their row is their team. Each team is given 10 “points” on the board. The goal is to have the most point at the end of the period. Points are taken away by other teams when they answer the review question correctly either first or second. When I post the question on the screen, only the first person in each row can write quietly on their group’s board while the rest of the group is working the problem behind them on their own paper. After 30 seconds of alone work time, anyone in the row can come up to the front and help the person with the board, but only the person in the front can write on the board. The first two groups correctly finished, get to choose another group to take points off of. Hence the name Grudgeball. Nobody is ever out...if your group gets down to 0 points, and you answer a question correctly first or second, you can put points back on for your team. I’ve also added a fun addition that if you’re the first or second team done, you can choose to shoot the Grudgeball (wadded up paper) into a basketball hoop (or garbage can) for the chance of a 3 pointer or further back 4 pointer...this gets rid of other teams points quicker...if the shooter misses, they still get to erase the original two...so not much of a risk for taking the shot. When the end of the period is nearing, I usually play double round and double all the point deductions to 4, 6 and 8, makes it possible for almost anyone to come from behind and win right at the end of the period…buzzer beater! Desmos has some fun games as well...I’ll be sharing one of them in my video presentation. Gabe Zichermann: How games make kids smarterLoved his notion that kids are better at multi-tasking than the generation before because gaming throws so much more stimulus at them. Also, according to Gabe, our world moves too slow for today’s kids. I’m not quite sure I agree with this philosophy, because I don’t believe many of our kids have enough patience, or understand the concept of delayed gratification. Gabe says the five skills that game players need to have in order to be successful gamers are the ability to:
Quest to Learn school in New York: How do you talk a district into adopting a model like this? Where do you get the $ for the tech and other supplies? How do you fit in the curriculum standards? I really like the connections and research they’ve done on how kids learn, with an emphasis on collaboration and technology, and incorporated it into everything they teach. Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better worldTotally relate with her description of the facial features of a gamer who’s on the verge of an “epic win.” I’ve always felt that the thing that motivates me the most about teaching is helping my students have “A-ha!” moments. That exact moment when you see the understanding sink into their face and their eyes light up with the satisfaction of success. This is the closest connection I can think of in my classroom to an epic win.
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In your blog, reflect on the following:
Exploration of classroom use and application.
Vignettes: Given the scenario in what ways could multimedia support teaching and learning?
Tools I explored and some brief notes about them:
As you review the resources and tools, consider how infographic creation can be used as another way for students to demonstrate understanding, and how you can use student infographics as an assessment tool. Browse the page with the questions in mind and review the resources/tools of interest to you. Write a blog in response to the question: How can infographics be used in your classroom?
Thoughts and Reflections about infographics:
http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/can-cultivate-critical-thinking-infographics/ http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/how-to-use-infographics-as-multimodal-learning-tools/ http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/literacy/a-primer-on-infographics-in-the-classroom/ 1. How can/should social media be used to help you develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional? What are the critical issues to consider?
2. What would you do if you were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of your students outside of the school. Do you address the post and, if so, how? Whom do you involve in the conversations? What considerations must you make in determining your course of action?
Blog #2 Tool Review
Please share a tool (other than a Google App for Edu) that you currently use and find useful. Please try to share a tool we have not yet discussed in class. Explain why you might use the tool. Outline the tool’s capacity and explain how you use the tool. Please also share (based upon your experiences NOT the product’s website) the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. Be sure to also address the following questions in your post:
As a high school Math 1 teacher, I have found the website Desmos.com to be very useful. In the past I’ve used for its simplicity. I first started using it simply as a graphing calculator, and each year I’ve used it, I’ve learned a little bit more about it. Until today, I’ve never gone through a teacher tutorial, I’ve just explored by myself and learned a lot. I’ve used it primarily for students to graph lines, it takes some of the tedium of paper and pencil out. One thing I’ve really enjoyed is kids can graph multiple lines at once, and they show up in different colors and they can use this to compare. Last school year, during our stats unit, I discovered a whole section on stats graphs and we had kids graphing scatter plots, writing lines of best fit on their own, and then plugging the data into Desmos and it would give the exact line of best fit for the data including slope and y-intercept. It was a great comparison activity for the kids. I also discovered last year, the kids can login and create an account. This was extremely useful because often times with our PrBL math tasks we would be working on something for several days, and before I discovered this option, kids were spending time typing in all their data, the bell would ring, and they’d lose it all. Now that I have them login and create an account, they can save graphs and come back the next day and pick up right where they left off. Here comes the best part...today I decided to explore what they have for teachers and I discovered an awesome activity!! And it’s just one of many. I played with what they call a linear bundle, it’s 7 activities exploring linear equations. Very fun, engaging, interactive games and lessons where the students play other kids across the room on their devices. We are right now teaching linear equations, and I will be doing this desmos activity on Monday...it’s that cool. Without describing the activity word for word, check it out if you want (https://teacher.desmos.com/linear) Choose the first activity, Polygraph: Lines. I also tweeted the activity, follow me at @napamadigans. BLOG #1 Please consider the following ideas as you blog this week. We know technology/digital literacy has to be taught (we can’t rely on the theory of the digital native) yet, given your already full curriculum, how will you begin to teach digital literacy? Reply to the posts of 3 of your peers. Don’t forget to set a tag for 702
Blog: Given your student’s grade level and the subject matter you teach, consider how you can teach digital citizenship and specifically digital citizenship as it relates to digital communication. Please provide 3 specific examples on how you might make learning digital citizenship personal for your students. In addition to responding to this question, please review the posts made by your colleagues and respond to 3 of their postings.
The first thought that comes to mind, is that we use ECHO at Napa High as our online school management system. Students use ECHO to read daily agendas, check their grades, submit work, grade each other on collaboration, post comments, etc. Students are on their devices in class on a daily basis. One quick way that I might be able to teach digital citizenship is by providing little “bytes” of information/advice, and/or digital etiquette reminders on our daily agenda. We could have a focus, or theme, for the week, or unit. Of the 9 themes of Digital Citizenship, I would say Digital Etiquette is probably something that most of my high schoolers don’t think about on a regular basis. I found this paragraph, which is taken from the Digital Citizenship Website, very intriguing: “Technology users often see this area as one of the most pressing problems when dealing with Digital Citizenship. We recognize inappropriate behavior when we see it, but before people use technology they do not learn digital etiquette (i.e., appropriate conduct). Many people feel uncomfortable talking to others about their digital etiquette. Often rules and regulations are created or the technology is simply banned to stop inappropriate use. It is not enough to create rules and policy, we must teach everyone to become responsible digital citizens in this new society.” I totally agree with the underlined statement. As a high school teacher and a parent of two teenagers and a tweenager, I find it very uncomfortable talking to, or ‘lecturing’ kids about their digital presence and habits. I often feel like “just another adult telling them what to do” and that many of them tune out when adults start getting preachy to them. It’s a very delicate balance. How do we help teenagers, whose frontal lobes are still developing, to think about possible consequences of their digital use, and risky behaviors? Encouraging students to “self-reflect” before they “self reveal.” It would be beneficial for me to have a discussion with my classes about digital etiquette. I have a really difficult time fathoming how I would teach this in class because I spend most of my curriculum planning time figuring out the math that I’m going to teach. The Common Sense website has realistic “Student Activity Sheets” with plausible scenarios and thought provoking questions to ask students. (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lessons/activity-sheets/en) I could see this being a very personal, engaging way to start discussions about Digital Etiquette and Digital Citizenship in my classroom. I spent about 45 minutes reading almost all 20 of them...my mind was spinning...they’re really cool...how could I fit this curriculum in my already tight school year? My dilemma: whose responsibility is it to teach this material? I’m a MATH teacher?!?! |
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December 2016
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