Math Review Gamified!

Math Review Game Board

Need a fun way to have students review topics that they've learned throughout the year? This week I've been working with Union Middle School math teachers Alyssa Starr and Joy D'Apuzzo on creating a 6th grade HyperDoc game board that gives students a fun way to review major math concepts. It's basically a Google Doc with tables of math activities. Feel free to explore, copy, and modify the Math 6 Review Game Board that we came up with.

This HyperDoc gives students choices about which activities they would like to complete and it also gives time back to the teacher, allowing for individualized or small group instruction.

When looking for activities to include in the game board, we were looking for a variety and a mixture of tech and non-tech related activities. Here's where I found some really great math resources:

• Would You Rather Math by John Stevens
• Play with Your Math by Joey Kelly and Xi Yu
Mr Kraft's Desmos Creations by Nathan Kraft
• Learn Zillion
• Khan Academy
• Desmos: teacher.desmos.com (Use the search tool and preview already made activities.)

I have to admit that it does take a lot of time searching for quality resources and games, but my advice is to collaborate with other teachers and TOSAs in your school district. The big payoff is student excitement about content related activities. The students don't have to sit and listen to another lecture from their teacher and the teacher is freed up to work with students who may need some extra support. 

Math Game Board in Action

Math Game Board in Action Tweet

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch Miss Starr's class explore and complete game board activities. I did not see one student who was off task during the whole class period. Students were allowed to work in pairs and they had the freedom to choose where they wanted to sit in the classroom. Of course, some went straight to playing online math games like Inequality Wars or Percent Jeopardy, but others went directly to non-tech tasks. I watched 2 boys grab a deck of cards and play Exponent War with their notebook and whiteboards out and 2 girls in the back were working on writing a song about fractions.

Even though students were working next to their friends and collaborating on certain activities, not once did I feel like it got really noisy in the classroom. During a time when students are getting ready for SBAC testing, it's so nice to see smiles on students' faces and laughter and excitement throughout the room.

Modified Game Board and Activities for Elementary Math

Here's a game board that was created for 3rd Grade Math Review and 4th Grade Math Review. Thank you to Elise Plutt and Kristen Yoshioka for all of your 3rd and 4th grade advice and input when creating this HyperDoc. 

Please note: 

*If you do choose to make a copy of any of these game boards, please make changes and modifications to the activities according to YOUR students' skills. If your students have limited experience on Chromebooks, you might think about swapping some activities for hands on or paper-based tasks. 

If you have any questions, or would like any help or advice on creating a game board HyperDoc of your own, please feel free to contact me: pacadag@unionsd.org

Looking for LOVE? A fun, creative, tech photo project for Valentine's Day

 

As Valentine's Day approaches, you may be looking for a cool project you can do with your students to keep you all motivated until vacation starts. Here's an idea that combines technology, creativity, collaboration, and higher order thinking skills. It will give your kids the opportunity to enjoy the unusually warm February weather and sunshine while engaging in a fun Valentine's Day holiday activity.

This is the "Looking for LOVE" photography collage project. It is fun and easy enough that you can get it done on Friday afternoon, and it doesn't even cause cavities.  You can have them do it individually, collaboratively with Buddies, or in small groups if you are short on iPads or Chromebooks.

Here is how you do it:

Feel free to use this Google Presentation to post in Google Classroom or make a copy to modify for your particular class. If you would like some help with this project, email Nicole Dalesio or any of the ToSAs, and we will come out to help you.

We would LOVE to see the creative collages your students make. Please share them on this collaborative Google Photos LOVE collage album and or tweet them out using the hashtag #usdlearns and #pics2love.

Most importantly, have fun!

Blogging in the Classroom Hangout On Air

Watch USD Learns: Blogging in the Classroom

Yesterday we had our very first Google Hangout on Air with a live Q&A about blogging in the classroom. There were a couple of hiccups along the way, but I left my office feeling very invigorated and proud to be working in a school district where teachers are willing to try new things beyond the walls of their own classrooms. This Hangout was a great example of that! I would like to send a huge thank you to Chanmi Chun, Kaitlin Klein, Todd Sinclair, and Jen Zangwill for spending the hour with me to talk about technology and pedagogy, in hopes that our stories can inspire others to try something new.

If you didn't get a chance to watch our conversation, the beauty of a Google Hangout on Air is that it gets automatically recorded and posted to YouTube. I invite you to watch USD Learns: Blogging in the Classroom. It is 53 minutes long, so just in case you're in a pinch for time, I did create a table of contents to help get you to the specific topics that we covered. 

If blogging is something that you are thinking about starting with your students, remember that you're not alone. The TOSAs are here to support you and we have amazing teachers, like Chanmi, Jen, Kaitlin, and Todd that are willing to take the time to share their experiences so that we can all learn from them. 

For more resources about blogging, including ones that we talked about in our Hangout, check out the Blogging Resources Page:

6th grade students in Mrs. Chun's Class learn about commenting from 2nd grade student experts. 

Teach about Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons in 3 Steps

Have you ever been confused about Copyright Law and Fair Use? It's definitely a difficult topic with many gray areas. It's easy to feel it's a topic that's too confusing to tackle with students. Hopefully, this post will make you think differently. I've created a lesson that helps break down Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons in a kid-friendly way!

For a quick overview of the lesson, here's a Copyright, Fair Use, & CC HyperDoc that I've created that can help guide students. 

Step #1: Teach about Copyright and Fair Use

Here's a Common Sense Media Copyright and Fair Use Animation that was created for high school students, but if used with some discussion and teacher guidance, I think it's totally appropriate to use with upper elementary and middle school students. 

Key Points of the Video:

• 5 ways to avoid violating Copyright Law
1. Check who owns it
2. Ask for permission
3. Buy it (if necessary)
4. Give credit to the creator
5. Use it responsibly

*Students really understand this process and it makes sense if you talk about each step with them in order. Try role playing an example where one student took a picture that another student REALLY wants to use in their next school project. The class discussion should help students understand how important it is to have permission to use the work and give the creator attribution.

In the event that it's impossible to get permission for copyrighted work, that's when the Fair Use doctrine can be used.

• 4 points of Fair Use that you should follow
• Only use a small amount
• Rework it in a totally different way
• Give it a new meaning
• Use for non-profit
• *It's good practice to give credit to the creator

After watching the video, I have the students work with their table group to sort cards into the correct categories before discussing the key points with them. After that discussion, I like to point out to students that it's a long process with a lot of steps if they want to make sure that they are not violating the law. If students want to avoid even thinking about breaking the law using copyrighted work, it's important that they know about the Creative Commons!

Step #2: Teach about the Creative Commons

What if you didn't have to follow all of those steps and people just shared their work so others could use it? The answer to that question is the Creative Commons (CC)! 

I find that this video, Wanna Work Together, is a good way to show students that we are all creators and that the Creative Commons was created so that work can be shared and used by others for FREE. 

To connect all of these points together, I have students search the Creative Commons and practice finding a CC license. I also teach students how to use the Google search tools to filter out images that are labeled for reuse. Once they learn how to filter the images. I teach them how to look for the Creative Commons license. That license explains how we can use the creator's work. 

I want students thinking that unless they can find the Creative Commons license, assume that it is copyrighted work. 

Step #3: Have Students Practice Citing Media Sources

For a step-by-step presentation of this lesson, with an activity that gets students to practice citing media sources properly, check out my Google Slide Presentation: Copyright & Fair Use. The background information in this post should help teachers get through the lesson by simply running through the slides with students. Giving them access to the Copyright, Fair Use, & CC HyperDoc will help guide them through the lesson. The Doc links to the practice activity. Answers can be found HERE. 

If you have any questions, or would like me to come to your classroom to help with this lesson, feel free to email me. It's important to teach these skills starting in 3rd grade. Once students understand how the Creative Commons helps avoid Copyright Law, searching for media and citing those sources properly becomes second nature to them. This is a great digital citizenship lesson that will help students become successful as they continue on to college and their future careers.


(*For a modified middle school lesson on this same topic, please go to our USD Learns Digital Citizenship 6-8 page.)

Hour of Code Raffle Winner

Congratulations to Julia Pugliese, our lucky winner. She's a second grade teacher at Alta Vista, who won the raffle for participating in the Hour of Code. After participating in the Hour of Code last month with her class, she remembered to fill out our Google Form. Thank you to all of the 66 teachers who filled it out, and anyone else who participated. That adds up to a lot of students who are learning code in our district!

We put all the names of our participating teachers in the Random Name Picker, and Julia's name came up!

Julia's prize is an Osmo kit, a Sphero, and two iPad minis! Wow! Now we think that is a pretty awesome reward. Congrats, Julia! We hope you and your students have fun with your prize. If you missed out on participating this year, we hope you will join us next time.

Hour of Code

It's that time of year again! Many of you may remember the Hour of Code from last year, and for those of you who don't, it is a worldwide movement where teachers and students of all ages dedicate at least an hour during the week of December 7th to learning how to code. If you aren't sure if you have the time to fit it into your busy schedule, consider some of the many reasons why you should make time to do it.

Maybe you are not sure how to teach code or even how to do code yourself. The best part is, it is actually much easier to do than you would ever imagine. Check out this hyperdoc created by Lisa Highfill which is filled with kid-friendly resources. It's really just a matter of letting the kids "play" with them while they work at their own pace.  Kids are amazing, and they do figure it out on their own.

Be sure to sign your class up for the Hour of Code, and then fill out our district Google Form. All teachers who get their classes to participate will be entered into our district drawing to win a free mystery technology item that is going to be awesome! Also, if all classes at your school participate, your school will be entered in the big Hour of Code drawing sponsored by the organizers to win $10,000 of technology for your school site.

You can even print Hour of Code certificates in bulk at code.org/certificates. Students will also see a certificate when they complete an Hour of Code tutorial, but some students won’t make it to the very end in an hour — and that’s okay.

Have fun coding!

Customize Google Slide Pages/EduWin for Julie Nguyen-Ebadi

After learning about how to customize the size of the pages of a Google Slide presentation, Carla Dunavan put together a short tutorial on how to do it. Thank you, Carla, for sharing your directions with us. Teachers, you may notice that this is a great way for students to create an e-book. And because it is a Google Slide, Google Drawings, images, or YouTube videos can be easily inserted.




EduWin Nomination from Heather Koleszar for Julie Nguyen-Ebadi

Julie Nguyen-Ebadi is a second grade teacher at Noddin doing great things with her students in Google Draw. Recently, Julie had students find images on Google to show the life cycle of a butterfly.

Thanks, Julie, for showing us how your students are reinforcing their learning using online tools.