I have been semi-flipping my classroom for quite some time now. I find great videos online and then send links to my students to watch as homework. This allows the next day to serve as a workshop where I can both help and challenge students in my classroom. One of my goals this year, is for myself to make the videos instead of finding them. I do feel that many times the videos I find on Khan academy explain it better than I do, but there are other times where I feel there could be a better way to approach the content. I also feel some of my students are more comfortable and prefer my own videos over Khan. You should also know, most my students say they like that I switch the video sources every couple days, so that it's not the same person or voice teaching them that night in the video. I will usually switch between Khan, myself, and other teacher made videos I find on educanon. If you haven't worked with educanon yet, it truly is something I'm starting to be a fan of. They allow you to upload videos that you have created for your students. You can then add questions in the middle of the videos for students to respond as they are watching the video. This allows me to monitor their understanding as they are watching the video, and it also allows me to know if they actually watched the video at home. Having students watch videos at home is allowing me to use my 44 minute period in a better way than I had been. Students are able to move around the room working on different application activities. I can plan more application and challenging activities that allow them to work in groups and talk about their reasoning with their peers inside the classroom. Here is a great example of how you can take videos and add questions for student responses. Let me know how you use educanon in your classroom!
Khan Academy is a huge deal in my classroom. Students practice on Khan every week to gain energy points for our Touch Down Competition.
My bulletin board that shows each class' standings.
Why do I love Khan?
First of all, many teachers think Khan is just videos. It's not! Yes, there are videos to support the students when they are struggling with a skill. But even more, it's actually a free site that allows students to practice and apply what they have learned. The questions come in different formats and different types of applications.
I LOVE Khan because I am able to monitor student progress, use class data to modify my lesson plans, encourage students to take ownership of their learning, and challenge ALL my 7th graders.
How do I use Khan in my room?
Many teachers struggle with how to manage Khan Academy or how to actually use it in their rooms. I teach 3 different levels of mathematics, and I have over 100 students. Every class is managed differently because the needs are different.
The most common way that I use Khan is by creating playlists with skills that are connected to units. Students work through these playlists at their own pace. The goal is for them to master the skills in a given time frame. I'm currently creating these playlists as I go this year, so I don't have all of them finished. I do have two completed that I can share here. The first one is an introduction to negative numbers: Khan Playlist- Negative Numbers The second playlist is operations with integers: Khan Playlist 2 Operations with Negatives . If you are just starting out with Khan, I completely understand if you are overwhelmed and don't start making playlists yet. It has taken me four years to really get the hang of Khan and own it in my room. Have no fear! there are sample playlists other teachers have made on Khan that you can use, and Khan has already organized skills by common core grade level. It's that easy. Currently, I am encouraging my students to master all 7th grade skills this year on top of my playlists that pull skills from 6th-8th grades, and algebra.
Grid Format
Students tend to feel overwhelmed with too many skills on a playlist, so I break up my units into 2 or 3 playlists. This allows me to track their progress easily too. On Khan, there is a ton of data that helps me plan my small group instructions for the day. If you go to the grid format on Khan, you can type in all of these skills from the playlist to see who is struggling, and who has already mastered the skills. If there are red or struggling students, I meet with them to give support on that skill.
What are students doing while I am working with small groups?
Khan is usually a whole group day of working, or it is done during my MATH workshop centers.
While I'm pulling small groups, I put the real time screen on the smartboard for students to watch how well their class is doing based on the amount of points per minute they are earning as a whole. They get really excited. They don't realize it, but it also lets me know if students are staying on task while I'm with a small group.
Real Time Report
I will sometimes hold a "rocket run." Using the Manage Students, I split my class into two teams. I then project the Real Time report. I give the first team 3 minutes to earn as many energy points as possible. I repeat this for the second team. The team with the most points win in that time wins. (Thanks to teachers in the Los Altos School District for this idea!)
What do I do to intrinsically or extrinsically motivate students?
Encouraging students to work on Khan inside and outside of school is usually really simple. I've been really lucky with the group of students I have had. I'm very consistent with giving feedback with the data I received, and I make sure to praise students for badges and energy points. I have a few classes that are pumped and really get a thrill out of the challenge and competitiveness. However, I do always have one or sometimes two classes that have a few students that just haven't joined the bandwagon yet. In order to try to bring awareness to the fun in Khan, I decided to really bump up my competition and prizes. Here is a great video from a teacher who I have stolen most my ideas from. She is awesome, and I WANT these posters!!!
Instead of using these posters, I allow the students who have earned the most energy points within a week to write their names on my classroom window with Crayola window markers. I have no idea why, but there is something special about writing on objects that they never get to write on. The kids think this is so cool! Those students also get a lightsaber (a nifty pencil), 3 munchkins, and the use of my cozy teacher chair for the following week. All students get stickers for receiving badges. I stole the decorating binder idea from the video.
Please tweet me @mstassbsd I am constantly adjusting how I use Khan each year, and I'm super pumped with the progress I see from using Khan with my students. My students are so much more active in their learning. As a teacher, I feel it is helping me motivate them to take ownership of what and when they learn. It is so exciting! I wish I had Khan growing up!
Adding and Subtracting Integers turned into fun centers in Ms. Stass' class this year. Students have been working with different games that incorporate adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers. This hands on approach is helping all students better their number sense which is crucial in order to be successful in mathematics. Students worked with concrete objects such as counters and number lines to help practice addition and subtraction. I first modeled adding and subtracting with a real number line I hung from the ceiling. This allowed us to have some great conversations about comparing numbers. I then used red and yellow counters to discuss zero pairs and modeled adding and subtracting with them. I LOVE modeling with these counters!
At my activities center, I usually include games or activities that allow students to practice the skill we are learning that week. One activity I used for adding integers was a football integer game. Students roll one negative and one positive dice. Students use the sum of the two numbers to know how much their game piece moves up and down the field. The person that reaches the touch down zone wins! Another activity I used this year in my center was a JENGA game I created by attaching stickers with expressions on them. The expressions were a mixture of operations with integers. Students must say the answer to the piece they grab before stacking the piece on top. I am obsessed with Greg Tang and his Kakooma, and I think my students are just obsessed. This game rocks! I have my students work on their one-to-one computers in this center where they play Kakooma here. The students are really getting a kick out of competing with each other on this site. THEY LOVE IT! Doing some Pinterest-ing, I found a game a teacher made that incorporates the operations of integers. I set this up in my center by laminating the game boards, and including a dry erase marker and dice in a baggy. The dice has negative and positive numbers on each of them. Students roll the dice and count how many times it takes them to meet the rule of the round. For example, round 1's goal is to roll two numbers that have a negative sum. At the end of all 9 round, student's add up how many total times it took them to meet all 9 goals. The person at the end with the least score (like golf!) wins! The students have really enjoyed this game. However, they haven't been able to finish a game yet within the center times. They usually have 10 minutes within a center, but this doesn't seem long enough for this activity. I still use it in the center, because I think it's a great game to practice. The last game I use is one of my students' favorites. It is called connect three, and I also found this while pinterest-ing one night. The students roll 2 dice and decide if they want to add the two number or subtract the two numbers. They try to connect 3 on the game board, and try to block their opponent. Therefore, it is not random for them to add or subtract. They need to do a ton of mental math with integers! It is awesome! As the player is saying the expression using the numbers he or she rolled, the opponent is writing down and solving it on paper. This way partners are checking each other's answers constantly.
After 5 years of teaching middle school mathematics, I have observed students participating more when they are are working in math workshops, or working with more student centered activities. The less I speak and the more they speak is really what drives their understanding of key concepts.
My math class is 46 minutes long, and I try to keep my main lesson down to 10-15 minutes in length. After my lesson, I break students into our Math workshop centers. My math workshop is called M-A-T-H. I post these letters around the room for students to know where they are going that day.
M stands for meet with Ms. Stass. Here I reteach the skill from the mini lesson or go more in depth depending on the group of children.
A stands for activities. Here I have students play games that I have created or borrowed that are sometimes directly related to the skills in our main group lessons. Sometimes they are just review games. In 7th grade operations with integers is always a skill that students need more and more practice with. Therefore, I have a ton of games that allow students to practice their operations with integers.
T stands for technology. I am a huge fan of ixl.com and Khan Academy. I make playlists for each website, and give a deadline for students to master these skills by. In the technology center, the students work at their own pace practicing and sometimes watching videos for support.
H stands for homework (independent work). I never like sending students off without allowing them to practice the skills independently with my support near. I usually will add problems to their homework knowing that I am using this as independent work in class. I like them practicing at home, so I make sure they have just the right amount to get enough practice in class and some practice hours later at home. In order to really master a skill, a student really needs a few days to show their expertise.
I usually will meet with 2 groups a day when I am doing workshops. However, I have been able to meet with all four groups in a day if my main lesson is super short. If I am introducing something, I make sure that I see my students who need my support most immediately after my main group lesson. Files to share: I have a document that lists the group schedule with what each center is. Leave your email in the comments, and I will email you what I have. :-)
If you haven't worked with educanon yet, it truly is something I'm starting to be a fan of. They allow you to upload videos that you have created for your students. You can then add questions in the middle of the videos for students to respond as they are watching the video. This allows me to monitor their understanding as they are watching the video, and it also allows me to know if they actually watched the video at home.
