EduGain

Using EduGains as an Educator

 

Benefits To This Site
The EduGains website is a great resource to have as an educator as it has many different components and elements to it that are useful within in the classroom and ones own teaching practice. There are specific lessons for teachers to follow that follow a 21st century learning model which engage students and help prepare them for the world they will enter. The lessons provided connect math with other areas such as financial literacy or digital manipulatives making it interactive and allowing for other areas of knowledge to be intertwined to further a students understanding. Lastly, there is a grade/ course overview that provides teachers with a scope and sequence to help guide their planning. 


How To Use It In The Classroom
I would use the different online manipulative tools and educational games as accommodations and extensions for my students. Using these tools is a great way to have students engaged in their learning and work at their own pace. Specific tools or games could be selected for students depending on their needs and students can all work at their won pace to accomplish the tasks.There is also a section called "Home Support" which I would use in my classroom as a guide for parents to help their children if they are needing extra support or wanting extra work for home.


3 Take Aways
Through this website there are many resources that focus on professional development for teachers. I loved the eLearning Experience modules and they are something that I will look further into as i begin my teaching career. These modules help teachers understand and support the mathematical learner, planning with young mathematicians in mind. There are also webcasts through this site on  empowering students in math, assessment in the math classroom, and math in action. Lastly, the RMS PL tab directs you to professional learning opportunities such as algebraic reasoning, building number sense, promotional reasoning, parent engagement etc. and is something that could be very useful knowledge before stepping into the classroom, in regards to mathematics.

Math Olympics 

Math olympics is a great way to make math fun and engaging for you students. By having them create teams and dress in corresponding colours, they are working on collaboration and group skills right from the beginning. As they move through the different activities, groups are able to work on multiple problems as well as different concepts. Math olympics takes the ownership off of teacher directed learning, and allows for more students directed thinking to occur. I would use math olympics at the end of a unit before a test as a way to review what we have done. Because students move through stations, math olympics allows students to move through all the different parts of the unit we have covered in a timely manner without feeling like they are overwhelmed with the concepts. How I would set this up is by having an olympic trophy and each unit counts as a different "event." Students would stay in the same groups throughout the year and at the end of each unit, we would do a math olympics and the winning team would have their team name placed on the trophy. Another way I would incorporate math olympics into the classroom is by having it after we get back from a long break as a way to refresh students about the concepts. This may be after Christmas break or March break, for example. 

Ozobot Implementation

In class this week, we were shown how to use Ozobots to help students understand different math concepts. 

Ozobots are tiny robots that are coded to move and performing different actions depending on a colouring coding path that the Ozobot will follow. Students can draw lines using black, red, green and blue to make the Ozobot move. Our instructor used them as an instructional tool for us to learn about perimeter and area as the Ozobot follows the lines of the shape and can be timed to see which shape has the most effective path. I think Ozobots are a great tool for students to use in the classroom as they can be programmed to do a variety of things and can be an interactive and engaging way for students to comprehend and test their answers. another way to incorporate Ozobots into the classroom is through a patterning unit. students can create different codes that then make the Ozobot follow a pattern. Students would have to test to see if the Ozobot moves the way they wanted to and if it in fact creates a pattern. Ozobots can also be used to measure distance and time. A teacher could give students a specific distance the Ozobot has to travel and students could come up with the fastest way to get there. For example, the Ozobot is at school and wants to go home as fast as possible because he is meeting a friend there. The school is 800m from the school. what is the quickest path for the Ozobot to take? Students will have to convert measurements, as well as manipulate shapes to find the shortest path for the Ozobot to travel. From there, the students could have a competition by timing all of their Ozobots to se who found the shortest path. 

       

Real World & Kinaesthetic Learning

Real World Learning
In class this week, my instructor brought in donuts and muffins from Tim Hortons and told us to come up with all the ways that we can use these to teach math. I thought this was a really good way to connect everyday objects to math because really, when you think about it, math is everywhere! After reflecting on this activity, I realized how important it is to connect math in the classroom to students everyday lives so that they have an understanding of the importance of the math we are doing, as well as start thinking about math even when they are not in the classroom. Using real world experiences gets students excited and engaged about the math they are going to do because they are able to connect it with something that is familiar to them. Another way to connect real world situations to student's learning in regards to math could be to take them to a grocery store and have them compare different prices of products compared to how much they weight.  Afterwards, you could take it a step further by having the students design their own grocery store using area and perimeter. 

Kinaesthetic Learning

During the same class, we also learned about teaching the metric system using kinaesthetic learning by teaching students acronyms to know the order of the metric system as well as a song and dance to teach students where the decimal place goes. I really liked this idea as this is how I always learned as a child and I think that allowing students to use kinaesthetic learning is a helpful tool to keep information in their brain. Often, students learn best when they can connect movement to knowledge in order to remember something. It also is a fun way of learning math which will make students less resistance or anxious to think that they must have the information memorized. In my placement this semester, I am teaching my grade 4's and 5's about measurement of units and this will be a great tool to have as they are at an age where dancing, singing and being silly is how they like to learn. It is always important when teaching using this style that the sillier you are the more likely they will remember. Giving students the opportunity to be silly with their learning allows them to have fun with it and is something they will likely never forget. 

Problem Solving Process

The Explain Everything App

This app is an interactive whiteboard that allows your students a variety of different methods to explain their thinking. Students can post pictures to the virtual whiteboard, draw on it, dictate speech to it. This app is not only beneficial for math classes, but rather any type of lesson no matter what subject you are focusing on. You can create stories, presentations, reports, fact sheets and so much more all with this one app. It is also great because you can have all students using the same app, however, they can gear it towards their learning style, whether that be dictating their speech, drawing their thinking or typing it out.

For more about the Explain Everything app, check out their twitter page for great information and updates on what the app is capable of.

In math class this week, we used the problem solving process to understand patterning. Our instructor began by giving up balloons with a piece of paper inside that had a different characteristic for a pattern. I got texture. We then had to go around the school with our group and take pictures of patterns with that characteristic. Afterwards, we used the Explain Everything app to put our pictures into a slideshow and type or dictate an explanation of the picture, while answering these three questions:
1. What is the pattern element/component
2. What is pattern rule?
3. Explain what type of pattern

I really enjoyed this activity and think it would be a great way to get students thinking about the problem solving process as it is engaging. This activity got students out of their seats and moving around, it was a transference of learning to real world problems for them to connect with and they were able to collaborate with their peers to help solve the problems.

Another way of doing this activity while using the Explain Everything app would be to set up a scavenger hunt bingo activity for students to do. Before starting, you as the teacher would have to walk around and take pictures of patterns in the community.  Have your students take iPads or their iPhones with the Explain Everything app and walk through the community as a class. The goal is for the students to find all the pictures that you took of patterns without any help. As they are finding the patterned pictures that you took, they could also be taking pictures of their own patterns through the Explain Everything app, and dictating what kind of pattern it is.

An extension to this would be to only write the attributes of a specific pattern on the virtual bingo card and then go for a walk with your students and have them take pictures of things patterns that have those attributes, while dictating into the app why they think their picture fits with the description.

Giving the answer first

During class, my instructor gave us a number and said, this is your answer now make questions. When she first said this, I panicked! How was I supposed to come up with a question, there are so many possibilities! My group and I started with simple addition and subtraction. Okay, that wasn't too bad, I cam up with 5 possible questions in the matter of a few minutes. Maybe I can do this! After that we started brainstorming. Could we make a question that had to do with area and perimeter? Yes! Could we make a question that had to do with calculating the days of the week? Yes! Before we knew it, we had several complex questions written down ad we were just getting started!

This activity made me realize the importance of giving students ownership over their work. As a 21st century learner, we are not evaluating students based on their ability to answer the question correctly, but rather helping to guide them towards problem solving in order to solve any question based on their learning style. By giving us the freedom to choose what I wanted the question to look like, I was able to work backwards in order to problem solve and gain confidence in my ability to complete a math task.

This is an activity I would love to do with my future students. I think it is a great way for students to focus on a growth mindset and get rid of the fear of being wrong. When they are in charge of developing the question, there can be no wrong solutions. This activity would be great to do in a class where differentiated instruction is needed. As a teacher, I could group students based on their level (not telling them this of course) and have students come up with questions based on their ability. Maybe one group would be focusing on multiplication, as that is where they struggle. Maybe another group would be focusing on surface area, as that is where they struggle. Either way, I am focusing my lesson based on my students needs and letting them take ownership of their work.

This type of activity is also great because it can be manipulated to fit under all the strands of the math curriculum. Depending on whether you have a primary, junior or intermediate class, you can use this activity to help students understand number sense and numeration, measurement, geometry and spatial sense, patterning and algebra or data management and probability. Not only does this activity develop a growth mindset for our students as well as ownership, it also helps develop creativity. By leaving the answer as broad as just a number, students can manipulate it in many ways and give it different representations such as the amount of apples in a basket, the amount of meters needed for a tile floor, or the distance between earth and their favourite star.

Breakout EDUC

How you can implement a Breakout EDU into a J/I math class, and what are the benefits? 

A breakout EDU can be used in any math class where you need your students to work collaboratively in order to problem solve. It is a way to immerse your students in math lessons that will get them thinking creatively and be able to break down their thinking in different steps through different QR codes. The Ontario Math Curriculum states that society now requires students to be critical thinkers about complex issues, adapt to new situations, be problem solvers, and effectively communicate their thinking. At first, this seems like a lot to have to teach students, however, through an activity such as Breakout EDU, you can incorporate all of these elements into one lesson by having various QR codes.

Breakout EDU is also beneficial for a group of math students who have difficulty sitting still and reading from a textbook in order to learn. By doing a Breakout EDU, you are allowing your students to get up, move around and explore different tools in order to enhance their learning. Breakout EDU lets students use iPads or their phones to learn, which helps engage them in their learning. Using Breakout EDU also lets students explore their thinking in different ways such as playing virtual games, watch videos or work on math problems as a group on surfaces such as white boards or windows by giving instructions through QR codes. 

I really like the idea of Breakout EDU because it is a guided way to have students work independently as well as collaboratively. However, this also then allows you, as the teacher, to work with smaller groups on more specific issues that they are having with the math, while still knowing that the rest of your class is organized and occupied with math. You could also adapt the QR codes so that specific students get specific codes based on their abilities and their math level.