1.Blogging in Math Class: A Q&A with Casey Douglas. Blogging in Math Class: A Q&A with Casey Douglas. Image: Dennis Skley, vie Flickr.
Last year, I had my math history students write a blog. The course counts as a writing credit, so blog posts seemed like good short writing assignments. But what about blogging in a math class that’s just a math class? My academic sibling Casey Douglas, who teaches at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, incorporates blogging into his Foundations of Math class, and I decided to ask him a few questions about it. I hope other teachers interested in class blogging will get some ideas from him. EL: First, can you say a little bit about the class that’s blogging: size, typical student majors, main topics covered, main learning goals?
2. And You Thought it Could Not Be Done: Blogging in Math. And You Thought it Could Not Be Done: Blogging in Math. Sometimes I am still amazed that not more Language Arts teachers have taken a good look at blogging.
It seems such a match made in heaven: giving students an authentic audience for their writing…incorporating modern skills of writing & reading in digital spaces… (hyperlinking, transmedia, research, etc.)platform designed for feedback It surprised me even more (in a good way), when I saw a Math teacher starting to take advantage of the primarily thought of “blogging is about writing- hence for a writing class” platform. The Math teacher instinctively understood that blogging is not just about writing. It is about “presenting” your work, your thoughts and products to a large audience FOR feedback. In a previous blog post, Telling a Story with Data, you read about Laurel Janewicz‘ upgrade of her traditionally taught lesson of data analysis, graphing and misleading graphs.
Blogs played a major role in the upgrade. The rubric for the blog post had included the following requirements: Related. 3. Using Twitter To Extend My Math Lessons. Using Twitter To Extend My Math Lessons. 4. Using Twitter in a Math Class. Using Twitter in a Math Class. 5. Maths Extension/Enrichment and Edmodo. Maths Extension/Enrichment and Edmodo. Addressing the needs of all students in your Maths Classroom can be a real challenge.
Do we stream based on ability? Do we use collaborative mixed ability groups? What’s the role of rich,open ended questions and differentiated curriculum? How do we pitch to the middle 50% but still cater for the upper AND lower 25%? It’s a challenge I’ve been grappling with for 25 years. Identifying the target group This is not a simple task. This would only be a starting point. The Edmodo Extension Maths Program This is how I envisage setting up and running an Extension Program in Mathematics within the standard classroom environment.
6. Edmodo for Mathematics. Edmodo for Mathematics. 7. My Flipped Math Class and Edmodo – 1 month down, 8 to go! My Flipped Math Class and Edmodo – 1 month down, 8 to go! One month into my flipped 7th grade math class, and I am FINALLY able to take a breather and put my reflections in writing.
Since introducing the flipped classroom in September, I have received positive feedback from my administration, my students and their parents. The biggest benefit has been the amount of class time devoted to learning and practice. I no longer spend upwards of 15 minutes checking work book pages that were assigned for homework because we now do them in class as daily formative assessment. The biggest change for me as well as the students was the incorporation of Edmodo. Before I get into all the details, I will say that I am very happy with Edmodo and find it a very valuable tool for organizing assignments, record keeping, data analysis, and assessment.
Using Edmodo to facilitate the flipped classroom, at least the way I have decided to do it, is a lot of work. 8. The Art of Turning Math into a Social Learning Experience. The Art of Turning Math into a Social Learning Experience. 9. Case Studies - Office of Educational Technology. Case Studies - Office of Educational Technology. 10. Social Media in the Math Classroom. Social Media in the Math Classroom. 11. Integrating Instagram into Math Class. Integrating Instagram into Math Class. “When will we ever use this in real life?”
This is the common question that many teachers hear – and my 7th grade Pre-Algebra class is no exception. However, in my classroom, I put the ball back into the students’ court and challenge them to find the answer for me. As teachers, we know that students need to learn concepts as building blocks to more advanced concepts for their school career. But for students, that is a frustrating answer to hear. One of my answers to alleviate that frustration, and to also give students a deeper understanding of the concept, is to issue a challenge. The tool that connects the students’ work and provides an authentic audience is Instagram. In my classroom, I provide a number of ways for students to earn back points they may have lost on formal assessments throughout the year.
The creator of the Instagram problem is given a full free homework submission which may, in some cases, make up for a missed/forgotten assignment. @SmithMath Instagram: