Teaching handwriting is pretty much out of the question these days. I know my school has more emphasis on typing than handwriting. During intervention or their free time, when they finish an assignment, I let them get on an app called Crazy Cursive. It teaches them how to write each letter, how to write basic sight words, and there's a part they can type in words they want to learn (such as their name) and they can learn to write those! This is a wonderful app. I highly suggest checking it out!
I recently discovered a new app and must share it! The app is called photomath. This app is perfect for parents or teachers. You scan a math problem and it gives you the answer with the option to see the steps to solve it. This is perfect for me since I make a lot of my own math homework. I don't have keys, well now I just scan it! This is also perfect for parents. When a parent isn't quite sure how to solve it they can scan the problem and see the steps. This is also great for parents that want to check their child's homework. It doesn't take up too much of their time! Another great thing about this app is that it's FREE!!!! There are a few things I have noticed about this app. It only works on mathematical and algebraic equations; it does not work on word problems. Another thing I noticed is that it only works on typed problems; it can't decipher handwritten. Here is a list of the types of problems it does work for:
This is worth checking out! Students may try to cheat, but it will only get them so far. This is a better tool for teachers and parents!
As promised here is a post on two apps I am using in my classroom!
I know I love playing games, but so do our students. As a teacher we can turn games into learning moments. There are two programs that enable us as teachers to do that - Kahoot and Quizizz. Both of these are learning websites where you can play games made by other people or you can create your own games/quizzes. The two are very similar, but they do have their differences. I use either one almost daily in my classroom. I like to use them for math facts, test reviews, surveys, etc. I lean more towards Kahoot for my math facts, but choose Quizizz for test reviews. I use Quizizz for test reviews because I can give the students longer time, and they are able to work through the problems at their own pace. I hope to shed light on both for you, and persuade you to use them in your classroom.
Kahoot
Kahoot is the first program I started using with my students. They love this one! I display my screen on the projector, and they all join my game. While joining they tend to dance to the music. Recently Kahoot made changes to their settings that enable you to modify how the game is played/displayed.
Before launching a game you now have options. The main one that affects us is the ability to automatically move through the game. If you choose to let it automatically move through the game it does that in the beginning when they are joining the game. It starts with a 15 second timer. Once a student joins, the timer starts to count down. BUT once another student joins the timer will start back over. When no one has joined the game after 15 seconds it will start the game. From that point on you can walk around the room watching your students play.
If you don't think your students can type quick enough once one person joins, you can turn off the option for it to automatically move through the game. It will just have a start button on the join screen that you click when your class is ready. Then for the rest of the game you have to click next after every question.
With Kahoot, the question does not display on their screen. It only displays on your screen that you have displayed. They have to look up at your screen, and then select the correct answer. They know they earn more points the faster they answer, so with them having to look between two screens they can click the wrong answer.
With Kahoot, the students have to move through the questions together. Until every student has answered, it won't tell them if they are right or wrong, and what rank they are. After those steps, it will then move on to the next question repeating the process. It does display the question first for about 5 seconds before displaying the answer options with the question.
Below is a video where I show you the basics of using Kahoot. I did not cover all of the features, such as discussion or survey, since they are similar to creating a quiz.
Quizizz
Now let's talk about Quizizz. This program is very similar to Kahoot. My students don't like Quizizz as much as Kahoot. Their reasoning is because we can't all hear the music, and the game is more individualized.
As with Kahoot, you have options before launching your game; be sure to set those up before launching the game.You may have your screen displayed for the students to see so they can input the join code or you can write it on the board. It isn't as important with Quizizz to display your screen because the question displays on the student iPad.
With Kahoot, the students have to move through the questions together. In Quizizz, they work at their own pace. Since the question is displayed on their iPad they can answer it at their own pace, and work through all the questions. Depending on how you set up your settings before launching, they may be able to see how they did on the questions at the end. Once all the students have finished it will display their final rank. On each device music will play while they are working. I have my students wear headphones, or if you do not have headphones they can silence their device.
Below is a quick video on Quizizz to show you the basics of how it works.
Who has an Apple TV and quickly tries to connect your iPad so your students don't see inappropriate movies?! Is this the type of screen you see when you turn it on? Never know what's going to be on there? I have a solution for you!
Scroll down to your settings and open it. It's the grey icon with a circular gear.
Click on that icon to open it. Next you will click on General.
Once General opens, scroll down and click on Restrictions. In Restrictions, you will have to click on the option to turn on restrictions. Once you do that, you will have to set up a 4 digit password. Remember that password (write it down somewhere you will remember it).
Once your password is set up, you can modify your settings. To have those movies disappear, scroll down to Purchase & Rental within the Restrictions screen. Click on that until its status changes to Hide.
Next, you can change your tv and movie ratings to PG or G. Just scroll down and click on those until you have the desired rating you want.
Once it is all set up, go ahead and click the main menu button until you get back to the main screen. The movies should be gone!!!
Sometimes we have icons on our Apple TV we don't want or we don't use. A majority of those can be hidden. Scroll back down to settings and open it again. This time, scroll down and click on Main Menu.
You will then open to a screen with a list of all the icons on your Main Menu screen. All you have to do is scroll through the list and if you don't want it to show you, click on it; its status will change to Hide. You can click on it again to change it back.
Your Apple TV should be set up a little better now to use in your classroom! You can always follow the same directions to reverse what you did. Just remember your 4 digit password. I hope this helped!
Last year I struggled with getting homework returned or if I did it wasn't complete. I collected it every Monday, checked off who didn't finish, and filled out a Missing Homework Report/Slip for their parents to sign. I also made the student miss their recess that day to work on the missing/incomplete homework. That was not an effective approach - it didn't help get it turned in!
I'm going to try a little more motivation, less punishment method this year. I never looked at the kids that were turning in their homework! They are my focus this year; if I focus on them, maybe the other students will work hard to receive the same attention. I plan on doing this with Homeworkopoly.
Homework what?! Homeworkopoly. I found this great idea from Pinterest and I've fit it to my needs in my classroom. I printed off the templates, bought poster board, and went to town making this massive game board. If you make it as big as I did, it won't fit in a laminator; I had to use contact paper for mine. After it was done, I put magnets on the back, and put it on my board.
The template came with Chance and Community Lunchbox cards. I kept some of the pre-made ones, but used a lot of the blank ones to make my own that fit what I wanted/needed for my classroom. I chose simple/free/cheap rewards for most of the cards (fruit roll up, fun eraser, treasure box, smencil, free movie time at recess with teacher and a friend, sit in the teacher chair for the day, choose whatever job you want for the day, etc). I did make a few with move back spaces to add a curve ball.
The Brain Break Binder is where you create fun activities for the student to complete in place of their morning work. To save paper, I created an assignment in Showbie, there I uploaded all my brain break activities;I did word searches, boggle boards, mazes, etc. It's still the same as a paper copy binder, but saves space and paper. For Game Spot, I decided that if a student lands on that space, they get to choose a game for us to do as a whole class. I will take a 10-15 minute break in our routine to do this. They can choose four corners, heads up seven up, Go Noodle, etc. The Mystery Prize I made teachers choice. It could be anything from a sucker, free homework pass, line leader for the day, etc. Every time they pass Go, they get a coin to use for our classroom candy machine. That is essentially the game board.
Now to roll this out in my classroom; I give my students their homework packet on Monday. It is due, complete, the following Monday by the bell. I then use my Missing Homework Report to check in their homework. If they did not turn in their homework or complete it, I send home a Missing Homework Slip for their parents to sign and send back. The students that completed their homework, and turned it in on time, they get to roll the dice and move on our game board, Homeworkopoly. For my dice, I bought a special container from IKEA. It is magnetic, and I slipped my dice into the canister and placed it on my board. When it is their turn to roll the dice, they just grab that off the board and shake it (the dice never comes out of the container and thrown all over the room).
My goal is to continue to play this game throughout the year. I hope this makes my homework process much happier this year, especially for those that complete it every week. It also does not break the bank seeing as how 95% of the rewards are available in the classroom/school.
