Warm-up

 

If one macadamia nut tree produces 22 kilograms of nuts, how many trees would you need to produce 2 tons of nuts?

Warm-up

 

If 3 2/3 cups of shelled macadamia nuts equals one pound, how many pounds do you have If you have 213 2/3 cups of nuts?

Squares Within Squares

Students are always great at knowing the basic definition of a square and can identify one but if you present it in a slightly different arrangement, they don’t see it. For instance if you show them a chessboard or something similar and ask them how many squares? They tell you the square footage of 64 squares. They don’t look for the different arrangements. 

This checker/chess board is great for subdivisions or subsets, square footage, or discussing diagonals. It is nice that it offers the three different possibilities. In addition, it offers a nice picture for the “What do you notice, What do you wonder, and What do you know?”.I think it is important to take items like this and help students see the math in everyday items.

How we use things like this are only limited by our imagination. Sorry it is so short today but I am in transit for a couple of days and I should be back to normal on Monday.

Mathspad

I do enjoy finding new sites that I can use in my classroom.  The other day, I checkout out Mathspad from the United Kingdom. Although it is geared more towards the curriculum used in the United Kingdom, there is still quite a few things that would be of use in the United States. This is a paid site but it does offer some free materials. It appears to be for mostly middle school students.

I began by looking under teacher resources.  I checked specifically for free materials. There are two booklets on place value and decimals, one is the core instruction while the other is geared to provide support. Support means that it is additional material to give students extra practice.  The core booklet is 32 pages long while the support booklet is 38.

For ordering decimals, students have access to free interactive decimal blocks. The tool has an introduction, a build where students are given a number and they are expected to place the proper blocks in the proper column so they have a visual representation of that number.  They can check their answers, reset, or ask for new problems. If they miss the question, it automatically shows them the answer so they can see how it should look. They can reset the problem and do it themselves or they can ask for a new problem.Then they can look at a visual to determine the number represented and check their answers.  In addition, they can also   compare decimal numbers and moving on to a question that takes their thinking one step further.

Teachers also have access to a game played with partners.  One person selects a number from the board and the other person has to ask questions that can be answered only with yes or no. Based on the information, the student has to make a guess and come up with the answer within 60 seconds.  At the end of the time, they switch jobs to do it again.  To end the section, there is a worksheet with decimal lines that asks students to identify the decimal based on what is shown.  

After this, there is no more free material until worksheet in the multiplying and dividing decimal section. The worksheet has students practicing multiplication facts for certain "families" such as 11 x 500, 11 x 50, 11 x 5, 11 x .5, 11x 0.05 and 11x0.005 so they can see relations between the facts.  If you look at the site you'll find other free items but they are things like fractions, decimal, and percentages, or scientific notation. 

There are a couple interactive tools that can be accessed without a subscription such as the construction tool with compass, protractor, ruler, etc so you or your students can perform geometric constructions.  Or the spinner for helping students learn about probability. The spinner allows you to edit it to change things so the values change.  Students are asked to find the probability of the spinner colors, apply the probability to a situation and conduct trials. Although there are a total of eight free interactive tools, I haven't figured out how to access all of them. 

Check it out, play with it and see if it offers something you can use with your students.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. 

Teaching Proofs With Uno

 

I’ve found trying to teach proofs in geometry can be quite trying. Many of my students do not have as good a foundation as they should, especially since the pandemic hit. I found this wonderful activity at Geometry Coach on using Uno to help teach proofs. This activity is used to introduce proofs in geometry. 

First, it is a good idea to play a couple of hands of Uno so students know how the game is played before adding in the activity for students to learn to write proofs based on certain cards. The presentation has students use the T column to write the proof and students are shown several cards with say a blue 6 being the starting card with a wild card, a yellow 5, a yellow one, and a blue skip card available to use and the goal is to use these cards to get to a yellow reverse card.

So using these cards, students use the T and fill it out to show the steps from the blue 6 to the yellow reverse and include reasons for each step

This one was set up so they only had to rely on either change color or same color.  The author of this article included a power point presentation with this situation, and six others so students experience several different scenarios. Each situation comes with solutions but students have the opportunity to try it themselves before the solution is shown. 

This also comes with a worksheet that is divided into two parts. The first part has one example before asking students to complete four proofs on their own. The second part has them actually complete a fairly simple proof on their own. 

I think I would create some situations so students could work in small groups to determine how to write a proof for these before assigning them the worksheet. In addition, as an extension, I think it would be good to play limited hands and have a recorder fill out a form for all the cards played. This last activity would make students more aware of statements/cards with reasons in the context of the game.

The link I provided at the beginning of this has links to the power point, worksheet and a digital deck of Uno cards for free. I would advise you to check it out, download it, and use it.  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear. Have a great day.

Warm-up

 

If the snow is a dry powder, it will take 50 inches to equal one inch of rain so if you have 536 inches of dry powder, how many inches of rain is that equal to?

Warm-up

 If 13 inches of snow equals one inch of rain, how many inches of rain is 563 inches of snow?

Graph Literacy In High School

 

Graphs are used in so many different professions and many times, teachers do not have enough time in class to help students develop literacy when ready graphs.  Yes, we often teach students the types of graphs and how to do a basic interpretation of the graph but we do not take time to make sure they are literate.  I came across a nice set of lessons on graph literacy on the Concord Consortium web site.  These lessons cover so much more than many textbooks do.

This unit has seven lessons complete with lesson plans so it is easy to incorporate them into your plans.  Although the lessons are actually designed for grades 7 and 8, they are easy to use in high school especially since instruction has been hit and miss over the past couple of years due to the pandemic.  

The first lesson explores graphs with the same data but appear different due to the different scales being used. The activity goes through several pairs of graphs that contain the same data but with different markings on the y-axis so the whole graph looks different somewhat before asking students to draw graphs using different units to see how things change or to look, really look at graphs that look the same but are on two different topics such as water levels and student enrollment.  There are 14 slides including an introduction and a summary.  Furthermore, the lesson plans offer a set of worksheets students can fill out to show what they learned.

The second lesson is on interpolation of values from the experimental data on chirping crickets.  The values students come up with are used to create a linear equation.  Lesson three has students learning more about independent and dependent variables while discussing things such as taking a 19 day trip and trying to identify whether milage or day is independent.  The fourth lesson has students matching graphs to the word story provided. This begins with a story about someone who took a glass of iced coffee from the fridge and microwaved it to get it hot enough to drink but it takes him several tries. This is good because it breaks the story into pieces which are matched to the appropriate part of the graph before the student has to choose the whole graph.

The fifth lesson has students analyzing graphs related to Hurricane Katrina and the damage it did to New Orleans. It looks at distance from New Orleans, wind speed, barometric pressure and how the wind speed and barometric pressure relate to each other.  The sixth lesson explores the growth rate of American boys and girls from ages two to 20. It has students looking at finding an average growth rate so they can create a linear graph. The final lesson is on population growth and break points. It has students learn about the S-curve or logistic curve so they can see how everything they've learned applies.  They get to use what they learned about the logistic curve to create an experiment on the population growth of duckweed.

As stated before all lesson plans come with lesson plans and most lessons average about 15 slides.  What I like is that if a student misses a question, the program breaks down the steps even further or explains more about things until the student gets the correct answer and they cannot move on till they get the correct answer.  This unit could be used in either math or science and I think it is nicely done.  Check it out to see what you think.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  have a great day.

Making Your Own Worksheets.

How many times have you wanted to use a worksheet but it wasn't quite the right one, or it had too many problems, or it didn't have enough space to complete the work?  I know I've had to settle for a worksheet because it would "work". Earlier this week, I came across an article on places people can make their own worksheets. 

One of the sites is more of a business site but it does have some worksheet templets one can use.  It has three templets for Math but none of them are what I want.  The workspace is like most others covered in this column but it doesn't offer as much as some of the others.

If you've been around, you'll see Canva listed as a place to go for worksheets.  Canva allows people to create or customize so many different things including a variety of worksheets.  Canva is available for both free which is limited and the pro which gives access to all the tools but the free version is great.  I found a short course on Coursera designed to teach people to create and sell digital teaching worksheets using Canva.  I took the free course and learned quite a bit.  Although it focused on the needs of elementary teachers, it gives a high school teacher enough information to create their own.

Another site is My Worksheet Maker.  When you click on the link, you get taken to the page where you get to choose the type of worksheet such as matching, multiple choice, fill in the blank, open response, word scramble, bingo cards, and flashcards.  I tried an open response question worksheet.  The whole process was quite intuitive.  I was able to create it with very few problems. The site has a few all ready done worksheets but none of them are really ones I'd use.  I can see using the matching one by putting equations on one side and answers on the other, or the open response to have students respond to questions such as "Why......." or "How......" This is completely free. 

Next is Quick Worksheet Maker.  This site is made up of different worksheet generator types and it has three different levels of membership from free to premium to pro.  It appears this is geared more to teachers of language arts but I can see how some could be used in math. The free membership only allows the use of four generator types, but limits printable storage and interactive responses to 10 each while the number of interactive worksheets is limited to two.  The site allows you to make interactive worksheets or quizzes quite easily.  It automatically grades these interactive activities and provides data to the instructor. It would be quite easy to use the word search, word scramble,  bingo cards, flash cards, crosswords, and so many more.  

I admit there are other worksheet makers out there which will provide you automatically generated worksheets but the above sites allow for more control over the type and number of problems and their placement.  You can add in pictures and videos along the instructions you want.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  On another day, I'll discuss making worksheets using power point or other standard program.  Have a great day.

Free Financial Activities + Everfi

 

While looking for the You-Cubed Data Science course, I found a different site which offers both free data science and financial literacy classes.  They have a data exploration course, health care financial, banking, financing college, financial literacy, investing, and business.  Wonderful topics for the 21st century and many which our students need.  

Every lesson comes with resources ranging from curriculum guide, discussion guide, glossary, standards alignment, and teacher outline, to the lesson plans and activities. I decided to first look at the unit on data science. 

This data science exploration has two sections.   The first looks at data science in the banking industry while the second section provides a banking fraud simulation so students can apply what they learned.   There is audio to accompany all work and an easily accessible glossary so students can look up meanings. The scenario is that the head of the data science section of the bank is looking to hire additional people and then goes on to explain what it is via the use of four cards.  Each card represents either collecting and cleaning data, visualizing data, analyzing the data, and reporting on the data.  

Then it takes time to explain to the students what the data analyst, data scientist, or data engineer do before going into explaining how data scientists determine things and how data science is used in banking.   Students are asked to interpret and make suggestions on certain things related to loan risk but at the end, they get to apply what they learned to the lab which is the second part.  As stated earlier, this has everything needed to teach the unit to students.

As far as I can tell, the interactive online things on the Everfi site are used in the lessons along with possible reading assignments or additional worksheets on different parts of the unit.  In addition, there are online assessments designed for the students to complete but until they get the correct answers they cannot move on.  However, if they don't know the answer, they will get frustrated if they keep trying to guess the answer.  Sometimes the information in the online part of the lesson does not have enough information but it does have an automatic audio which means students who don't read well have a way of keeping up.

Although much of what I've seen is based more on concepts than actual mathematical equations, it is nicely done and there are assessments spread throughout the units.  Now for the fiscal literacy unit, it looks at banking, budgeting, consumer skills, credit and debit, financing a higher education, income and employment, and insurance.  All topics are extremely important to a student's survival once they leave home.

Although, this is not a straight math class, it is a good financial site with excellent recourses.  I know that math teachers often end up teaching financial or data science classes and this site provides materials that could easily be used in either class.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

The odometer on your motorcycle reads 68,243 miles. If you changed your oil every 7,000 miles, how many oil changes have been performed since it was built? 

Warm-up

If a motorcycle is rated at 37 mpg, how many gallons will it take to go 2178 miles? 

The Concord Consortium

On Wednesday, I discussed the resources available at Jo Boalers site for teaching Data Science.  One of the places referred to in the lessons is The Concord Consortium which helps find STEAM resources for teachers.  It provides links to hands-on digital tools and great virtual labs.  The site if free and allows teachers to add classes to assign activities. 

There is a search engine in the site so you can look for activities focused on mathematics, chemistry,  earth science, etc.  I typed in mathematics and came up with 29 activities for grades K to 10.  There are activities to do and graphing on exponential decay or growth, quadratic equations, linear equations, systems of equations, inverse functions, transformation of functions with rotation, reflection, transformation, and all of them.  Every activity lists the grade levels which it is geared for.

I decided to explore the activity on exponential decay geared for high school because the site allows peoples to explore any activity.  It begins with a general graph for exponential decay and two different equations, one for exponential decay and the other for radioactive decay. It then has students use the exponential decay formula with the depreciation of a car.  We know that when you buy a car, it will depreciate over a certain period of time and that depreciation can be taken off your income tax if the car is purchased for your business.  

The slide explains how to use the formula with a specific situation of determine the correct formula for a car worth $24,000 when purchased but which depreciates at 15% each year.  The slide requires you to provide an answer before it will let you move on.  In addition, it provides immediate feedback to all answers.  Once you have the correct formula, the next slide shows the correct graph for it and has the student identify the point on the graph for the car's value after 5 years.  Then the activity has you identify the car's value at the end of 10 years.

Now, they have the students use the same formula but applied to the number of species in the world. The students identify the correct formula and then interpret the associated graph in two different ways before having students use the radioactive decay formula in regard to carbon dating of an antiquity. Students have to identify the proper equation based on the information before being asked to interpret the graph in two different ways.  Then they use the radioactive formula to find the half life of Cobolt-60. Again they identify the correct formula and read a graph.  Once they've finished this, they have completed the activity.

I am impressed with this activity. It is something that would be really good to use as a guided practice once students have been introduced or reminded of the concept.  I just looked at the preview but if you click on the activity itself, you'll find the lesson plans which include the standards being addressed, essential questions, what students need to know and what they will learn, assessment, and questions.  

In addition, it provides worksheets with two more applications so students can show what they learned by answering the questions and the pfd provides answers. One of the last things it tells you is what software is needed from chrome to safari, Firefox, and internet explorer.  

I'd say, go check the site out, explore, and determine if you feel it would be a really good site to incorporate.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day. 

 

Data Science + You-Cubed.

It's been a while since I looked at the Data Science course provided by Jo Boaler's You Cubed site but since then, they've added additional lessons and resources so I thought I'd take another look at it.  

One of the first things I noticed is the class they offer a class for teachers to learn more about data science. Although it costs $150, it is a self paced class that offers access for a full year and you get 3 CEU's so it might go towards your recertification depending on your state.  They state when you are done, you will be prepared to teach data science.  

In addition, they provide the five lessons on the web page so you can use the lessons in your classroom. The first lesson introduces students to the idea that data is everywhere we look from the newspaper to the news, from stuff they send home to the census.  The second lesson focuses on working with data analysis tools, while the third discusses measures of center and spread.  The fourth one looks at understanding viability and the fifth lesson, looks at a community data project.  All lessons come with everything you need to teach it including timing, background, and general information with links.

In addition, there is a high school data science course available for free but you have to sign up for it. The course is designed for high school students to learn about data science and it has 6 units already posted.   The first unit of this one shows students that data is all around us but the second one focuses on the data of your community while the third looks at the water in everyone's lives.  The fourth discusses the shuffling of songs in play lists but the fifth one focuses on skin tone and representation in the media and the sixth has students looking at different places to live and ranking them based on certain data.  There are two more planned units that have not been posted yet.  One is on making predictive models and machine learning while the other one explains what data scientists do. 

If you look at the first unit, the one they allow you to check out before you sign up. The unit indicates it is designed to take four weeks and comes with all the slides needed, suggestions for covering the lesson, a set of weekly student reflections, and all the technology resources needed.  In addition to providing student handouts, it provides samples of student answers so you have an idea of what is acceptable. 

Furthermore, it provides both mindset and data science messages, concept organizers for students, information for student portfolios to show what they learned and any software requirements before the lessons are provided.  The unit is divided into nine sections and each section has links for each activity such as a video, data talk, data analysis, group work, etc.  

There is currently enough material to teach a one semester class but once everything has arrived, one should be able to teach a one year long class much like any classes in high school.  I like that it has everything needed to teach the class.  Data science is an important class to teach in high school because it is a growing field in the world.

Many activities use data from CODAP or The Concord Consortium's Common Online Data Analysis Platform. I will do a more in-depth look on Friday at this site.  There are also links to New York Times What's going on with this graph activities, and data talks.  Furthermore, they provide a list of objectives for grades K to 10 along with tasks and data talks and teaching advice for all the grades along with the material needed. 

This is a site you should explore yourself to see if it is one you could talk your district into letting you teach.  Go ahead and check it out at here. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  I hope I can teach this class sometime but at the pace students need not based on a pacing guide.  Have a great day.

Teaching A Hybrid Math Class.

 

Many schools are having to use a hybrid set up so they can meet the needs of all the students, those who can be in class and those who cannot. In the pandemic sense, hybrid means teaching virtually at the same time as teaching to students in a face to face class.  Most of us have no idea how to do that and are struggling to create lessons that work for both situations.

In order to have a successful hybrid class, one has to teach the class in such a way as to deliver the lesson virtually and in class.  I know one teacher who set up the class so students could sign in on google hangouts or google meet so students can watch the class as she teaches it in real time but this isn't the best solution.

What is considered a better solution is to teach the lesson on the computer in either zoom or google meet while projecting the computer image on a projector or on a smart board so students in the classroom see the same exact thing those who are virtual. The other option is to rely on the webcam on a students computer.  A student in the middle or back uses their webcam to capture the class lesson and share it with the virtual students via google meet. Unfortunately, when you use a webcam, it has to be positioned properly to capture everything.  In addition, one can only really use a nice black marker on a whiteboard, otherwise students at home might not be able to see the writing. When the lesson is delivered on the computer via a project to those students in class, everyone can see the lesson better.

It is also suggested that the class be divided up into sections such as the warm-up so the teacher can take attendance, followed by a 10 to 15 minute large group instruction, a 10 to 15 minute section with breakout rooms that all students both virtually and in class can join, a 10 to 15 minute section independent/guided instruction section and the closing.  If everyone joins a breakout room, it means they are all involved.

When you use a microphone, use the smaller ones that clip to your label or can be near your mouth.  You do not want one that is too large and stationary otherwise the students at home might not be able to hear you as you move around.  Those big microphones are great if you are stationary but the often get in the way but those small ones are so much better and easier to work with, especially if you have to teach via a computer.

One of the ways to prepare a lesson is to put it on Power Point, keynote, pear deck, or near deck which are great ways to set up a full lessons including quizzes, videos, etc.  I usually use keynote because I can set it up with animation, and later I can export it as a video to which I can add voice over for later use with the students. In addition, it is best to prepare skeleton notes for students who are at home to download and then fill out during the lesson.  The skeleton notes will have some vocabulary, definitions, diagrams, and examples but with blanks students need to fill out. 

So here is one way to meet the needs of those students who must be at home while you are trying to teach to those who made it to class that day.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

 

If one apple tree produces 500 pounds of apples each year and a bushel weighs 42 pounds, how many bushels does the tree produce each year?

Warmup

 

If one apple tree produces 725 apples and a bushel of apples is about 130 apples, how many bushels of apples will one tree produce?

In Transit

  I am in transit, back tomorrow.

Incorporating Movement Into The Classroom.

 

There has been research dealing with movement and learning.  We know that when students move around, the amount of oxygen increases in our blood and the increased oxygen helps us learn and remember more.  In addition, there has been a indication that increased movement in class helps ADD and ADHD students focus more with less behavior issues. 

Unfortunately, too many articles focus on incorporating movement in elementary school which doesn't always help high school students.  We can't always take over the gym, especially if there are classes using the gym all day.  Furthermore, we can't always take students outside without permission or due to weather issues.

However, there are certain activities high school teachers can introduce into their classes so students are able to move around. Admittedly, some activities need a bit of adjustment to work in the classroom but it can be done.  In addition, activities do not have to take the whole class period but can be done in a few minutes.

The first activity is the gallery walk.  The gallery walk is a way to show how students completed certain problems.  To do this, divide students up into small groups of 4 to 6 students.  Provide each group with markers and a large piece of paper.  Then give each group a problem to do on that paper. Once they are all done with their problems, they will hang them around the room.  Ask students to move around the room looking at each poster.  Ask each student to write down a question, comment, or with a thought on either post-it notes or on a gallery walk response sheet.  At the end of the time, ask students to return to their poster, read the comments and questions before they discuss the information.  As a final step, ask students to write a short summary of what everyone questioned or commented on and their responses.

Try a chalk talk.  A chalk talk is where the teacher places flip chart sized paper around the room.  Each paper has a single question, statement, visual, or math problem written on it.  Students move round the room writing their answer, thoughts, conclusion, or the work showing how they did the math problem on each paper in response to what was written on it.  

The way it works is for students to choose one paper.  They read the writing on it and think about it for a minute or two before spending two or three minutes writing down their thoughts.  They they move to the next sheet and repeat the process. At the end, the teacher collects the sheets to read through the answers.  Since students do not write down their names, they often feel more secure in writing down their thoughts.  What is nice is that you don't have to have students answer every single page.  You can allow enough time to answer two or three.

Perhaps, you could use a white board meeting where small groups of students investigate a situation which uses a data set.  They have to make sense of the problem, figure out an answer or conclusion and they write it on a whiteboard. Students are expected to share their thinking and conclusions using graphs, pictures, mathematical equations, and written words.  Once everyone is done, they then present their work including their conclusions to the other students.  The other students give them feedback and ask questions to clarify their thinking.

Then there is the musical mingle game.  Select three or four questions ahead of time.  Ask students to stand and play music so they wander around the room.  When the music stops, students find a partner and the teacher asks the question students are expected to discuss. After a couple of minutes, start the music again and students begin wandering again till the music stops.  Once students have had the opportunity to discuss all three questions, they share some of their thinking with the class. 

I love doing a search and rescue where I place half sheets of paper around the room.  On the top half of the page is the problem and on the bottom there is an answer but it is the answer to a different problem.  I let students work together if they want to but they have to show their work on their answer paper.  They work the problem, then go looking for the answer.  When they find the answer, they work the problem listed on the top and when they get an answer, they look for it.  If they make a mistake, they won't find the answer or end up discovering they have already used the answer so it makes them take a second look at their work.  I sometimes put up just a few or a lot depending on how long I want it to take.

Finally, one can implement stations where each station has one or two problems for students to work before moving to the next station.  The problems at each station have a specific focus.  If students are studying linear equations, one station might have students create a table of values, another might have them graph the equation, another might ask them to compare basic equations such as y =x and transformed equations such as y = x + 3 and discuss what is happening. When they finish at one station, they have to move to the next station until they are done.

If possible, it is good to integrate a little movement into the classroom to help students.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.  

Designing Lessons For A Virtual Classroom.

When you have to design your lessons for a virtual classroom, especially if the change happens overnight, it is important to know how to create the lesson for maximum impact.  I can tell you that before COVID hit, I wouldn't have had any idea how to do this but over time, due to necessity, I've had to become more flexible.  Although it seems as if the administration thinks we can just do the lesson scheduled for face to face online just as easily, that isn't correct. 

Although there are some similarities such as letting students know what they'll be studying, the process of creating the lesson is rather different.  There are three things to keep in mind when designing lessons taught online.

One of the first things to consider is how long the class is going to be.  Most of us will be told that our classes should run the usual length of our real classes which means they will run between 45 and 90 minutes.  For the longer classes, think about incorporating breaks but no matter the length of the class, think about how long your students will be able to sit for the instruction because you don't want to loose their attention.

The second thing to think about is the way you want to divide the class up so you students engaged.  If the chunks are too long, you'll loose them and then you might have trouble getting them back.  The problem with virtual instruction is that you can't always see if the students are actually involved.  I've had times when I had to turn my camera off due to the bandwidth when I was using Google slides.  

By breaking the content up into smaller chunks, it makes the material easier to digest but you have to be careful to keep the lesson flowing so it doesn't feel disjointed.  Break up the longer sessions with time for personal reflection, games, breaks, or just time to prepare for the next topic. Finally, integrate opportunities for repetition, revision, applications, and consolidation for your students.  All of these must have a clear purpose and relevant to the students.  

When you plan your lessons, there are six things one should think about as you write it.  Think about the overall objective as you create the lesson while making sure you look at it as if you were the student. Make sure you begin with the objective and connect to the objective throughout the lesson to keep the flow going and to help students connect.

Next, Start engaging students before the actual lesson begins by just chatting with them or setting up some sort of ice-breaker or activity to prepare them for class. Make sure you incorporate a variety of activities using different teaching methods, add in personal reflection, group work, pairs, etc. Use the software to its fullest using all of its functionality and include some things that can be done outside of class.

Furthermore, choose activities that have students participating every few minutes. They might participate via polls, breakout rooms, chat, icons such as thumbs up or thumbs down, etc but choose it based on the outcome you desire. It is important to use a variety of these tools rather than the same ones otherwise students become bored. 

When you use visual, make sure they are stimulating.  Think about using licensed images or videos while keeping text to a minimum. If you use slides, they should move every half minute to full minute and the slides should hold mo more than one key idea. When visual are stimulating, it helps keep student attention and engagement.

At the end, think about a way they can share the knowledge they learned during the class period.  If you follow all these ideas, you'll design lessons that are better to use in your virtual classroom.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day. 

Warm-up

 

If a cup of popcorn kernels has 1600 kernels and when popped makes 28 cups of popped corn, how many kernels are needed for one cup of popped corn?

Warm-up

 

If one ear of popcorn produces 800 kernels which is about 1/2 cup of kernels, how many cups will you have if you have 12680 kernels?

Length Of A Virtual School Day.

 

For many this is the second year school districts are having to teach virtually all or part of the time.  I'm aware of at least two districts which have had to flip back and forth depending on the number of cases in town.  Unfortunately, most places automatically assumed that one should just move the classes to online using basically the same length and content. 

Unfortunately, moving the class to online in the same form it is in real life does not always work. In real life, students often have breaks, teachers design activities so students can move around, activities can be in person or based online depending, and it is easy to pivot should a teacher need to make a change.

As far as a virtual class that is happening live, it is hard for students to sit through 6 different classes where students are expected to sit quietly and pay attention to a screen without trying to multi-task or get distracted by what is going on around home, or even have technical issues.

In addition, much of the school day has breaks with movement built in such as time for students to change classes, visiting lockers, going to lunch, recesses, etc which doesn't need to appear in on-line classes.  In fact, the National Board of Teaching Standards recommends that elementary students spend no more than two hours in an online class while middle school students shouldn't be in class for more than 3 hours and high school students should have no more than 4 hours of online instruction.  Think about this.  I don't know of any college students who are in class for 8 hours of instruction, 5 days a week so why do we expect all students to do it?

It is possible to design virtual classes so they use both synchronous (real time instruction) and asynchronous (projects and "homework") instruction rather than only synchronous which is what most schools use. It is also important to keep in mind that many of our students are trying to learn at the same time as their siblings and this may make it hard for everyone to be online at the same time.  In addition, older siblings may be taking care of younger siblings while mom is at work and may not be able to attend the "full" school day.

Let's look at the two types of instruction to see how they can be utilized to the best advantage for our students.  Synchronous instruction allows for two way communication and interaction.  It is the time for collaboration with breakout rooms, live assessments, polling and certain types of games.  Asynchronous instruction is one way communication where feedback is provided at a later point. It might be used for a short lesson provided by the teacher, presentations done by the students, or completed assignments are posted to be graded later by the teacher.  

Furthermore, it is recommended teachers recored all lessons so students can go back and watch them to provide the needed support.  The videos are available for asynchronous use at any time, especially if a student cannot get to class during the expected time.  In essence, synchronous instruction is the live element of the lesson where the teacher provides instruction and activity that works best when everyone is together and asynchronous is for other times when students are able to work alone or need to review lessons from earlier.

So when looking at teaching virtually, look at how long you really need to provide instruction to students in a live situation and how much of the class can be done in asynchronous form. Once you've figured that out, go for it but I realize many districts are just throwing classes online expecting it all to work the same as if everyone is face to face.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.