Spread sheets.

I need to find a couple activities so my students can use spreadsheets.  I put documents 2 go which has both a word processor and a spread sheet.  Although, students take computer classes in which they learn to use various programs such as MS Word, Excel, Keynote, Pages, etc, I've found they really don't know how to really use the programs.  It is like they play with it but do not really learn the programs.  I also need to give students a chance to use spreadsheets within a mathematical/real life facet so they see a connection between the computer class and a more real world application.  
I also need to explore two websites tomorrow during my prep period.  I'm told the sites are for grades k to 6 or k to 8 but many of my students are below grade level in many aspects of Math and I'm thinking of registering for the sites and using them as scaffolding to help them improve.  I am assured that both websites can be used on the iPads.  Nothing is more frustrating than to discover that an awesome website I found cannot be used on the iPads.  I am going to try to set up the exit ticket tonight and see if I can get it working for tomorrow and treat the results as a quiz.

More real life possibilities for Math

After I wrote yesterday's post, I did a bit more research on sites that offer lessons and activities to connect math to the real world and stumbled across this post in Education World.  The author found 24 places on the internet divided into five different areas.  The first, collections of real world math activities, includes one where students from around the country wrote the word problems.  Then there are the online math activities with specific focus, online data sources (authentic data), math collaboration, and more real world math ideas at Education World.
I pulled up a few sites to check them out and was rather impressed with the ones I viewed.  Also some of the sites are no longer viable including one on using math with planes.  I thought this would be of interest to my students but it does not seem to be up and running, so check each one.
On the other hand, I did not see NASA's educational web page with some really awesome problems.
Enjoy.

Interesting perspective on teaching math.

I was doing research on the internet to find some real world math problems that I could have my students do and I stumbled across this blog http://blog.keycurriculum.com/2012/03/what-do-you-wonder-real-world-math-problems-are-everywhere/
In it, the author has a short video of Annie Fetter from the Math Forum in which she says we should use senarios with questions like What do you notice? and What do you wonder? You are not after the students to actually solve it just look at it and find information.  The class has a discussion on it and then for homework you have the students write about what they talked about in class that day.  Toward the end of the entry are three websites, one of which has some great things to use for that. 
This is a cool way to integrate writing into the classroom while being able to assess student thinking and understanding of certain math ideas. 
I am always looking for new ways to integrate writing and to assess student understanding.  My students due to cultural influences are afraid to make a mistake and want you to check all their problems.  I need to help them be less afraid of making mistakes and being willing to work independently.
If anyone has ideas or scenarios I could use in a High School math class, I would love to hear.

Correction, observation and announcment.

I've have been increasing the amount of time I have the students on the iPads this week.  After the warmup, I send the students to a website to do something such as read or do practice problems.  They are much quieter than when I try to officially teach a lesson and they are more focused.  I feel they get even more work done.  I also show a video or two during the week instead of lecturing and they seem to pay more attention to the video than a lecture.  I still assign the study notes worksheet so they read the section but I first assign four reading for meaning statements so they preread the section.  I do not actually assign the study notes until mid week when they have had a chance to build a foundation.
The correction is that at cool math, not all lessons show up on the iPad, only some of them. It turns out the lesson on the sieve of Eratosthenes works on coolmath.com but the one on algebraic fractions does not.  So I need to check ahead of time.
The announcement is I published a short e-book on Amazon titled "Teaching math using the iPad".  It has general suggestions or types of programs, specific recommendations for how to use those apps and recommendations or suggestions for apps themselves. I give reasons for many of the recommendations.
 I will be choosing one day to offer it for free in the very near future.  I will post the date here so you all may take advantage of it being free as a thank you for reading my blog.

website and communicating.

One last website I like is www.coolmath.com.  It works for the most part on an iPad but the games do not work because they require flash.  Otherwise, the cruncher or practice problems work pretty well.  This site has some good material in it.  Tomorrow I am going to send my 9th graders to read up on prime numbers and prime factorization.  The prime numbers section has the Sieve of Eratosthenes in the definition.  I think I will provide an unmarked one for them to do along with the explanation.
Over the summer I am going to try to put a syllabus, homework and class info on the school wiki so come fall, I can just send students there to download information and check on assignments etc.  I just found out one of the teachers who runs an afterschool activity, uses Edmodo to communicate information, dates, etc to her students.  I need to further explore this option further. 
One thing I need to consider as I do more things on the iPad has to do with keeping student work safe.  I have one set of iPads which are shared among all my classes.  I have to research how email works on the iPad to see if my students can keep their privacy.  I have an idea but I need to pursue the idea further.

2nd website and mindmapping

The second website I use is www.aaamath.com.  I often use it for my Algebra I or Pre-Algebra level students who need to practice various topics.  Today I'll be sending my students here to read and practice prime factorization.  This website has a topic, information on doing it, practice and often offers games.  My 9th graders tend to be much more focused in class when they have an iPad assigment.
I gave some thought to mindmapping last night and came up with a couple ideas of how to use it in my math classes.  So far the ideas are for geometry but its a start.
Mindmapping ideas
1.  Use it for classification of triangles.  The center topic of triangles has three arms.  One for angles, one for sides and one for both.  There are more arms off of each of those topics to list the type such as right, acute, scalene or right scalene.  Add more arms for the characteristics such as acute would have three acute angles, or right scalene might list must have a 90 degree angle with three different length sides.  A 30-60-90 degree triangle would be an example.
2.  Classification of quadrilaterals.  This would work the same way as the triangles one.
3.  Altitudes, bisectors, and medians.
This could easily be done on a mindmapping app on the iPad.  I use Simple Mind.  It is free and it allows you to use a different color for each branch of the map.  Students often remember color better than something in black and white.
I'll give some more ideas for mindmapping in a day or two.

Nice web site for use with the iPad

I use several math sites in my classroom but over the next few days I will focus on three of them.  Two of these can be used with the iPad and the third required the use of Rover the last time my students used it.  I'll talk about each of the websites over the next three days.
The first website is www.mathisfun.com  After I've introduced a topic such as prime factorization, I will often use a QR code to send my students to read the material on the website.  Most of the topics have a small quiz at the end of the reading section which I have the students do.  I do not grade them on how many they got correct, only that they did it.  Its a second way to expose them to the information.
I was reading on a website that it is good to provide both written and verbal instructions so that when students are not listening to verbal directions and they ask "What am I supposed to do?  you can point them to the written instructions.  I have put the written instructions into a QR code and had the students use the iPad to read it. It actually worked quite well. 
The same website suggested giving students choices in the classroom including choices of writing prompts.  I am going to try the writing choices out with the Journalize or the Notes program.  I am having fun trying to find ways to increase writing in the Math classroom. 
Tomorrow will be www.aaamath.com