Trig 1

I forgot I had this app, Trig 1.  This is a lovely app to help students learn about the ratios, using the ratios and practicing using the ratios in certain situations such as finding a roof support, finding the height of a building, etc. 
I like this app because it allows the students to bring up an example to see how to solve a problem and then it will return the student to the original problem by tapping on the screen.  Each section provides more than one practice problem so they can work on areas they have problems with. 
I really like the real world problems this app has students work.  I've noticed that students are good at doing the calculations type problems but once the same calculation is put into a real world situation, they have trouble doing it.  
I have a student who is doing trig right now and I am going to have him spend at least 10 min a day on this app until he's worked every single real world example.  Students need to become good at working real world examples.  I know when I finished high school, I found it difficult to do the same thing myself because the real world examples in our math book dealt with roman galleons and how many people you needed to row them.  Not the most practical skills.

Semi-off topic but still related to math.

Someone I know told me I should read Dracula.  I've never read it, only seen the movie interpretations of it.  He said the original was superior to any media interpretation.  So my first thought was to download it.  So much has changed in the past few years with mobile devices.  We can download music, books and pdf's.  We can create books to upload and sell.  We can create podcasts, interactive books, presentations, documents, etc and place them on the web to share with others. We can find textbooks that have been digitized and are free.  We can set up our mobile devices to be our offices so we can sit on a beach and do our work.  Even printers are now small enough to put in a bag and take with us.  No you don't always need an electrical plug as you can buy those flashlights that you crank and they even allow you to charge your cell phones.  So  if the connection is the right type, you could power your printer.  With the increased improvement in phones, you can use the phone for your office.
I know there is a  push to integrate technology into the classroom but its hard because the textbook publishers are a bit behind the technology and most publishers do not have the digitized books.  Even the publishers who have books available, these books are not interactive because the interactive element adds to the file size.  This does not mean that you as the teacher could not down load a chapter, add links, etc so that students can annotate, make notes, etc and make the students more interactive readers.
Why couldn't we take examples from the books, create presentations so that when the students play them, the steps with explanations come on, one step at a time.  Make it with audio, with drawings etc.  I know it is common to make videos showing the steps etc but some students do not have a good connection so video is much harder to view while a presentation can often be used in the same situation.  I think it is important to create material using presentations, slide shows, audio podcasts, etc. 

sharing results with students.

Today I gave my algebra 1 students the same 4 inequality problems as a warm-up, rather than the computerized practice they had yesterday.  I asked them how they could do the work today but not yesterday.  One answer I got was that they had the right answer but the computer didn't accept it.  This was true for only one problem and I showed them the breakdown so they could see that for the most part, their answers were not correct.  They had a great time reading how each of them answered each question, who put something like IDK or made up words.  In regard to the one question whose answer was x > 2 and the program marked x>2 as incorrect due to the lack of spaces, the kids started a discussion on why the computer did not recognize it.  I think I will share the results every time I give them any test/quiz type activity online, I am going to show them the results so we can talk about it.

Prime numbers and other things

One of my seniors had a breakthrough today.  We were doing a compare and contrast between primes and composite numbers. He said a prime cannot be divided any smaller but it can be divided into other numbers which are composites.  I felt like my students are really starting to develop the vocabulary to discuss mathematics.  Hurray.
I had several classes try some practice problems using Exit Ticket.  I discovered something that I hadn't realized.  When I put input answers I need to list the multiple possibilities or it will mark something as wrong.  For instance, one answer was x < 2 which is how I put it in.  Several of my students put in x<2 without the spaces and the program did not recognize it as correct.  On the other hand, I like the way it shows the different answers and tells me which student put in which answer.  It gives the results in a variety of forms so that I can use it.  None of my students in period 6 got any of the inequalities right so we'll go over the problems tomorrow.
Since many of my students are classified ELL, I think they were scared of making mistakes.  I tried to get them to understand that I was not grading based on the percent results but on having done the practice.  I will give them the practice again early next week after going over the problems to see if they improve at all.

Etc, busy day.

First off, I had several of my students try a paid for app called Algebra Tutor. It has two levels for each topic, the novice and the master levels.  Most of my students started with the novice level for using signed numbers.  I put some on solving equations or combining like terms.  They use a swipes and gestures to manipulate the terms and learn more about how the processes work.  It does cost but it is an app that seems to give the students a real opportunity to learn the processes and they enjoy it. 
Second, I think I finally got the exit ticket set up so my students can take a quick quiz tomorrow at the end of the various classes.  I managed to get things set up but the tickets wouldn't show.  I found a toggle switch that said hidden and moved it to visible so we'll see if that works.  I also updated some things on Schoology and we'll see how they work.  I put in several assignments and one discussion questions so we'll see how that goes.  The last time I tried the app, it went well and the kids enjoyed it.  I actually had one class discuss a topic but I had it so they could read each other's entries before posting.  I changed things so that have to post before they can see other answers. 
Third, over the past two days, I've passed out a complex task involving chicken and dogs.  One of my students who would rather  not do a thing, actually spent the class period solving it instead of bothering other people and she got it correct.  The main requirement is that students show their work and then explain how they got the answer in writing.  She did a fantastic job. I think it might have something to do with her being extremely bright and this is the first time she's been challenged in quite a while.  I hope I keep peaking her interest for the rest of the year.

Geoboard vs Geopad app

I just started my geometry class on triangle bisectors. Today we walked a movie where the instructor actually showed students where the names for the circumcenter and incenter come from and showed them both the angle bisectors and perpendicular bisectors.  For the last few minutes of class I had students play with the geopad app but a few decided to play with geoboard.   I looked at both apps but only the geopad will allow students to create the triangles, put the appropriate bisector on it and place the circles around the various triangles.  Furthermore, it allows students to move shapes around so they can observe for themselves what happens to the points of concurrency with the various type of triangles.
On the other hand, the geoboard app allows the students to create large triangles in a much easier manner.  They can use a rubberband to make the bisectors but they may not be able to make the bisector perfectly perpendicular or cut the angle precisely in half.  The geopad has an option for that.  In addition, geoboard will not allow students to add a circle.  I do see geoboard as being the better choice for tesselations, transformations, shapes.  All told, I think each is good for certain circumstances.

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.