Explain Everything….more than a screen recorder

May 23, 2014January 28, 2016 by Jon Orr

I’ve been loving the app Explain Everything more and more! Yes it’s great because when students record their work it forces them to think more about language and ideas than they are used to. I like that! That is what drew me to the app in the first place. But I’ve been loving it even more….. I’ve been using it lately NOT to record work. I’ve been using it to deliver content to students in a new way. We can use the app as a sort of enhanced digital workspace! Here is an example:

Click the picture to download the Explain Everything file

I created this for my lesson on periodic functions. Here is why this is awesome……

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SmartCar Smash!

May 17, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

On Friday I attended the Mobile Summit 2014 at Lambton College. The last keynote speaker was Dr. Alec Couros. He showed a tweet I found particularly interesting!

This guy thinking he was quite witty ended up getting a reply from the SmartCar people, check it out!

My first thought was that is hilarious!! My second thought was can i make a math problem out of this?

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Corner to Corner – 3 Act Lesson

May 16, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

I was recently in a cross panel learning team meeting and we were discussing open questions/problems to give our students. A fellow teacher, Marcus, gave the following problem to his class:

Find the distance from one corner of the box to the opposite diagonal corner.

Using this idea, along with the learning team’s focus on getting students to estimate before solving problems [as a way to engage all our students] I created the following 3Act math lesson. (thanks Dan Meyer for the tips)

Act 1- Corner to Corner
Give your students the weird little video.

Ask students What do you wonder? Or What would you like to know? Or What questions do you have?
Take the questions from students (all of them, write them on the board).

If the question: How long is the string? does not come out from them, pose it to them and say you would like to solve that one first!

Ask them to guess the length of the string, record guesses on the board.

Ask students to discuss with a partner and then share with you what information they would need to find the distance.

After they ask for the dimensions of the room share with them (one at a time) these pictures.

After each picture get the students to guess the lengths….then reveal the values. This part will be engaging for all! Hopefully they cheer or boo when after you reveal the lengths.

and the reveal……

Once the lengths are revealed, either discuss or teach the Pythagorean Theorem. Give them time to develop the answer!

Reveal the answer after students find the length.

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Mobile Summit 2014

May 15, 2014 by Jon Orr

Most of the resources below I have discovered because of twitter.

Follow me:

@MrOrr_geek

Below is a list of resources I like and use. It is a hodgepodge of good stuff for teaching math with video and images.

Math Teaching Resources Menu

Appetizers:

Estimation180

Estimation180 is great for warm ups but even better for getting students to practice predicting their answer which allows them to decide if their answer they calculate makes sense. Here is an example:

Estimate: Day 151

What is the value of pennies in the glass?

Questions we ask to get students thinking of reasonableness of their answers. Give an estimate that is too low. Give an estimate that is too high Give an estimate that is just right.

Video Answer

Would You Rather

ASKING STUDENTS TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN PATH AND JUSTIFY IT!

Great way to start a topic/or lesson. Students are eager to justify their choice. Relevant problems.

Here is another example: Would You Rather

Would You Rather

Visual Patterns

Fawn Nguyen’s site has 140 different growth patterns. Find the correct equation!

Here are a few examples:

Along the same lines as this are ….

Vine Videos created by Nat Banting

Click here to go to his blogpost on this… He takes a pattern like this one from a textbook: and turns it into this…. or one like this….

and turns it into this… Here is one my students made…

Main Course

Engaging Math Problems vs. Standard Math Problems

3-Act Math Problems

Original concept from Dan Meyer – Read about it – The Three Acts of a Mathematical Story

Here is the Corner to Corner 3 – Act Math Task – http://www.101qs.com/2998-corner-to-corner Here is another…

Act 1: The Water Balloon

Did you wonder when the balloon will blow? Give an answer too high, too low, just right.

Act 2:

Act 3:

Here is the same problem from a standard Math problem from grade 9

A water balloon is filled at a rate of 0.22L/s If a standard balloon will hold about 14L of water, how long will it take until it bursts?

101qs.com

Desmos.com

Online free graphing calculator – enough said!

Des-Man Activity – Graphing a face using functions. Great for Domain & Range
Function Carnival – Graphing position vs. time.
WaterLine Activity – Graphing Height vs. time

Desmos Function Art Assignment

Grade 11s use their knowledge of functions to draw a picture.

Examples:

Explain Everything as a delivery tool

We began many classes by grabbing an Explain Everything file from our Google Drive. Here is a picture of that file. Here are some more examples of using Explain everything as a “digital worksheet” or or

Thanks!!

Follow me:

Author: Jon Orr

Explain Everything….more than a screen recorder

Like this:

SmartCar Smash!

Like this:

Corner to Corner – 3 Act Lesson

Like this:

Mobile Summit 2014

@MrOrr_geek

Below is a list of resources I like and use. It is a hodgepodge of good stuff for teaching math with video and images.

Math Teaching Resources Menu