iPads

Apple Distinguished Educator Program

by Jon Orr

Yesterday I received some great news! I was accepted into the Apple Distinguished Educator class of 2015 program. 

Last year I was encouraged to apply by a few people. I’m so glad I did because the application process made me reflect on what I do in the classroom. Creating a video to show my story made me think about what it is about using videos, 3 act math tasks, iPads, iTunesU, or any other learning tool in class. 

Check out my video on using curiosity & technology to explore, discuss, and do mathematics.
All successful applicants are to attend a 5 day institute in South Florida in July. It will be amazing to meet educators from across North & South America. I’m sure it will be a week of amazing conversations with new ideas and new friends!

Special thanks to:

Sharon Drummond, Kyle Pearce, Rob Policicchio, and my wife, Scarlett for encouraging me to apply!

Dan Meyer, Andrew Stadel, and Michael Fenton and the #MTBos for awesome math lesson ideas and pedagogy ideas! I’ve learned and used so many amazing things from these teachers. Truly wonderful stuff!

I’ll see some of you real soon!

Distance-Time Graphs – Gallery Walk

by Jon Orr

The last few semesters I ran this two-day lesson on distance-time graphs. Today I added a new twist on Day 2.

Recap: Day 1 – A few prediction videos on water height in a cup vs. time. Then WATERLINE by Desmos!

Day 2:  Today

Warm Up – We reviewed the previous day’s work by choosing one of the cups from the picture and drawing a water-height vs. time graph.

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Not surprisingly, no students chose to draw the graph for the Stanley Cup. After they make their sketches we dove into using the CBR Rangers from Vernier just like on Day 2 from the previous post. They walked in front of the Ranger taking various different walks and we all saw their distance-time graphs in real-time. For each walk the students made prediction graphs on their whiteboards before seeing the live graph.

I wanted more predictions from them so I showed them a video I made. They were to watch the video and make a prediction graph of my distance away from the camera vs. time.


After take up of this graph they were to create their own video on the iPads. Each pair of students we’re given a scenario to film that described motion.

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Here are two motion videos they filmed: Very basic to start!


They had to create their distance-time graph and hide it under the flap on the vertical whiteboards.

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Pairs then went on a gallery walk. They watched each student made video, graphed the matching distance-time graph and then checked the answer under the flap.

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Kids enjoyed it and they practiced lots of different distance-time graphs.

Thanks for reading!!!

 

Error Analysis & Explain Everything

by Jon Orr

IMG_3146If you have read my previous posts(here, here, and here) on Explain Everything ….you’ll know  I love it, and know that I love it because it’s so versatile!

Last year I created/used a series of warm ups or openers or minds on activities (or any other name) in my Advanced Functions class that used iPads:

  1. Daily Desmos – Matching
  2. Sorting/Matching functions to equations activities in Explain Everything
  3. Whiteboard Share – Complete a problem in Explain Everything and AirPlay to Apple TV. Discuss.
  4. Complete a new problem in Explain Everything with a video Hint built in.
  5. Video Critique – Find the Error – Error Analysis.

This last one I want to discuss here.

That opener was a way for me to check homework ….really, a way for me to check understanding of the previous day’s work.

I used Explain Everything and created a file with videos of solutions with errors in them. Instructions were built in to the file that asked students to identify if the solution had an error or not, and if an error existed they were to record themselves fixing the error.

After using this for quick checks last year I decided to make it a full peer editing lesson this year in my Function class (3U).

Students grab the pre made EE file from a shared folder in Google Drive, watch videos of solutions to the previous day’s content, decide which, or if any have errors, then fix them. After recording their new solution right in the EE file they can play their new solution for the whole class to see via Apple TV or upload the EE file to our shared Google Drive folder for peers to download, view and critique.

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Since we are always exporting as an .xpl file students will import those same files and then be able to edit/critique (record) over top of the existing work.

It was awesome to see students recognize common mistakes and yell out “nope that’s wrong!” Or “I think that one’s OK”. It was equally great to see them watch eachothers “new” solutions and critique them the same way they critiqued mine.

Definitely a type of lesson I’ll repeat, probably on next review day.

Read more awesome ways to use EE.

Kyle Pearce’s —- Explain Everything Math Learning Journey 1 & 2

MathyCathy’s —- Hands On Digital Puzzles

QR Code Answers: The New Back of the Book

by Jon Orr

After completing the two Making Algebra Meaningful activities we spent time using algebra tiles to help collect like terms and simplify algebraic expressions. Our math department has sets of these tiles, but over the last couple of years I have used the  Algebra Tiles app from BrainingCamp. It’s a pretty decent app that allows 3 modes. Continue reading →