iPads

Projects from 2013-2014, iTunesU, iBooks

by Jon Orr

I feel like since I started using Twitter for Pd and following the #MTBos my learning curve has been steep! As a result, when I look back at resources I have created I find myself wishing that I had done it “this way” or “that way” or used a different task here or there.
This is no problem for creating lessons, activities, tasks to use with MY students because I can always modify, change, manipulate!
My regrets show up when I’m involved in a project that gets published or shared out beyond my reach and afterwards my thinking has changed by seeing a great blog post, or a new activity, or by just having a discussion with a colleague. I wish I had all the time in the world to keep everything “up to date”

Our blogs, Google Drive Folders, Dropboxes are easily update-able and where are current lessons are!

Here are a few of those projects that I hit publish and find it hard to keep up to date: Each of these has lots of stuff I’m proud of, and some stuff I wish I could find the time to “update”

ITunesU Course – MPM1D (created April 2014)
Last spring I created an iTunesU course for my school board (Lambton-Kent).
Purpose: To share some digital resources I have used, or, are using in my grade 9 Principles of mathematics course.

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https://itunes.apple.com/ca/course/principles-mathematics-public/id946920145

iBook – Measurement (created July 2014)

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Whatcha Thinking – independent use of 3 Act Math Tasks for MFM1P

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iBook – Linear Relations (created July 2013)

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Describing Relationships – Active Learning

by Jon Orr

We have started discussing graphing relationships in my grade 9 class.

Our lesson goal was to

I can…

describe a situation that would explain the events illustrated by a given graph of a relationship between two variables

I have loved Graphingstories.com and wanted to incorporate them…and some of Dan Meyer’s graphing stories …into my lessons! This is the perfect place…..here’s how we did it.

Day 1: We start with an estimation…..

I play the video (Poor quality) about 6 different glasses filling up with coloured water.

I pause it after a few seconds and ask: “Which glass will fill up the fastest? Draw the shape of your winning glass on your whiteboard” We take some guesses from the class…..then watch some more video. About 3/4 of the way through I pause again. “Anyone want to switch glasses?” Some of them will switch and some stick to their original guesses. After watching the final result…..I get some boos and “You tricked us”. We discuss why they filled up at the same time….which leads us into saying Volume of all  = Same and comparing the volume of the glass vs. time……which leads us to discuss the rate at which the glasses are filling = Also Same!

From there we jump right into Desmos.com and the WaterLine Activity.

This is one of the most engaging tasks on this topic I’ve seen. The predictions of height of water vs. time and the ability to self correct is amazing! As the kids work through the activities I always take time to discuss their answers to:

 

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We have a great discussion on how this new graph looks and I get them to draw one one on their whiteboards. (wish Desmos could add that prediction/check into the activity!).

WaterLine and its discussion takes the remaining of the period to complete.

Day 2: Graphing Stories & Distance Time!

We begin by watching and drawing different graphing stories from Dan Meyer (Elevation, Distance vs. Time). Check them out and download them! (He doesn’t even charge $4.99 for them!).

We then use Vernier’s LabQuest2 and the motion detector (borrowed from Science). Students walk in from of the detector and the rest of the class watches in real time how their distance changes vs. time. We get the kids to walk slow….then fast, walk away/towards….so they see how the graphs relate to real motion!

 

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Lastly….. The kids are to create their own video graphing story and have peers draw the graphs to match.IMG_2664-0.JPG

  1. They pick a card that has some sort of motion described: “student walks fast away….then backs up slowly”
  2. They create a video that shows that motion. They use their phones or our iPads to capture that motion.
  3. They trade that video with another group and then they have to draw the graph to match!
  4. They keep trading and graphing different relationships!

The first time I ran through this series of activities I freaked out after because we just used two days and the kids didn’t solve/answer any problems from the textbook/worksheet! They don’t have anything written in their notes!!!!

 

IMG_2667.JPGEvery year I realize that there is great thinking and reasoning going on here! We have great discussions on what the graphs should look like. We need less notes and more active learning!! The kids are completing problems because they created them! They lived them! I feel they have understood the main concept at a deeper level!

[UPDATE: April 2015 ] – Read the modifications for Day 2 — the inclusion of a gallery walk. 

anyways……thats all for now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first Lesson with Pear Deck

by Jon Orr

PearDeck

Today we gave PearDeck a try. It was awesome….. so far here are the best features:

  1. When I asked students to: “Place a moveable dot on the point where the function gives a value of 40”. On their own screen they see just their dot, but on the projector screen they see everyone’s. — on this particular example the class was split on the two points where the volume is 40. This was awesome because we could all see that there are two solutions. I then asked “Now place a dot where the function gives a value greater than 40” Again they could see in live time everyone’s responses……but it was great for explaining that there are infinite solutions to that question (Our lesson goals were to solve inequalities using graphs)!!!
  2. It worked on all devices!!! It worked on their phones, iPads, tablets and computers…..this was great. I didn’t need to book a lab or for everyone to have an iPad with a specific app! It’s web/cloud based so they just need to access a webpage.
  3. Works with Google Drive….load files right from the Drive….it also saves to the drive. When kids join the class they are asked to sign into their google drive account. So on the dashboard I can see their name!

Some Feedback

Noticed that I had to switch between projector view and dashboard view so that we could see the entire class’s responses to the drawing questions. It would have been nice to see their drawings overlapped just like when you place a dot!
[update: there is a check box that allows the overlay of drawings!!]
More to come. Totally worth the subscription fee though!!

To edTech or Not?

by Jon Orr

To edTech or not???

This was my lesson today where I used some technology….

In our Volume of Cylinders & Prisms grade 9 applied lesson we started out grabbing an Explain Everything file from our Google Classroom.

Our first problem embedded within the file was You Pour, I Choose from Dan Meyer. We watched the Act 1 video and then students filled out a google form embedded right in Explain Everything. The form asked them what questions they had after seeing the video.

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The next slide showed the forms responses in a google sheet!

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The students got to see live what each other were asking. Most kids had the same question…..Which had more or do they have the same!!

We then made guesses using a form……and saw each others guesses.

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After, we set out to work deciding what we needed to know before answering the problem……mades some guesses along the way and then solved the problem!

I’ll admit that we had some internet connection problems accessing google forms and every time we do I seriously think that it wasn’t worth it……but today it seemed worth it because it gave some of those shy kids a voice in my class. I’ve worked on problems like this and when I ask students share their questions….guesses…..usually the “brave” kids make their voice heard and the shy ones are left out (unless I ask them specifically). The tech today even though was spotty……served a purpose……its for small reasons like this that I keep trying out edTech in the class!!

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