Going blended!

I was finally able to do the activity with my classes at the beginning of this week.  It went really well.  I ended up doing this with my high school class too and am glad I did.  The 8th grade classes I teach this year are all accelerated, but my high school class isn't.  They are the ones that need the extra support at home.  While the percentage of high school students who watched the video at night is less than the 8th graders, they seemed more appreciative of having a video that just told them how to do the math. 

Doing this project has made me think about turning my class into a blended learning environment.  I have explored with flipping in the past, but I think the classroom needs to be more than just "watch the lecture at home and do the worksheets in class."  If we do a little challenge problem toward the end of class, students might leave wanting to know if they got it right or not.  Then, they can watch a video at night that explains the process.  After they watch the video, they can post if they want to change their answer or keep it the same in an online forum like Edmodo.  This will let me know who watched the video and the level of understanding that took place.  At the beginning of class the next day, we'd clarify the answer to the challenge problem and clear up any concerns the students had.  Then, during class the students would do activities.  They wouldn't just do worksheets, but they'd do an activity where they had to know how to do use the material in the video (the lecture) and apply it to something meaningful or challenging to them.  If nothing else, I think I'll create videos as support for the lessons we're doing in class and move toward a blended classroom in the future.  

I'm thankful for all of the great things I learned from my classmates this semester. I'll be on Twitter and always love sharing ideas!   Best wishes to you all in the future! 

Update

I was supposed to do this lesson at the beginning of the week, but my students had some issues with the last lessons so we spent more time on them than expected.  Some times this happens when you teach.  I could've gone ahead with this lesson when it was scheduled, but students wouldn't have been comfortable with the material.  Then, they wouldn't have been comfortable with the new material or any new material to follow. 

We will be doing this lesson at the beginning of next week. 

Educreations

I recently updated the app Educreations on the school's iPads.  It now has graph paper available for a background for the pages.  We will be using this app instead of doing a worksheet.  Then, the students will be able to post a link to their work on Edmodo and we won't have to use any paper, but I'll still be able to see their work. They will enjoy this much more than doing a worksheet.

Getting the Project Ready

Title: Graphing Functions

Concept: graphing functions using a table

General Goals: Math Common Core State Standards A.REI.10 Understand that the graph of an equation in 2 variables is the set of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane, often forming a curve (which could be a line).

Specific Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to graph an equation in 2 variables in the coordinate plane by completing a table.

Characteristics of Learners: The learners will be three different sections of 8^th grade Accelerated Math. The first class has 10 people, 6 boys and 4 girls. The second class has 20 people, 11 girls and 9 boys. The third class has 17 people, 10 girls and 7 boys. The school is located in a rural community in Adams County.

Required Materials:

• iPads (provided by the school)
• video viewing devices at home
• Edmodo.com
• todaysmeet.com
• graph paper/worksheet

Introduction: This will take place the last 15 minutes of class.

Graph the following coordinates in a coordinate plane. Compare with your table-mates when you're finished. A(2,3)    B(-6,0)    C(0,4)    D(-5.-2)

This will remind the students about coordinates and how to use the coordinate plane. Then different students will come up to graph each of the coordinates. We will discuss different aspects of the coordinate plane throughout the student led examples.

Step-By-Step Procedures: The teacher will make a video about how to graph an equation with 2-variables using a table. She will post it to Edmodo. Outside of class, the students will watch the video. Then, they will answer a question on Edmodo to indicate what they learned. 

The morning of the next class, the teacher will check the students' responses on Edmodo to decide what direction to take the class that day. If most students didn't understand the concept, the teacher will re-teach the lesson to the class. If most of the students understood the concept, the teacher will only discuss the process with the people who struggled.

The students will work on a worksheet that has equations for them to graph for the first 15 minutes during class time. They can ask their neighbors for help, compare answers, refer back to the video, ask a question on Today's Meet, or ask the teacher for help. After the first 15 minutes, the students will use Edmodo to write an explanation of how they can go from an equation to a graph. Then, we will do a short activity to get the students thinking about the next concept. 

Assessment: Students will complete a worksheet and they will explain the process on Edmodo. 

Conclusion: No matter what kind of function you have, you can always use a table to find coordinates to graph that will then represent the function.

Project Idea

For my project for IDT 516, I will use Edmodo and Todays Meet. 

We are going to begin a unit on graphing soon, so I will be doing this lesson during that unit. I want to do this unit in a blended learning fashion.  I don't think I want to totally flip my classroom because I am trying to move away from lectures.  However, I know from previous experiences that students will need more guidance during this unit than they will the previous units.  So, I will post videos that I create to help explain this difficult concept.   I will require that they watch some of the videos, but most of them will just be available for extra support. 

I'll use Edmodo to post the videos and also to have the students answer a poll about the mandatory videos when they're done watching the video. Then, in class, the students will have Todays Meet open while they are working on the activities so they can communicate with each other without interrupting the other groups' activities.  The activities will include things like using probes and sensors with TI-NSpires to discover what linear functions can represent in "the real world."