Exciting Tildee Update

As I'm sure many of you know, it's that time of year again....state assessment time. Review for the state assessment is dreadful. While I want to practice types of past state assessment questions with my students (yawn), the kids (and the teacher) are bored by drill and kill questions. I think it's important that students are comfortable with the type of wording the state uses and the structure of the exam, but review is sometimes unbearable.

To switch it up, I tried having the students make videos of themselves explaining state assessment questions. This was definitely fun for them, but the WiFi at our school is not so great now, so some students had trouble taking the videos and sending the videos to my email. It also got loud in the classroom and some groups were feeling frustrated while trying to tape. It probably wasn't the best environment to try to create a video to teach someone how to solve a math problem. I liked doing it (and so did the kids!), so I'm not going to give up on the idea. I'll have to come up with some adjustments.

After the videos didn't work out so well, I wanted to try Tildee to enhance my review. The first time I tried it with my morning class, it didn't work out so well. I gave each group a state assessment question, told them to log onto the website, take a picture of the question and write out the steps. I explained what a tutorial was and that people all over the world could learn from their step-by-step explanation. They were definitely excited about it, but we ran into some trouble. Again, the students were having trouble because of the school's WiFi. Some students were also having trouble "typing out" the math work and preferred to write it by hand and take pictures. Once they tried to upload multiple pictures, their phones were slowing down and their batteries were dying. For my afternoon class, I decided to take the pictures myself and set their tutorial up for them. I don't think I need to do this every time I want them to use the website, but since it was their first time using Tildee, it was helpful. I also had the groups use my computer and interactive white board to make their tutorials. This enabled them to write on the board and upload their work directly onto the website. Here's what they came up with:

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5 Part 1 and Part 2
Group 6 

I'm really proud of the work they did. While they didn't get to complete 100 math problems during the period, they worked on all of these questions individually and then checked their work with the tutorials. For each group to explain their question as well as they did on Tildee, I know they learned it well.

I will definitely be using it again. You should try it!  

Shout out to WS for sharing the site :)
 

Web 2.0 Resources

Wiggio
Wiggio is a free online toolkit that makes it easy to work in groups. You can do some really great interactive things on this site that will make your class more dynamic and exciting. The site allows mass polling (with real-time results), Keeping a shared calendar - great for class projects, and even hosting a chat room.

I think this site really makes group work easy for teachers to manage! Check out their website and watch the video below to learn more!

Web 2.0 Resources

Mentor Mob

Mentor Mob allows educators and students to create, share, or browse through learning playlists that are comprised of articles, links, and other media that a user can go through in steps. The goal of the site is to create a powerful free learning environment that is similar to Wikipedia in the collaborative way in which users can engage with the content. This is a powerful new tool that has lots of promise for and in the classroom. 

This is a really interesting way for students to conduct research and display their findings. Check out their website and watch the video below!

 

Web 2.0 Resources

Slidestory
Slidestory is a very easy to use web tool that allows teachers and students to create simple picture podcasts by uploading images and recorded soundtracks. It is simple to use and can be a great new take on the traditional slideshow presentation.

Check out the website to watch a podcast! There are slidestories on many, many different topics. There are even videos in other languages.

Web 2.0 Resources

Another great resource!

 

Tildee

Tildee is a free web tool to help users create and share instantly and easily tutorials on any subject. This is a very simple to use, yet excellent tool for teachers to use to help students understand steps or specific instructions for doing things in the classroom. This could also be useful to students with disabilities that need a simplified structure or visual explanation of a task. The site has a great interface to go along with a great concept. 

Check out their website to learn more!

Web 2.0 Resources

My favorite so far...

Edmodo

Edmodo is a private microblogging site (like Twitter) that teachers and students can use to send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other.  It is a great way to communicate in a safe and controlled environment while still keeping the immediacy and appeal of a social network. The set-up of the site looks JUST LIKE facebook! Students can talk with each other and with you, take quizzes, polls, hand in assignments, etc.

Check out the video on their website to learn more!

Interesting Article

Does our approach to teaching math fail even the smartest kids?

What do you think?

Being Graded on State Assessments

 Interesting Article...

New York State Tests: 8th grade math 2010

Challenge: Think like Sir Ken Robinson

Everyone should watch this video:

THANK YOU KEN ROBINSON!

What an awesome video! The sad part is....I AGREE. Why is it sad? Because I feel helpless. I teach about 80 kids this year: 8th graders and 10th graders. How much can I really do to change this "epidemic"?? 





There are still teachers that teach next door to me that lecture every day. They give out worksheets and expect the kids to be motivated and learn on their own. Or, they stand at the board, write notes, and tell the kids to copy. The kids feel tortured. They hate it. And do they really learn anything? No. 

What about the teachers who are "successful"? They stand at the board EVERY day. We would classify these teachers as bad teachers and yet, they are revered by some because of the great scores they get at the end of the year. What's wrong here? I personally think the problem is that a lot of times "drill and kill" actually works. Well, works in the sense that kids can regurgitate the information for the exam. This happened when I was in school. I had a teacher I thought was great. But what was so great about her? Okay, maybe she was funny. Maybe she talked to us like we were adults. I did well in her class and on my state tests. But what did I really learn from her? Probably just how NOT to teach. Looking back, there's nothing she taught me that I use today. She didn't affect my life all that much. She just showed me how to pass.

What can I do though? The system is the system. I'm pressured to conform because test scores are what "matter." Standardized tests support convergent thinking - students are asked to choose the best answer, not analyze the possibility of different answers. I argue that most thinking done in the workplace, in REAL LIFE, needs to be divergent.

The video really brought up a lot of questions for me and I'm not really sure how to answer them.

• Can I balance my class time so that students do well on the standardized test, but are divergent thinkers? 
• Will I have enough time to cover all the material I'm supposed to cover, but allow my students to think creatively and work collaboratively? 
• This is my third year teaching. If my students don't do well on their standardized tests, what will happen to me? 
• After being taught the same way from Kindergarten through 7th grade, how will my students respond to this new kind of teaching and learning?

I can't change the system, but I can change my classroom. Can you?