themaryjournal

[themaryjournal]

a quick little test for number theory fans

As the last post of my assignment, I had to create a test designed to evaluate the knowledge of my students.

I chose number theory for the theme beacuse it's very dear to me, and I find that children are naturally drawn to this branch of mathematics. It can be taught well at a young age because albeit abstract, it carries the magic of counting, something fascinating to every preschooler I've met. So the task I've designed here is a true or false game, and I tried to choose the statements so that they're likely to generate further discussions. To some students it might be a new discovery, to others, it's just a witty thing they already knew. I hope that to all of their faces, it can bring a smile. It is for fifth graders after all -- the class where I so hope I'll make maths into a fun thing and not a beloathed terror. This test is supposed to to contain 3 types of tests but with Wordwall, this great application, the same test can be viewed and used in many forms. It's just a matter of choosing before hitting play, the possibilities are endless, and kinda cool. So this is also an "assign them into groups", an "open the box" and many more tests in one. I've tried it, it does feel different in the different game designs. Maybe looks do matter in problem solving.

As always, it was fun to learn some terminology in English. Wow, it's strange to write the last assigned post! But if all goes well, I'll be back with new posts this week, so this is not goodbye. So long, I wish you all luck!

[themaryjournal]

Visualising

Or,, a few visual aids that could possibly come in handy in a maths class.

It has come to my attention that when I'm asked to create an exercise for a fictional class, I tend to choose a fictional literature lesson. So for this one, I didn't go with my first idea: we're doing some geometry instead of Iliad stuff.

Firstly, here's a fun wordcloud containing words used everyday, and also words that people wouldn't typically use outside a maths lesson. My goal with this would be to generate a short discussion about the students' previous knowledge in a fun way. I think it fits the Evocation phase of the ERR framework because the unconventional arrangement makes the list more exciting to explore. (Word cloud created at https://wordart.com/ )

The second illustration is a less fun but very informative drawing about rectangle relations. I would use it to summarise what we have learned about them and to show how their features are connected. As I planned to use this for an interactive exercise, I didn't list all that can be known about them, that would be the students' job to do.

Here's a possible solution from a student who didn't focus on calculating their areas:

Well, that's all I planned to say today, have a pleasant day internet.

[themaryjournal]

fictional literature lesson for 9th graders

I was asked to plan a fictional lesson supported by digital technology, and I chose Sophokles' Antigone because,, is there a better time to use the modern equipments than when the subject is literally ancient?

The class I'm envisioning is a full class, so 30 students at minimum. This lesson takes place when we have talked about Antigone for at least 2 lessons, preferably more. The class is a 9th grade class, it's around spring. Antigone isn't strictly rejected by the students, but I felt like it could be brought closer to them. I'm lucky because they all have smartphones with them.

Since today's lesson will revolve around the characters in the drama, the first exercise is sending in the most important word(s) about Antigone, Creon, Haemon and Ismene. We generate word clouds from these words that are projected to the wall or a smartboard. Once all four of them are ready, we discuss the most common and most unique words used to described our characters. The estimated time for this exercise is 10 minutes. In the SAMR model, this is an augmentation: the words could have been written on the board or a paper, but this way, it's noticable if a word is often said.

The next exercise is also conducted through phones: each student gets a QR code, the codes leading to a google document. To every document, 2 students are led, they'll have to work together. The document's title says which 2 characters (from the 4 mentioned before) should talk, and about what subject. The description says they should (re)create a scene between the two with the given infos. Since they only got a QR code on paper, the students work anonymously, not knowing who their chatting partner is. They have 20 minutes to work, I would of course walk around them occasionally, helping out if it seemsed like someone couldn't move forward. This exercise can only be conducted in classes where students are attentative to one another and can be trusted not to use this passing anonymity to bully the other. In the SAMR modell, this is a redefinition: creating a text together while staying anonymous for the writing phase would have been impossible without technological help.

Once the works are finished, the teacher can reveal the pairs, and the students have 5 minutes to talk with their partner. Afterwards they'll have to show their work to the class, this is explicitly said.

The last 10 minutes are spent with every pair explaining their texts to the class, the created dialogues can be shared on a smartboard or just projected on a wall. This makes it an augumetation: the texts could have been shared otherwise too: read out loud for example, but this way it's easier to follow for the others.

End of lesson

[themaryjournal]

Let's start the lesson, please get your phones!

Yes, using smartphones can be part of a lesson. In fact, today's post is about a wonderful smartphone app that has the potential to be a huge help during teaching: Socrative.

Well, it's more like 2 apps to be exact: Socrative Teacher is where the teacher can manage exercises and Socrative Student is where the students can access these exercises.

As teachers can choose from various forms of exercises, it can be fitting to any class' lesson where students are comfortable using a tablet or their smart phones if they have one.

There are exercises great to start with, like a quick truth or false or a multiply choice quiz. Some can also be used as an energiser or refresher, for example the playful space racing game. While an exit ticket is an obvious choice for ending the lesson -- and also very informative to all parties!

This app is great (even the unpaid version!!), and to show that, let me introduce you to how I'd use it in the beginning of a literature class about Pride and Prejudice for a class of 14-16-year-olds:

The teacher writes in the question in Socrative Teacher

2) Students can send in their original answers even more than one if the teacher sets the settings like that:) --- this happens in Socrative Student of course

3) Theacher gets the answers in Socrative Teacher

4) Now the teacher can opt to start a vote. I would do it after talking a bit about the answers with the students (5 minutes), it would be interesting to see how opinions might have changes after hearing the others' arguments.

(This is how it looks to the teacher when nobody has voted yet:)

[themaryjournal]

Trying my hand at learningapps.org

Good day, this will be a short but hopefully informative post about learningapps.org :))

This platform allows you to create learning tools in great variety, you can do matching pairs, crossword, guess the word -- all fun ways to memorise things. Using these tools transforms studying into playing a game. (Speaking from experience, I forgot about time while testing a few apps there.)

The other great thing is: anyone can create a study app there, about anything. So, whatever proves to be difficult, you can make your own, effective and enjoyable learning app for it! It can help a lot.

I myself have created one that helps students better understand what's the negligation of a mathematical statement. It's great because as you're searching for a card's pair you naturally start thinking about what's on the card you search for -- so what's the negligation of the sentence you first found. I also tried to make the sentences fun, try it out here if you want!

[themaryjournal]

Ponderings about skills

Teachers in the 21st century. I know them, they’ve been my teachers too. Yet, as I’m on the way to becoming one, I realise it’s not as trivial as it sounds. This post offers a personal and incomplete definition.

Where to start? The teacher of today should be attentive to their students’ needs and resourceful when solving the unique problems they face. This means educating about digital technology too and being confident in the digital world, such as being able to find and filter information. What else should 21st-century teachers, we, possess? We should be able to learn new skills on our own, for example handling new technology. And if we’re not succeeding in that, we should ask for help, as self-consciousness is another important quality of today's teachers. We should strive to help and to do that, we need many many skills.

We should be invested in giving their students a skillset similar to our own.

Now that we talked about desirable skills in general, I’d like to discuss the importance of a specific area of digital teacher competence: safety. It’s the area where my skills are lacking the most. It’s also an area, undoubtedly important, but I don’t think we recognise the reality of this.

The DigComp 2.1 (find the full name at the end of the text) separates 4 fields in this area: protecting devices, protecting personal data and privacy, protecting health and well-being, and protecting the environment.

 Why protecting the devices enabling our presence in the digital world is self-explanatory. It’s essential. It also comes in handy when teaching about the Iliad: the Trojan horse as a statue made of wood with a bunch of armed soldiers inside. Or Trojan horse the computer virus? It brings the idea so much closer, right into our life.

Protecting personal data and privacy should clearly be talked about in class. Doxxing ourselves is far too easy, and telling our students to just stay off the internet is opposing our goal of helping them become confident in the digital world.

The protection of health and well-being is often misunderstood for the topic of smartphone addiction, while in truth, it’s much more, and the “only befriend people on Facebook if you know them” is not enough advice. As caring for children is part of a teacher’s duties, it doesn’t need an explanation that educating students about how to use digital technologies safely (while staying physically and mentally unharmed) is important. Just because it’s indoors, it doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Lastly, the connection between environmental protection and digital technology is a cardinal question. Our students will see more of the future we are forming with our current decisions about the environment. It has to be our responsibility too, to point out how much energy hundreds of new spam in our email accounts can be, and how easy it is to just delete them.

Students who are educated on these matters deeply enough that they can create their own informative content about it move around more confidently and self-consciously in the digital world.

  sources:  Carretero, S.; Vuorikari, R. and Punie, Y. (2017). DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with eight proficiency levels and examples of use, EUR 28558 EN, doi:10.2760/38842 illustration: my own

[themaryjournal]

Hello world, welcome to my blog!

I’m Mary, 21, and I’m studying to become a teacher one day:D

I firmly believe that no one is stupid -- not even when it comes to maths -- and that everyone has a right to good quality education. I value the opportunity to learn and am dedicated to creating a safe but challenging environment for that. For my students and myself as well. 

Because learning is for life. It never really ends, it’s just easier to miss at times. That’s why metacognition is important. (Make a separate post later - Editor)

I have many plans for this blog, the most pressing ones being making posts about educating with the help of digital technology -- the assignments for the university course that encouraged me to create the blog. Other plans include explaining and testing studying techniques, discussing movie scenes from a teacher-to-be POV, and notes about why I still want to be a teacher.

So who’s this blog for? Everyone who’s interested in learning. Or who isn’t interested but still has read this far.