Monday 16 November 2015

Progress - two first ideas

Back in the classroom after ict consulting has been great. I have been fortunate to have access throughout the first 1/2 of the semester to a 1/2 class set of Chromebooks and a departmental 1/2 class set of iPads. I am teaching two MPM2D (grade 10 math) classes and one SCH3U (grade 11 chemistry) class. There have been some common uses of the technology and some purposely different.

In the spring last year I met with Dave Kay in the SMCDSB at a school in Barrie. Dave had started a mind mapping unit review with his class for on-going creation and review. I really liked the idea because in SCH3U in the past, students would not do the readings as review. I got the students set up on mindomo because of its gafe affiliation. Now students have adopted it and have made some fantastic maps. I have been able to see how students are conceptualize their understanding of content in chemistry.
Examples of student work:

Sample provided to students (in math):

I was fortunate enough to have a year subscription to peardeck provided for me. To get ready I participated in a couple (awesome) live tours given by peardeck. I have been using peardeck as a formative assessment tool in both math (mosty) and in chemistry. Combined with an interactive white board, I have been able to collect assessment data instantly, discuss misconceptions and review old concepts. In math, this has been AMAZING. Tomorrow I am hoping to use a second device (phone/tablet) as students participate so I can walk around them for more guide on the side vs sage on the stage feedback.

Examples:





Both technologies/softwares allow me the opportunity for some metacognitive thinking aswell. With the mindmaps, students reflect back and review concepts, self identifying key parts of the lesson. With peardeck I ask reflective questions. The formative feedback with peardeck has been amazing. Being able to quickly identify student misconceptions right away has been great. Students enjoy the activities and will also verbally ask follow-up questions within the lesson.