Desktop Notes

Every unit that my students study, I print out a note packet for them to follow and fill out. I have found that this helps them with homework and studying for the unit test. Since I decided to spend a week creating a paperless classroom, the notes on paper just wouldn't do. When the students arrived to class, I had them all grab a dry-erase marker and clear everything off their desks. The concept for the day was Multiplying Polynomials. I started with a brief review over the past couple lessons: Multiply exponents and combining like terms. After we had discussed these concepts for a few minutes, I wrote an example on the board. I had the students put their markers down and just watch and listen. I wanted their complete attention. After I solved the problem, step-by-step, I wrote another example on the board and told them to solve it on their desk. They all looked at me like I was crazy and I actually had a couple students say they always get in trouble when they write on their desk. I told them that after we finished with the lesson, we would wipe down the desks and no one would ever know what we had done. I don't have any other teachers in my department that would have students write on their desks. Most of the students that I am teaching this semester came from different teachers. I only have a handful of students back from last semester due to schedule changes. We continued to work out problems on the desks and I noticed that some students were reaching for their phones and taking pictures. I asked them what they were doing and was told that they needed some way to keep their notes. I thought it was great that they took the initiative to record their work for the day even though I wasn't requiring it.

At the end of class, I asked the students if they enjoyed doing their notes like this and they said that they liked it better then regular pencil and paper. This amazed me so I had to dig a little deeper and find out why. Here were some of their remarks:

•  I really liked doing notes on our desk because I felt like I had time to pay attention and then work out the problem.
• I like being able to write on desks. I think I learned more without having to take notes. I wasn't worried about writing everything down and could listen better.
• I want to do this everyday!
• If we did this for notes, how would we be able to get help at home on our homework without a note packet? (comment from one of my ESL students)

I loved that the students gave me so much feedback about taking notes on the desks. I didn't have a single student gripe or complain about what we were doing. I'm not going to lie, I was really surprised. Since when did teenagers not have something negative to say about math? I will be trying to think of how to incorporate this method of note taking again.

Hope you try this with your class!

Candy Hearts Homework

So, I decided to go paperless this week in my classroom. I teach Algebra I and get bored with the same ol' paper and pencil routine. I teach in a 1:1 classroom so all of my freshmen students have individual netbooks. I had to definitely think "outside the box" on this week's lesson plans. It's not easy to remove the two resources that most math teachers rely on....pen and paper. On Tuesday, in honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to have students get into groups of four. We learned how to Add and Subtract Polynomials at the end of last week so I made a quiz using the heart candies. I took a permanent marker and individually wrote each term for each problem on them. I then wrote each term for the answer on hearts too (I aslo added a couple incorrect terms in the mix to make it more challenging). I chose the groups and teamed together strong students with those that needed more instruction so that some peer mentoring could be happening during the activity. I had each group get two dry-erase markers and two whiteboards. I then projected the five questions on my promethean board. I told the students to write down all questions on one board so that they could have it to refer back to and I wouldn't have to keep messing with it. Once all questions were copied, they had to get an envelope (small coin ones) that had a number on it (1 through 5). Only one envelope per group at a time. They had to open the envelope, decide which problem it was, set up the problem using the candies and solve the problem using there desks or whiteboards. Once they had the solution, they set up the candies in the correct order and took a picture using their iPhone or webcam. They had to email or text my Google Voice account with their picture answer. They repeated this process until all questions were answered. Here are a couple of examples:

The top lines are the actual equations to the quiz. Students set this up first and then calculated the answers using their whiteboards or desk. The second line of hearts are the answers that these students came up with.

I didn't have any trouble reading the answers via e-mail or through my Google Voice. I told the students that I needed to be able to read the problem and answer clearly. If this wasn't accomplished then the problem would be counted incorrect.

Hope you enjoyed my FIRST post!!