A few schools in my district have been asked to pilot a new Math Game/Learning website.  Teachers have gone through a bit of training and our students are working on the website fairly regularly.  Guess what? Shhhhhh....don't tell anyone but, I don't like it!  There are many reasons actually, but the two main reasons are after the "honeymoon phase" is over, the kids don't engage.  They get on the website and click around, but they do not actually ENGAGE in the learning.  This particular website was supposed to make learning math so much fun, that the students "wouldn't even know they were learning".  Well, when I run a usage report at the end of our 20-minute work time and a 1/3 of my students are showing ZERO minutes engaged on the report because they are just clicking around...that's proof that the website is not doing its job.  And that 1/3 of my class is a pretty heterogenous group...highs, mediums and lows.  This has happened MANY times, and the kids are on the correct website because I've gone over to see why they are not "showing up" on my report.  If I have fuss at the kids to "get to work" on a website that is supposed to make learning "fun" then that website is not for us!  
Another reason I have issues with this math website is that the skills do not transfer.  The look of the website is very "cutesy" and looks a bit like a Las Vegas version of Club Penguin.  Lots of sounds, animations, bells, whistles and froo-froo.  In my opinion, my third graders need REAL math skills practice, with instant feedback on how they are doing with a minimal amount of practice time.

So, being dissatisfied with the website that my district is piloting, I decided to strike out on my own and look for other math websites to compare.  Boy, did I find websites!  If you looked at the GiF at the top of this post, I'm sure you noticed how many hits I got when I searched for Math Learning Websites...over 28,000,000! 
There are some really great websites out there, many of them free or super cheap.  The one I discovered and really like is called IXL.com.  They have a 30-day free trial that you can sign up for.  The platform is VERY clean and the students can get instant feedback on their progress.  (In the annotated screenshot below, the students' view would not have all the red boxes.)

As I began to have my students explore different Math websites; I started thinking, "Which website would my students CHOOSE to work on?".  And so, my experiment began!  I gave my students about 20 minutes each morning to work on a website of their choice (I put a list on the white board of about 6 different sites) and while they were working, I went around and tallied their choices.  As I continued to do this over the course of about 2 months, a clear pattern emerged.  My third graders were consistently choosing other websites far more than the website my district is piloting.

By now, my curiosity was skyrocketing!  What if I split my class in half and had one half work on the website my district was piloting and the other half work on IXL?  That's exactly what I did!  I chose a math standard that both websites covered, split my class and gave them approximately 30-ish minutes to work.  I then made two separate but identical Google form quizzes (one form for the piloted website group and the other for IXL group) that had questions similar to what the kids were practicing on the two websites.  I also included a "real world" question where the students had to complete a multi-step problem and explain how they got their answer.  Now just so you know, neither website had this kind of "real world" practice; but since we are working with CCSS, I felt I needed to include it.  I wanted to see if there was a difference in the groups being able to apply what they practiced.  To be quite honest, I wasn't expecting any real difference in how the groups performed on my quiz.

Interesting, huh?  I was quite surprised to see such a noticeable difference in the two groups!  Below are the results of the "real world" question on my quiz. Again, I was surprised to see the difference. (The correct answer for the question below is "yes".)

My point is, don't be satisfied with one choice when it comes to learning websites.  Don't settle on the first website you find or even the website your district is telling you to use!  Try out as many as you can before you commit. And like that song from the '70s that goes something like, "If you like pina coladas, gettin' caught in the rain.  If you're not into health food, if you have half a brain..."  you might find that you'll fall back in love with a website that you have always used.  But at least, you'll have "played the field" and checked out all of your options! 

Just to clarify again, I am not an educational researcher.  These opinions are completely my own and I am not even saying to go out and use the website I talked about in this post.  Do your own "research".  Make your own decisions based on what is best for YOUR students! Experiment! 

My third graders collaborate WHILE using their computers all the time!  My students have worked on many assignments with partners or groups this year. From creating a Google Drawing to show how they solved a fraction problem to working together to make a Google presentation.

Students can work together on a Google doc, drawing, presentation and more with a simple click of that SHARE button!  This is a ridiculously powerful thing! I will have students share with me also, so I can give comments/advice/feedback AS THE STUDENTS ARE WORKING!  This is huge!  Earlier this week, my third graders worked on a "Collaborative Flash Research" assignment.  They had to pick a partner, open the google doc via Google Classroom, share that doc with their partner, choose an endangered animal to research, complete all the parts of the assignment together before the 40 minute time limit was up.  No big deal, you say? Here's the kicker...they had to complete the entire assignment WITHOUT TALKING!  Not a word, not a whisper, not a grunt...nothing!  They couldn't even sit together!  I had students sitting across the room from each other and the only way they could communicate was through the chat function within the google doc.  So, do you think they had to collaborate to get the assignment done?  You bet they did! Click HERE to see the assignment.

On the day we were working on this assignment, one of my students was home sick.  By chance, another of my students noticed that he was online and I quickly emailed EJ (the sick student) and shared the same google doc with him that all the other students were working on.  How cool is that?  EJ was at home, but was able to "join in" with something the rest of the class was doing! So while EJ and I were working on the google doc together (ok...I wanted to play too!), I was so excited that I tweeted a link to the doc out to Alice Keeler and she jumped right into our doc!  Oh my gosh...I can not tell you how excited I was.  My geek-i-ness was through the roof! 

Alice chatted with us for a while and gave us some tips to make our Google searches more efficient.  That is the beauty of GAFE, you can give instant advice and feedback right there IN the doc (or drawing or presentation)!  

Absolutely not!  With the integration of technology into my lessons, I have been able to do more than ever!  It is so easy to have my third graders share and work together.  One student might have the directions to an assignment up on his/her computer and the actual product they are working on might be on the other student's computer.  One student might use the computer's webcam to take a picture and then email that image to his/her partner so they can both have access to it.  I've had students make screencasts and share the videos with each other.  The possibilities know no bounds!  
Please leave a comment. I'd love to read how your students collaborate while using technology.

I consider myself pretty "Googley".  Last summer I went to Google headquarters in Mountain View for a Google Maps training, I have a Google backpack (that I bought at THE Google Store) and a Google coffee mug.  We are a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) district.  If any of my colleagues needs Google help, they call on me. Having said all that, it seems I still have a thing or two to learn about Google stuff!  

Last week I got schooled by two of my third graders!  Yes...I said third graders! We had been working on making Google Presentations and Kevin's slides looked really spiffy!  Way spiffier than any presentation I had made thus far!  I was thoroughly impressed!  Watch this video to see how he did it...

Jasmine is one of those spiffy kids whose curiosity and eagerness to learn knows no bounds!  She has been working with a small group of students and they are making a sort-of play about Trash and Littering.  When they started brainstorming costume ideas, Jasmine made a Google drawing and shared it with her group. Now, I absolutely LOVE the whole Google sharing and collaboration thing; but with 3rd graders you run the risk of someone messing up your work...and with 3rd graders; someone ALWAYS messes with something!  Jasmine had a brilliant idea to help solve this! She inserted text boxes over anything in her Google drawing that she didn't want anyone to touch! Try it...it totally works!  Crazy cool, huh?  

What "hacks" have your students taught you?  
Please leave a comment, I'd love to read about them!

Should each student be treated exactly the same?  

This is one of my third graders explaining a project to her parents during her Parent/Teacher Conference. (Click HERE if you'd like to read my post about how I implemented student-led Parent Conferences.)
 

My students have been learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how trash on land ends up in our ocean.  One of their assignments was to create a Google Presentation with facts, sources and images about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Well, Jasmine came in all fired up after learning a bit about our topic.  She had (at home!) created a skeleton Google Presentation and had already picked out a few students (7 be to exact) to be in her "group". She led this little group to write a script and they are turning this project into a play/video that will teach others how to take care of "Mother Earth" and not litter.  

Should I have NOT allowed her to take on this project because it was NOT what I had assigned?  She (and her group) are still working with the same topic, but they did not complete MY assignment.   Jasmine's end product will be way more interesting than my simple Google Presentation activity.
Is it "fair" to make everyone complete the SAME assignment, even though each student in my class has different talents and needs.  In Jasmine's case, the answer is an obvious "Of course not"; but now switch the scenario a bit.  What if a student struggles with an academic area?  What if that student is not able to show their understanding of the topic in the same way as the rest of the class.  Should I "excuse" that student from the assignment or worse; force that student to do his/her "best"?  Or should I allow that student to show what he/she knows in a way that works best for him/her?  Maybe the struggling student can create a poster with only images and then has to verbally explain his/her thinking to me?  Is that not giving the struggling student the same opportunity as Jasmine?  Should I treat all my students "equally" or with "fairness"? 

Students come to us with a whole slew of talents, backgrounds, hang-ups, deficits and issues.  The "playing field" is NOT equal, and it never will be.  It is our job to take them from wherever they are, and help them grow a little bit more each day. That means that some students will take more of "me" than others.  Some students need that 1 minute check-in and others need to sit right next to me talking about every step.  There IS no "equality" in my classroom, only what is "fair" to keep each student moving forward.

This is Parent Conference week and I was thinking about the true purpose of conferencing with parents.  Is it to get the kid in trouble with his/her parents by showing how unmotivated or ill-behaved he/she is?  Is it to show parents that their child has problems completing worksheets?  Or is it a time to celebrate what that kid has accomplished, no matter how minor that accomplishment might be?

Obviously, I think the purpose is to shine a light on each child's accomplishments.  Kids have a hard enough time remembering to keep their socks picked up and putting their dirty dishes in the sink, I don't need to add to the list of "Things To Get Nagged About".  

I made a Google doc that lists all the projects and websites that I want each student to show his/her parent when they come for a conference.  The students will lead their own conference by talking about each item on the list and they will have a chance to show off what they have been working on.  

Let's use parent conference time to let our students shine...just a little bit.

As a teacher, do you celebrate your students' curiosity?  Think about that question for a minute.  In our hectic assess-our-students-every-time-they-turn-around teaching environment, the word "curiosity" usually doesn't even get mentioned unless it's a vocabulary word in the reading textbook.

Sometimes my 3rd graders need a chance to embrace their natural curiosity.  As teachers, we get so caught up with the daily schedule and making sure we are "on-track" (whatever that means), that we forget to allow our students the opportunity to LEARN something that they WANT to learn...not what WE want them to learn.  That kind of self-directed, self-selected desire for learning is what we are trying to get our students to do, isn't it?  So, put your spelling packet away.  Put those Math worksheets back in their binder.  Don't even open that Grammar workbook.  Send home a different kind of assignment next week.  Allow your students to be curious, and give them time to show off what they learned.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

This is the second year having 1:1 devices for my students.  With 30 students in my class EACH with his/her own Netbook, things like passwords and user names became a brand new headache to worry about!  I'm sure I'm not the only one with this issue so, I thought I'd share how I handle keeping track of all those user names and passwords.  It's really very simple...I don't!

I'm serious!  I refuse to help with passwords!  I had my students all make a Password Ring.  This is where they write down (or glue) passwords and user names.   They are also responsible for keeping track of their ring.  I have a place behind my white board with 30 little hooks so they can hang up their ring when they are finished with it.  It's March and we've only lost one ring!

 I have dedicated part of a bulletin board and this is where I post names of the Tech-X-Perts in my class.  I have Tech-X-Perts for all sorts of things.  We have a Google Doc Tech-X-Pert, a blog Tech-X-Pert, a Google Drawing Tech-X-Pert, an Insert an Image Tech-X-Pert, etc.  When a student comes to me to ask how to do something on his/her computer, I send them to the Tech-X-Perts board and have them find someone to help.  

This Google Doc chart has been up in my room since September.  No one ever looks at it now, but the resource is always available. 
 That's how I operate.  I am NOT the giver of all knowledge in my room.  My students have as much tech know-how as I do and by forcing them to look to each other for help, it creates a really nice environment where we learn from each other.  

As promised in my first post...this is how I use Flubaroo (an Add-On in Google Sheets) to grade Google Forms.  Did I mention I LOVE Google Forms? Oh my!  Google forms are my go-to way to gather data from/about my students.  I make Google Forms for all kinds of things!  Math quizzes, Spelling tests, taking quick polls, response to Literature, and more.
There are a couple of things you need to know if you want to have Flubaroo grade your Google form.  When creating your Google form, choose Multiple Choice, Choose from List, or Checkboxes for the type of questions.  Those work best with Flubaroo.  

Now having said that, when I made my Spelling Test form, I chose "Text" as the question type.  This DOES work with Flubaroo because there is only ONE correct way to spell the word.  The students are only typing in that spelling word, so Flubaroo will grade it.  Flubaroo is awesome for grading things that only have one correct answer.  When I make Google forms that require explanations, I do not use Flubaroo to grade those.

When you are creating your Google form, be sure to check the box (at the top of the form) that says, "Automatically collect respondent's ....username".   Flubaroo will need that information when it's all done grading your form.

When Flubaroo has finished grading your form, it will email the results to your students.   What?  I didn't mention that Flubaroo will email the student's scores to them!  Shame on me!  The students love getting an immediate email with their results!  

Spelling tests have been one of those things that I can't stand!  I have issues with assigning Spelling words for homework anyway.  Heck...I have issues with assigning homework at all (I'll save the Homework argument for another post)!  
So back to spelling tests, in the past the teacher calls out a spelling word and the students write that word on a paper.  In theory it sounds like a simple, straight-forward process; but in reality, it's a giant headache!  The test goes more like this...
Teacher: "Ok, are we ready? Here's your first word...cow.  I saw a brown cow eating grass. Cow."
Teacher walks around looking at the students' papers.  Making sure everyone has written "cow".
Teacher: "Number 2 is...pig.  Pig.  The pig is in the mud. Pig"
Again, teacher walks around.  After a few more words have been called out, the teacher notices that Eddie is looking at an ant crawling on the floor and he has missed the last three words.  So now the decision has to be made...does the teacher stop and repeat all the words that Eddie missed and risk losing the attention of the other 29 students?  Or make Eddie wait until after the test to give him the rest of the words.  Ugh!!  This makes me crazy!   Something that should only take a few minutes, turns into a frustrating time suck!

Well, at 1 am (my mind doesn't know when to quit sometimes) I had a brainstorm!  All of my students have  Acer computers so I decided that  I was going to "tech-i-fy" my spelling tests!  
Here's what I did...
I used QuickTime Player on my Mac to record myself saying all the spelling words.  I just opened QuickTime Player and then clicked on "File" and "New Audio Recording".  (Click HERE to listen)  I then uploaded the file to my Google Drive. 
Next, I created a Google Form (click HERE for the form) for the kids to type the spelling words into.  
I also use Google Classroom with my students (I LOVE Google Classroom!) so it was very easy to share both the link to the audio file of me saying the spelling words and the google form.  (When sharing the link to your google form, be sure to click "View Live Form" and then copy that URL)

My students put on their headphones and got into Google Classroom and with just a few clicks, they were listening to the audio file and typing words into the Google Form!  It was beyond cool!  Each student could take the time he/she needed.  Some needed to pause the audio while they typed, and others blew right through.  

Stay tuned for my next post..."Grading Google Forms Using Flubaroo".  If  you can't wait (and I don't blame you) and want to know about this miraculous thing called Flubaroo, check out this post by Alice Keeler.  She is AMAZING!