That's embarrassing...
It would be an understatement to say that my PreAlgebra and Algebra classes are going through the curriculum. Without exaggerating, my classes are flying! They are doing a fabulous job and I could not be happier with their performance in class. They are truly a wonderful group of students that I enjoy teaching everyday! I have ever mentioned I have the best job ever? ;)
A couple weeks ago was a big week for both classes. They both had a chapter test on the same day. So needless to say, we had some hard-core review days for a couple of days before hand. After completing the "official" study guides one day, I decided to let the classes get a little fun in while reviewing. Algebra played our Survivor game that I altered from this Pinterest post. The kids absolutely love it and totally get it into it. It's actually interesting to see which "group" the kids tend to gang-up on the quickest. They realize quickly they want to take out the "group with the smart kids in it." That's their explanation of why they kick out a group super fast...if they only knew that they are all smart and know the material :)
Pre-Algebra played a new game called Kahoot. It has been wonderful having the students in the 1:to:1 initiative through Clover Middle School. Every student through 8th grade has a personal iPad. If they have paid the insurance fee and signed the waiver, they can even take the iPads home everyday. It's been wonderful! Students in my classes are completing Thinking Blocks warm-ups everyday following the Singapore Math idea. They are taking their Carnegie Learning notes through Notability. We are uploading homework completed through Notability into our My Big Campus group, and then we got to experience Kahoot!
Kahoot! is a "game-based student response system." My colleague created a review game through Kahoot, based on the study guide we completed the day before, and we got the opportunity to play it in class! We used it as an individual player game, but it could definitely be used as groups and team play. The kids really loved it! I had two different classes play it and it got interesting in the different ways it worked out in class. In my 4th period, since Kahoot shows a leader-board after every question, got super competitive and really wanted to be secretive about their answers in hopes of overcoming the leader and winning. My 6th period figured out that the quicker you answer, correctly, the more points you receive. Bet you can guess where this is going...This class got into the idea of "Let's just pick an answer quickly and hope it is right so we can get the most points." Well, this didn't last long when I told them they would have to justify their answers in order to get the points. Smart thinking by the kiddos...but not the reason behind us playing. Be careful with that!
We also participated in the Hour of Code throughout our classes. We spent an entire class period in each class understanding what the Hour of Code is, why it's important, and then spent class time exploring various Hour of Code activities. Students were super surprised when I gave them an hour of class period to "play on the iPads." Seriously...that's how they saw it! But in all reality they were learning how to code. It was awesome. Students really liked the Frozen coding where students had Elsa turn in circles, created images on the ice while skating, etc. They were learning and they considered it "playing." Every teacher's dream right? ;)
You can see the smiles on their faces: ;)
Yes, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my lovely little kiddos. Your present from Mrs. Stadler...Your new Volume 2 Textbooks ;)
My New Year's Resolution: To blog more and share the fabulous things going on in my classroom, at Clover Middle, and within the Clover School District. Here's to 2015!
Until next time... ;)
