Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Want to find a cool new useful and effective app or website?? Check out Common Sense - Graphite

Have you checked out Common Sense Media's - Graphite?

What is Graphite: clearinghouse for apps, websites and console and pc games for education.

Why was Graphite created? There was:
  • no centralized marketplace
  • no standard ratings system
  • a need to reduce time spent by teachers
  • no clearinghouse by teachers for teachers 
Take a look and check out:
Review and Ratings - you can see reviews and rating of material.  You can filter by type of device, subject, grade and price.

Top Picks - scroll down on left to isolate content.

Common Core Explorer - can search by grade and standard.

Teacher Center - how to videos, webinars, lesson flows, get certified (you can earn up $170 in an itunes gift card).

Boards - pre-created boards from other teachers (similar to Pinterest, I believe - I'm not a big Pinterest user)

Lesson Flow- customized framework to integrate tech tools. Some are good, others not so much.

It is best to create a free account to get full access. It is free, easy and I have found they don't send any emails (yay!).

Kakooma!

Love this game for number sense and math facts!

I recently attended a national math conference where I was reminded once again of how important it is to know not just math facts, but to have the number sense that goes along with it.  We want our kids to be able to compose and decompose (put together and take apart) numbers fluently.  I was introduced to a fantastic online or app game called Kakooma created by Greg Tang. It is available online here or search for Kakooma on your phone apps (available on apple and android). You have options of Addition, Times, Addition Pro, Time Pro, Legacy and Negative Numbers. Best of all, they are free and great for all ages.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

53 Ways to Check Understanding

Edutopia put out this list of 53 Ways to check for understanding.  They are applicable across the curriculum.

Some of my favorites are:


#3 - The 411 - Describe the author’s objective. Or better yet, the teacher's objective of the lesson.

#35. Tagxedo - What are key words that express the main ideas (or concepts)? Be ready to discuss and explain.

#53. Misconception Check - Given a common misconception about a topic, students explain why they agree or disagree with it.

53 Ways to Check for Understanding