Author: brian

Plickers

 Last summer at Twitter Math Camp I learned about an incredible formative assessment tool. I’ve actually started using it fairly regularly now, so I figured I would get out a quick post about it.

It’s called Plickers. It’s essentially a poor-man’s Clickers (think Turning Point Technologies). They’re pieces of paper that you print off for free online and distribute to your class. Each student gets one Plicker. The teacher puts up a question and the orientation in which a student holds their Plicker determines their answer choice. Where the magic happens: download the Plickers app to your mobile device and you can “scan” the room with your camera and the app picks up all the student responses. Think exit slips, class polls, checks for understanding, and the like. It is remarkable. The first time you see it, you literally can’t believe your eyes. Here’s a video.

Pros:

  • Allows me to collect assessment data relatively easily
  • The kids seem to love using it
  • Easy to replace in case one comes up missing
  • No software to install; it’s all web based and the app is user-friendly
  • Free

Cons:

  • Requires preparing prompts ahead of time
  • Cannot export data (or maybe I just I don’t know how to)
  • Requires lamenating for long-term use

There are many things in educational technology that are impractical and overdone. This is not one. Plickers leverage technology in a way that’s simple, accessible, and useful.

In short, Plickers are game changers.

If you haven’t tried them yet and are interested in a slick formative assessment strategy, I would definitely check them out.

 

bp

The Quotient ~ 4.16.15

0. There are no tough decisions. Really. When you toss a coin in the air, you already know what side you want it to land on.

1. Despite my passion for teaching high school mathematics, my deep understanding of mathematics needs to improve greatly.

2. There are many things I get. Leadership is certainly not one of them. How can I inspire a group of people to be better than they ever thought they could be?

3. No matter how much it is emphasized, planning is still underrated.

4. In conjunction with 3: improvisation and adaptation is aided immensely by effective planning, but both are still incredibly hard to accomplish successfully.

5. If you’re not moving forward, you’re going backwards.

6. I consistently seem disappointed at the end of every school year. I always feel as if I could have done more, or at least something different, to help my kids attain higher levels of success. I sense the same feeling arising now as we approach May. I know why, but why?

7. Could you guys move in a little bit? There’s a lot of people trying to get on. It would be helpful, thanks.

8. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.

9. I’m not sure why, but during the last couple of weeks I have felt like I did during my first few of years of teaching. Hungry, eager, overly energetic.

10. How I respond to a student makes or breaks a situation. Don’t pierce their armor.

11. PD need not be boring to achieve its goals. Teachers expect that. Next time, catch them by surprise.

12. I see complacent and lackadaisical mindsets forming in young teachers. Its all around them. Its easy. It goes with the flow. Its deceptively harmful. And dangerous.

13. How can I help? What do you need from me?

14. I need a write up about the impact of MfA on my teaching.

15. How will this summer play a role in my continuous development as a teacher?

 

 

bp

Bicycles are STEM

STEM

Last week the NYCDOE ran their first ever STEM Institute. It was a fairly large event; I want to say there was over 400 teachers and 30 presenters in attendance. I have no idea how accurate those numbers are, so don’t quote me, but they seem about right. The workshops were obviously focused on STEM disciplines, which are typically things such as applied math, robotics, computer science, environmental science, and the like.

What was intriguing most about the whole Institute was the fact that I was able help lead a workshop on bicycle mechanics. Yes, mechanics. (Thank you UBI.) My sessions focused on how bicycles and bicycle culture fit into the whole STEM arena. I teach both math and robotics, which are at the heart of STEM, so extending STEM to include bicycles, a huge passion of mine, is pretty exciting.

Bicycles aren’t something that people typically think of when they hear STEM. That is what made the experience so awesome. The whole thing felt like unchartered territory. I helped lead the way as 18 teachers got greasy, learned how to overhaul a bottom bracket, adjusted derailleurs, and then spent a few hours developing STEM lessons and curricula centered around bicycles. Some of the topics that the teachers researched included personal health and fitness, mass, acceleration, velocity, gear ratios, and how bicycles affect gentrification. I also found some great bicycle-themed resources that I shared with the group.

Huge props to Karen Overton and Recycle-a-Bicycle who essentially brought a bike shop to Stuyvesant High School for the three-day workshop.

It was an awesome experience. I got to merge my love for bicycles and bicycle mechanics with teaching, mathematics, and STEM. Plus, I meant some inspiring, like-minded teachers. It feels like the start of something bigger.

 

bp

Speed dating, revised & reloaded

I love speed dating.

With students, of course. The type of speed dating that serves to reinforce, promote peer tutoring, and review.

But I always found the initial assigning of problems to be tricky and inefficient. Desks would be set up facing each other. I give kids handouts on their way into the class that have the practice problems on them. I would then walk around and assign each student a specific problem from the handout. I always did this strategically; I would assign higher level questions to higher level students. This way, the higher level concepts would get facilitated effectively to other students who may not initially understand those concepts. Because they needed to wait for me to “give” them their question, this caused some off-task, downtime for the kids…which was not good. They would also spend less time speed dating (and doing math) because they were dependent on me at the beginning. Bottom line: I wasted a bunch of class time assigning questions.

Today, I tried another technique and I liked it. I placed numbers on the desks and wrote numbers on the handouts. I gave the students the handouts as they entered (randomly), and instead of wading around assigning questions to students, the kids just sat at a desk whose number matched the number on their handout. And that number was their assigned question they needed to master. They didn’t need me to assign them a problem because they already had one. Here are the desks with the numbers.

Numbered Seats for Speed Dating

The result: a much more fluid, efficient start to the activity. The students came in and knew exactly where to sit and which question they were responsible for. They ultimately spent more time working on math – which is the whole point.

Speed Dating Revised

I randomly assigned the questions as they walked in – so I got away from assigning higher level questions to certain students. It was fine. I just walked around and helped students with their problems – which I would have done anyway. Even if I wanted a specific student (or students) to be in charge of a specific problem, I could simply ensure that I gave them the number of that problem when they walked into the room. I would only need to do this for one or two questions, so it wouldn’t be terribly difficult. It is a lot better than students sitting around while I manually assign problems at the beginning of class.

3/18/15 UPDATE:

Love it.

bp