Saturday, March 19, 2016

SmartBoards vs Dry Erase Boards

At the beginning of the school year I was so excited to be placed in a classroom with an interactive SmartBoard.  I thought the possibilities were endless in how I could enhance student engagement and instruction with this wonderful tool.  We could display our power point presentations on the SmartBoard and there would be no bulky projector blocking the views of any of my students.  During our Geometry unit on transformations of figures I was able to construct images and use the interactive features to model how a figure could be translated, rotated, or reflected.  I was able to "grab" the figures on the screen and move them and the students could see how the images moved along with them.  Then students were able to get up out of their seats and move the figures as they explained what was happening with the figures and their images.  The students were often eager and excited to use the SmartBoard when it was part of a lesson.

Unfortunately, I have discovered that I am more comfortable with modeling problems with the regular dry erase board.  I have had some issues with the technology not functioning properly during class and a video I planned to show won't load or my cords are not connecting properly to communicate the information from my computer to the SmartBoard.  The dry erase board is reliable, all I need is a marker that is not dried out and an eraser.  Even without an eraser I can make it work.  I have partially abandoned the glorious technology of the SmartBoard and tend to use the dry erase board more frequently.

Ultimately, I am glad that I have access to both tools and my classroom is set up in a way that I can seamlessly use both of the boards during the same lesson.  I do need to commit to learning more about the capabilities of the SmartBoard so I can work smarter and not harder when delivering content to the students.  I would love to hear others' thoughts on which tool is better, does anyone else have a preference or would you use both as well?


I have found the following resources to help me learn more about what my SmartBoard can do for me:
http://baileybunch6.blogspot.com/p/lets-get-smart.html 

http://teacherslovesmartboards.com/smart_board_tips_and_tricks/

https://www.pinterest.com/Sisterteachers/smart-board/

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Angry Birds and Parabolas

This past week I was charged with the task of finding a challenge for our students who have exhibited mastery of their grade level content and help fill some gaps they may have when transitioning into high school.  I sat down with my 8 students and asked them what topics they had heard of and were curious about.  They all said parabolas right away then listed topics in geometry like sin, cos, tan and soh cah toa. They mentioned box and whisker plots, scatter plots, and regression.

I thought about all of the topics they mentioned and what would be most important for them to know going into high school.  Geometry is covered during most student's sophomore years and freshman year focuses mainly on Algebra.  We would be covering statistics during our last quarter of the year so I knew I could introduce them to the different plots and regressions they asked about.

We all decided to investigate parabolas.

I wanted to set them up with a project that would be fun for them to investigate and asked them if they've ever heard of the game Angry Birds.  That got their attention.

I found a website that helps you understand how a quadratic equation graphs a parabola onto the coordinate grid using that trajectory of the Angry Birds

Angry Birds Training


It started off with Jedi training to model how the parabola can be stretched.


Then it shows how to identify the vertex from the equation.




After the students get some practice with manipulating the parabolas they are challenged with coming up with an equation to map the Angry Birds onto the correct trajectory.

I'm looking forward to investigating these advanced concepts with my Elite 8th Graders to help set them up for success in high school.

The students will use these websites to help practice these concepts and keep a journal of their experience throughout the investigation.