Internet, Halloween, and Guided Math

Last night as I sat down to write this it was Halloween and my internet was not working. After long thoughts, I began to think it was the little ghouls in cyber space messing with me especially since I like to procrastinate. With all that said, I am safely at work now working on my post of many to come.

Since receiving the iPad Pilot classroom, life has been so much easier on me with great planning. In my guided math class, I begin each class where the students have 5 minutes to work on their facts using Mad Math Lite and Monster Math. These apps have helped the children improve on their multiplication and division facts. Once the five minutes have passed, we start Guided Math.

Here is a child working on Mad Math completing multiplication facts.

While at my station, I use various apps like: Alphabet Magnetic Letters, Nearpod, and Educreations. For example, we were working on multiplication a couple of weeks ago and I used a Nearpod Presentation on multiplication to engage students. They were asked how to solve a multiplication problem various ways, work out problems, and even answered a survey about how they felt about multiplication. I could easily see how they worked out their problems and how they felt about doing multiplication. There are so many possibilities to use the iPad in your Guided Math and I could talk about it for days but I will move on to my stations.

Example of survey given to students from my Nearpod Presentation.

During my guided math lessons, there are three stations that the children rotate through while I am teaching my group about the topic for that day or week. The first station I am going to talk about is the QR Code Station. At this station, the students are given the QR Code sheet and they are to scan the code using a QR Scanner on the iPad. After they scan the QR Code, they are to solve the problem on the sheet. The kids love the mystery about what the problem is going to say and are excited about working it out.

Example of a problem on the QR Code Sheet.

The next station that I have is the ScootPad Station. Here at this station they are practicing the skills that have been taught using this great app. ScootPad is an app that follows the new Common Core Standards and the students practice questions that could be on the end of year tests. Students are motivated by completing the standards and earning rewards that I have set up in the classroom.

The last and final station that the children rotate through is the skill station. Here the students are working on apps that go along with what I am teaching for that week or day. For instance, we have been working on prime and composite numbers. So the students have been working on an app called Astro Math. This apps allows the students to blast the meteorites that are factors the numbers of the bottom. They have to blast them until they become a prime number. The students master the level and move on by gaining three stars. After receiving the three stars, the students are then moved up to the next level where the factors begin to get harder. Below is a picture of a students working on Astro Math.

So far this year, Guided Math has been running smoothly and the students work harder now than they did before. They are more motivated because of the iPads and are learning just as much or even more. I enjoy looking for apps to supplement my teaching in Guided Math.

In the next couple of weeks, check back because I will be posting a blog about my students creating iMove Trailers to go along with our Traditional Literature Unit.