My Log B(log)

I'm starting logs in my Algebra 2 Honors class upon return from winter break. There's been a few great posts that I've found on these blogs from Wendy Menard, Julie Reulbach, and Kate Nowak. They are all fantastic, and I've used much of their ideas in my documents...so here's notes, links, etc. for exponentials and logarithms, that could go with any text, though I use Larson Algebra 2 and Trigonometry, 9e. Keep in mind that I teach in 90 minute blocks. Each note packet is for a day, but I haven't used them yet and so some could go over. These are linked to my dropbox, so you will need an account to open them.

--First, I am using this Desmos intro to exponential growth and decay. This is a play on the doubling pennies idea and the m&m's exponential decay problem along with graphs.

Then I will give out these Exponential Notes.

When I find the time, I am going to throw in these two videos:

-- a Ted Ed video on how many folds of paper can get you to the moon

-- a Mythbusters video on paper folding

On Day 2, I will give them these Intro to Logs Notes.
--includes the Need for Logs (click on Wendy's and Julie's link, above)

--includes the fun puzzle from Kate (click on her link, above)


My plan is to use this Kahoot! as a good brain break that day.

On Day 3, I will hand out Laws of Logs Notes (nice way for students to figure out the laws in groups, by Kate.) We have a week of immersion before these notes (and no class), thus the big review in the beginning.

On Day 4, they will get A Huge Review of Logs and Exponents (I haven't checked answers! The last half is a review sheet that I once found, but I don't know where to give the credits to. The latter is for them to do on their own, if they want to)

What did I miss? Please send anything my way :)
~Lisa

Getting More Bang For Your Block (Period)

My colleague and I are co-authoring a school tech blog at http://tech4scots.blogspot.com. We have block scheduling, and I wrote about 5 online formative assessment tools. I have written about some (not all) of this already here and here.

Here is a copy of the blog I wrote:

Let's face it. We're the New Kids on the Block. I don't know about you, but I used to think 90 minutes would be a long time to keep students' attention. Lecture and unstructured group work can only go so far. But having tried some of these formative assessment tools this year, I have seen kids high-five one another and help each other in ways that I did not even know existed. Some of these online tools will give you a platform for formative assessments that can be graded or not, and some can used just to change things up and review or preview material while doing it. There are many tools out there, so look for more in a later blog post.

Some of these tools do require prep work, but if make it once, you will have it forever. And there are many teachers who have already made great ones that are available for your use, too!

Kahoot! - Any course, any level

The first one is Kahoot! Although I have not played this one yet with students, I will this upcoming week. I did play as a participant when I attended a workshop this summer, and it is very fun! Students compete in a multiple choice quiz (they can also do surveys), logging in and then using a code that you will provide. To start, go to https://create.kahoot.it/.

This is the screen you will get, and you can make a quiz or use someone else's

Here is a Kahoot! I will use to a review what I taught last block. But you can use at the end of a topic as well.

Watch this video to learn how to make one or to use one that is pre-made. This can be used in ANY discipline, and I've heard it's so much fun that students that have a free period will log in to play, too, when they hear your class is playing! I can't wait to play this game this week.

Formative - Any course, any level

Formative is great for review or a quick do now or even a quick exit ticket. I think this is one of the best out there. I love it because you can upload your own worksheet and create boxes for students to do their work. THEN, when they click on the boxes (again, after you give them a code to sign in), YOU CAN SEE THEIR WORK ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER! Yep. All of them. At once. And your computer screen or iPad will look something like this:

You can actually give them feed back individually (see the box on the right, above)--and you can even grade them right then and there! I am going to use Formative this week in my Pre-Calculus class, and I am looking forward to seeing how it goes. See below: they just click on those blue boxes, and for them, it will turn into a space to write or draw. My worksheet has been uploaded into the website, but they do the work in their notebook. When they type or write in their answers online, I can see all of them at once and can go to whoever needs help. Remember how you would try to get to everyone and see how they are doing? Goodbye Felicia! Formative is here.

Socrative - Any course, any level

Socrative is great for exit tickets, quizzes, polls, and my favorite, space race. Watch the video below to see how to set up a space race. I find multiple choice questions the best for Socrative, as it matches student answers with your answers to give immediate feedback, and it will mark student answers wrong if they put in an extra space, for example. I think Socrative would be really fun for advisory, too, to see how well they understand one of the videos or values that we have studied.

Activity Builder and Polygraph in Desmos - Math & Science--perhaps more?

I am biased as a math teacher, I know, but this has completely changed the way I teach math. (Truthfully, I think any subject can use this.) Desmos has been around for a year or so, and last year several of us in the department found out how powerful it was. BUT NOW...after being in the pilot group at Twitter Math Camp with Liz Pursel, DUN DUN DUN...we can use Activity Builder for formative assessment in real time!! And the kids love it. Math teachers, there is so much to do here that Liz and I will demonstrate at a Math Department meeting, but if you want to play on your own, here is an example of what an activity builder can look like. I like to use it as a preview of what's to come (let them play with the sliders) but it can definitely be used as a Do Now for review or for an exit ticket. AND THERE'S MORE! Kids can see the answers to three random students in the class, so they get an idea if they are right or wrong...and there is an overlay screen (awesome!) that you can show on the board while they are working, so if students are drawing a curve, you can show all of their graphs on top of each other (without names) so students can see if they have the answer right or if they are close.

And don't forget to play Match My Line or Match My Parabola. Finally, Polygraph is a math version of "you sank by battleship," where Desmos randomly pairs up students. See below for an example, and ask Liz about her Calculus Limits Polygraph!

Diagnostic Questions - Math, Science, Language, Computer Science

Need some questions for your multiple choice Kahoot! Game? Go to diagnosticquestions.com. They also have online quizzes that you can make.


I hope you can use some of this! I know it's hard if your school is not 1-1, but if they have iPhones, you can do much of it on those, too.

~Lisa

Three MUST USE online tools for Formative Assessment

Some buzz words I've been hearing lately are "formative" vs. "summative" assessment. It's taken me some time to wrap my head around them, but I think, for me at least, I've finally gotten the idea. The website from the Eberly Center of Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation really sums it up well. In a nutshell, here's what it says:

Formative assessment monitors student learning and is low stakes...so it has little to no point value. It is a way to provide feedback to teachers to improve how they teach and to students to improve how they learn.

Summative assessment evaluates student learning and is high stakes, so it has a high point value. An example would be a midterm exam or a unit test.

Now that I am teaching in a block schedule, I need to be able to see how my students are doing before moving on to the next concept. I am used to (for 25 years!) teaching, students doing homework and reflecting, and then, very generally, reviewing with a warm-up and adding to it or moving on. But now, I may need to teach two major concepts in a day, or I will not nearly get through enough concepts.

So what I am going to try is to do some online formative assessment activities that also "change things up" for kids during block. What I mean is, I am going to break the block up into several mini lessons using these online tools: Desmos, Kahoot!, Formative.

The first one is an activity builder from Desmos. 

Activity Builders just came out in August, and I was lucky enough to be in a Desmos workshop at Twitter Math Camp, where we played with this incredible DIY tool. It is absolutely AWESOME!!! It was so cool to work with Michael Fenton, and I got a little starstruck shaking the hand of founder and CEO Eli Luberoff.

Here is what one activity I made looks like from the teacher screen...students will answer one question at a time.

There are three screens you can put into the Activity Builder: (See directions here: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder)

• A Graph Screen: if, for example, you ask students to graph a line that contains two particular points, you can look at the teacher screen and see that all of the graphs are in alignment (YES! They get it!) or if there are a few students struggling.
• A Question Screen: you can ask a question, import a graph if you want students to base it off of one, and there is a place to check whether or not students can see any other student's responses...only 3 student answers will show up at a time, which is great because then students won't just copy an answer--if all were there, they might not even do the problem. But a selection of 3 is nice!
• A Text Screen: This is just to tell them what the activity is or to say it ended, or you could even give them instructions or a formula on it. 

Then you can mix and match as necessary...by the way, saying mix and match, if you haven't tried Desmos Polygraph, you ARE missing out. And now, you can make your own! My friend made one at TMC for Calculus, and it was SO COOL! And you MUST try it with Kittens!

The second one is Kahoot!

I had heard of Kahoot! before, but I didn't see it in action till Twitter Math Camp, when @jreulbach showed it as a My Favorite. It was really fun and competitive, and is based on getting high scores for being both correct and fast...most of my students enjoy competition, and for the ones that do not, it does not have to be played everyday. Also, if I'm not mistaken, only the first few student names are shown, so if students don't do well, I don't think it shows their score. It's a nice, quick change of pace that I know I will use to transition during the 90 minute block.

From jlavely64's Kahoot on blog.getkahoot.com

Here's one I made that I am using as a Precalculus slope warm-up. Rather than review on paper, students do it while playing an exciting game...aka "learning without even trying." I love that you can go to youtube and pick a song and video to play while kids are putting in the code, and then you get to add ridiculous pictures that make me laugh, like the one below--lots of room for pictures (so that also means graphs) on this one.

The third one is Formative.

And finally, I just learned about formative from Melanie at her blog When Life Hands You Lemmas (love that name). Please look at her blog, as she explains it really well, but you can assign a quick Do Now or Exit Ticket or Show Your Work, and you can see what ALL of the kids are writing/typing/drawing at once (i.e., LIVE RESULTS) on YOUR computer! 

Or you can import your own document, and it will look like this, and they touch the box and can type in it...

You can also import videos! AND you give them the right answers so they can check. AND you can write feedback for each student OR each question! It's pretty unbelievable. 

I can see using it these tools every single day in one of four different ways: 

• a warm-up that reviews material from the day before or to see what students know BEFORE you teach see This activity I made as a preview to sections 1.1 and 1.3 in Pre-Calculus or my Pre-Calculus preview of section 1.4
• a formative assessment to see what the students understand from what I just taught Algebra 2 Honors--do you understand Quadratics?
• a blended learning tool for differentiated learning...in other words, students go through a step by step activity that leads them to discover a new topic at their own pace. Like this algebra 2 honors preview lesson on 1.1: symmetry and circles
• Flipping the classroom and having students complete one of these ahead of time.

I hope you like these as much as I do...they are all very user friendly, which means you can make them quickly...and use them from year to year and class to class. They are all SO EASY!

One more thing...if you haven't seen Sarah's blog (if you haven't, do you live under a rock?? JKJK). Rather than blog once a day for 180 days, she is going to tweet a picture out each day, and she invited others to do it. She will use #teach180 (see her pic, below) and she asked if anyone else wants to join...why not?? I learn pretty much everything now from MTBoS...would love to learn from you as well. Let's do it!

~Lisa