Mathsational

The first session that I attended today was about augmented vs virtual reality.  Augmented reality is like Pokemon Go and the funny face apps.  When you look at your screen, you see the real world with a mix of imaginary features.  Virtual reality is more like full on imaginary surroundings, like virtual field trips using google cardboard. The augmented reality resource that I might be able to use in my classroom is Aurasma .  It is a free app that allows you to create your own AR experience.  You could use this to create an AR word wall, diagram, book report, or worksheet.  Check it out.  It seems pretty neat. The second session that I attended was about using the concrete - representational - abstract (CRA) in middle school geometry.  We explored the volume of prisms.   I presented during the last session.   Here are my resources from the day. Looking forward to another day of learning at STEMathon day 2!

Today was the first time that I presented at a conference.  I love conferences; I usually spend a good chunk of my summer break to attend them.  This year, I thought I'd get a little more involved.  It is certainly different presenting to adults than to teenagers.  Especially because many of the adults are more experienced and higher ranking than I am.  I don't think I did a great job, but it could have been worse.  The best part is that I presenting on the same topic in August, so I'll have time to revamp, just like I do with classroom lessons.  In a later post, I'll share some of what I learned at the sessions I attended.  For now, here is my next post about SBG. How is objectives-based grading different from traditional grading?  In a traditional classroom students’ grades based on all of the work assigned.  This includes classwork, homework, projects, quizzes, tests, effort, attitude, etc.  The teacher records a score fo...

This summer I decided to apply to speak at several conferences.  Since I don’t have any classroom action happening this summer, I am planning to start my blog by organizing my thoughts for these presentations.  I’ll be giving 6 presentations on 3 topics at 4 conferences.  The topics are standards based grading, hybrid learning and utilizing the MTBoS. I’m going to start with my philosophy for using standards based grading in this first post.  There are certainly other ways to implement standards based grading; this is just how I did it. First, standards based grading has other names.  I use objectives based grading.  I’ve also heard proficiency based grading, concepts based grading and target based grading.  They are all the same concept.  I chose objectives based grading because my state standards (PA) are very broad.  Our state broke each standard into 2-3 pieces of eligible content.  Those were still very broad.  For ...