Tech & Teach Tips by Priscilla Kim
Good morning superheroes (a.k.a. teachers)! First off, I want to share a 2020 episode with you because it’s such a 2020 vibe :) A student emailed her teacher saying that her dog chewed up her Wifi box, and that was the reason for missing class today. Didn’t think there would be a sequel for “my dog ate my homework”, but it’s 2020, and anything can happen, right?
Today, I want to share 2 tips (one Tech Tip & one Teach Tip) that are helping me and my students during distance learning. My Tech Tip for the day is using OneNote through WACOM, which is what I primarily use for class notes. My Teaching Tip is how to help students to meaningfully self-reflect on their math progress using GoFormative.
Why Use OneNotes?
With math, I think we can all agree that the visual component is key to learning. Further, one study looking at students learning Algebra found that those taking handwritten notes experienced a higher degree of transfer of information than those typing. Hence, even after transitioning to distance learning, handwriting notes was something I did not change. Prior to distance learning, many teachers have used the ELMO to write and project their class notes. However, I’ve found a myriad of more advanced tech tools that can help teachers and students to more creatively write notes and share their work. While there is the Notability app, Jamboard, and so many other note taking tools in the market, I’ve chosen to use OneNote from Microsoft Office for one reason. The majority of our students are international students,--some residing in China, where lots of websites, including Google sites, are actively blocked. Hence, our school is primarily using Microsoft Office as opposed to Google sites in order to accommodate those students. In order to make my notes (literally) accessible to all my students, I have decided to use OneNotes, as well as all the other tools available in Microsoft Office.
Tech Tip: How to Use OneNotes
First, I have digital binder notes in PDF form, which are essentially pre-planned note templates for each lesson. During class, I insert the PDF into a OneNote page and start writing and drawing on it. The ease of it all is organizing them by (unit/chapter) folders and sharing them with my students. I can share it as a PDF or as a link. It’s so nice to write colorful notes and draw straight(-er) lines, than if I were to use the ELMO. The ability to save my notes digitally (forever) and distribute them to my students anytime is amazing. Also, digital notes are so versatile that if I want to use them for review, I can just screenshot the pages and make PowerPoint slides out of them. For differentiating instruction, I’ve found that doodle notes using OneNote have benefitted some of my 504 students with ADHD to be creative and stay engaged.
Click here to see an example of Geometry Class Notes using OneNote
Now, you may ask how to handwrite digitally using your laptop. Answer is that you don’t :) I’ve been searching for the most cost-efficient tablet and digital pen to draw and write anything. I’m using the WACOM tablet which is one of the best Amazon purchases I’ve made this year. You can easily connect it to your laptop or computer and start writing on it like you would on paper and pencil. I love the smooth gliding of the pen, plus the fact that the pen never needs to be charged. Below is a picture of my BFF during distance learning. #notSponsored
Teach Tip: Self-Reflection Tool for Math Scholars
One of the greatest challenges that came with distance learning for high school math was involving all students in self-assessment, goal-setting, and progress monitoring. Especially in critical times such as now, I think it's crucial to teach students to be critical of their own goals, progress, and learning. Self-assessment and reflection are key components of my lesson that can be done as exit tickets or at any point of the lesson. In order to make this happen, I’ve found a tool called GoFormative which is a digital assessment tool that is, again, versatile. I use it for practice, homework, assessments, or anything else I want to track student progress on. On the site, I ask students, “How did you grow as a mathematician today?” In order to structure their thinking, I use 5 different ways of asking self-reflective questions.
The Five Questions
Describe a new strategy you learned.
Tell a math word you learned and what it means.
Describe a mistake you made and what you learned from it.
Explain how you challenged yourself today.
Tell about something you noticed today and how it helped you to solve a math problem.
Action & Results
Here is how I administered it: Click this link to see GoFormative Reflection Assessment
I gave 5 questions, and provided an incentive (extra credit) if students reflected on more than one question. The results were unbelievable and what students wrote made me incredibly happy. 97% of my students went above and beyond and did ALL the questions, as opposed to just doing the required “one question”. My students who hardly talked in class would write out their thoughts so eloquently and precisely using math vocabulary words.