Zombie Mathapocalypse

In October, grade six takes a turn for the creepy and becomes involved in a full out zombie mathapocalypse. Being the cruel teacher I am, I have been building their anticipation for the past week or so by subtly referencing it, taping up printed off zombies in their lockers, etc. They have even started asking the kids from last year for their advice and info! What they don't know is that we are going to be integrating mathematical concepts and skills into a game format to engage them in their learning! For the past few days I have also been giving the kids "ZCoins" for demonstrating perseverance in math, as well as sharing their mathematical thinking. I haven't told them what they are for, but they have been discussing the fact they probably have something to do with the mathapocalpyse. 

Usually we begin on October 1st. On Day 1, I start off by playing an emergency broadcast on the smartboard:

I also tape a Newspaper article to their lockers with a bit of information to pique their interest and tie in some literacy:

At this point, I still haven't really given them any information, but they are dying to find out what is happening! Hook, line and sinker!

To start, I show students all the supplies in the Warehouse that they will be trying to obtain. This same presentation is how I keep track of student supplies. As they earn them, I cut them from the supply pages and paste them on the individual students' page at the end. 

Before we get into any math, the kids are given an introduction sheet to get them thinking about their strategy for the game. 

From here, we dive into some math. Students design bunkers using area, perimeter and volume. 

As students collect supplies, they are responsible for recording their data on a graph

Also, because we are just winding up a unit on patterning, we complete a table of values as the mathapocalpyse goes on. Each day the number of zombies increases by 2Z+3

Each week, students receive updates on the apocalypse, and depending on their supplies, they will either live or become a zombie. If they become a zombie, they can steal supplies from classmates instead of getting them from me. 

We also connect probability in by having the kids spin a spinner every week to decide their location on our map. We post their locations on our bulletin board. However, the only catch is that if they have a map as one of their supplies, they have access to a digital map that we update with clues specific to the week to help them survive (ex. there is a 1/6 chance of a zombie attach at the forest this week vs a 4/6 chance at the hospital). Sometimes I have to change the weekly updates if it means that all the students will become zombies, but it usually works out ok. 

This year I am also integrating Twitter. I created an account @zmathapocalypse that will be tweeting the updates out to my class. The kids have a lot of fun during this game, and it really does help improve their math skills, while touching on curricular concepts we need to learn. 

The link below is to a more comprehensive typed up explantation I did last year.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tqTGVSzR2EgGI_U5KCy884Twf9R32TDPXdH3SRZuXus/edit?usp=sharing

Accessibility using Web Tools

Pam was asking me this morning about R&W gold and other accessibility tools to use with Chrome, and so I thought I would share a few. We all have those students who struggle with basic literacy skills (reading and writing) that can make independent work a struggle once they reach division II. Since we can't help them every minute of the day, it is useful to leverage technology to teach them strategies for being independent when the situation warrants it. (Especially in science and social where we aren't necessarily assessing these reading and writing skills, but rather working on concept knowledge). 

In Google Docs

• Read and Write Gold (Download extension from the chrome store)
• Reads the text students have typed back to them
• Also works on Blogger as it turns out! Worth trying out to see where else it works on the web. 
• Tools: Voice typing
• Speech to text program
• Add-on: Speech recognition
•  Speech to text program
• Add-on: Kaizena Mini
• Leave voice feedback for students on their work

Chrome extensions 

1. Speak it- reads text 

2. ISpeech- reads texts

2. Announcify ( removes distractions and highlights a paragraph at a time) 

3. Clearly- opens up the site without distractions 

You can also download an extension called ChromeVox, but it can be really irritating because it reads EVERYTHING since it is designed for the visually impaired. 

Other Tools and Tips

• You can click on the little microphone beside the search box to use the voice search in Google Chrome
• Sadly, Google removed the option to filter searches by reading ability :(
• You can create custom search engines (cse.google.com) so that when students are searching you can ensure the resources they are getting as a result of their queries are in kid friendly language and at the appropriate level. 

IPad

• Voice typing in Chrome and in Google Docs using Siri

Food for Thought

- I created a bunch of projects using Slides, and I can't find a tool that will consistently read them to students. However, if I had created it in Docs, I would have easily been able to find a tool to have the text read to students. So... it is a good idea to reflect on the projects and the ability level of the students and how they will be able to access resources independently and structure your projects around that to save yourself headaches! 

How to add extensions from the Chrome store:

Grade Six Best Practice

Here is our Grade Six Best practice presentation. We hope that the other grades will follow and post their best practices as well :) 

First DANCE PL3Y for Div. II

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to say thanks to Mr. Christensen and Mr. Ouellette for helping get the sound set up in the gym today. Also, Ms. Tonn for coming and participating in the grade 4-6 DANCE PL3Y session at lunch recess today. Thank you to the Grade 4-6 teachers who sent their students, it was a huge success! All the students were on their BEST behavior, actively participated and left with big smiles.

If you want more information about DANCE PL3Y, check out the link below:

http://www.pl3yinc.com/

I encourage teachers and support staff to come, if they want to participate or even just watch - you're always welcome! If you're looking for ways to incorporate DANCE PL3Y into your classroom as brain breaks come and see me.

Fast Finishers

Well, we are just over a week into the school year and I can already tell I have a few students that are going to need some additional work to keep them challenged and engaged once they are finished their assigned tasks. To manage this, I created a Google Slides presentation that has 25 different tasks that my quick finishers can work on while they wait for their classmates to complete their work. There is a variety of tasks from a variety of subjects, and the tasks are of varying lengths. Some will take multiple periods, some are fast and will only take 10-15 minutes. 

There are a few questions geared specifically towards grade 6, but those slides could quickly be modified or adapted to fit grades 4 or 5. Since many of the tasks are fairly general and can be completed by most div II kids, I just thought I would share in case anyone wanted to modify or use this with their quick finishers. Just click on the link above and make yourself a copy if you are interested! 

Great Google Extensions!

If you use Google Chrome as your browser with students, there are a few Google extensions that I would recommend having them (and yourself!) download that are pretty awesome If you click on the name of the extension, you will be directed to the Chrome Store where you can download them. Remember, you will need to log into your Chrome Browser to be able to access your extensions and apps. 

1. Share to Classroom 

This extension allows you to push online sites and resources to your students' browsers as they are working in a specific class. It syncs through Google Classroom. Again, n order for it to work, they must also have the extension. You can also add resources right to your Google Classroom for that subject. I really like this extension because it keeps a record for students of all the resources you have shared with them in each subject that they can access whenever they need it. My explanation is not doing this amazing extension justice!

2. Google Tone

Similar to the first extension, Google Tone allows you to share URLs (websites) with students. However, this extension works by playing an audible tone that other computers pick up. Students must have this extensions on their chrome browsers in order for this to work. This extensions does not keep track of URLs shared, and does not link to Google Classroom. However, it is really handy for kids who struggle to navigate to the correct page! Would be a good way to quickly send students to a site for an exit pass or activity during class to minimize transition times. 

3. Diigo

This extension is less for the classroom and more for teacher time-saving. Diigo is a bookmarking extension, that allows you to quickly save sites that you might want to use for later. It is easy to do because all you have to do is click on the extension, tag the site and it is saved for you for later. There are way more features that that, but definitely worth checking out. I use it a lot when I am planning a new unit and want to keep track of resources. 

4. Chromevox

This is an accessibility tool. What it does is read all of the text on your Google Chrome, including your Google docs, slides, etc. While the default voice is a tad annoying, this extension is great for students who struggle to be independent in class because of their reading level. It will read their search results etc. 

Authentic use of Social Media in the Classroom

Every year, on the first day of school I always do the same art lesson. As a way to establish the routines of our art periods with a non-threatening project, I always read "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds and then get the kids to create their very own dots.  It's simple, everyone is successful, and it has worked in every grade that I have taught- which has been a lot of grades! This year, after we were finished, we tweeted out some pictures of our artwork and tagged the author, Peter Reynolds, in the Tweet. I believe that it is fundamentally important that we teach our students not only to be digitally literate, but also how to be responsible digital citizens, which is why I try to integrate the authentic use of social media into my classroom. However, my experience today reminded me that I also do this for another reason; to provide students with authentic audiences for their work, and to move their learning beyond the physical space of our classroom. So anyway,  the coolest thing happened after we sent out our tweet. Peter Reynolds tweeted us back! While this might not seem like a big deal, I think it is a great experience for my students to see that their work matters to other people, and that it is significant. Social media and other web tools can open so many doors in the classroom if you find ways to meaningfully use them.