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Teaching Math with the 'Tubes and more...
Teaching Math with the 'Tubes
One of the more popular posts on this blog was one I wrote about using YouTube as an instructional tool. Though YouTube does have its fair share of videos with some educational value, teachers have to be careful when recommending the site to students (hopefully the reasons are obvious). For this reason, many of us have started recommending sites like TeacherTube and SchoolTube to our students. Both of these sites house thousands of videos that were created by teachers and their students. One problem with the videos on these two sites is that they may not be “just right”—they may not teach the skills or concepts your students are learning the way you would teach them. I've encountered this problem, so this year I've decided that I needed to do more than just direct my students to the sites--I needed to add some instructional videos myself. A couple weeks ago, I started making my own videos using SMART Recorder: the SMART tool that lets teachers record their SMARTBoard lessons, complete with voice narration, and save them as a Windows Media file. After recording the videos, I upload them to SchoolTube and then embed them on my classroom wiki. I’ve created just four videos to this point, but so far I feel they have been a big success. Here's why:
Now that you know how using the videos can benefit you, let’s get into how you make them. As I said, I make mine using SMART Recorder. This allows you to set up a lesson on SMART Notebook and teach it like you would in class (without the student interaction of course). Though it takes a little preparation, you don't have to memorize every action and word because you can pause your recording and then pick up where you left off. I keep my videos short--the longest one was just over 7 minutes--and lately I've tried to add a little enthusiasm to them. It's easy to speak in a monotone voice when you're focused on the quality of the lesson in the video. As with every web-based instructional tool, there are issues with access--not every kid has the Internet at home. To deal with this, I create the videos ahead of time and give enough notice so that students without access to technology can make arrangements to watch them. In my school, we have a computer lab that is open to students after school four days a week and an after school "homework place" that also has computers for students to use. I know that my students who do not have internet access can go to these places and watch videos if they need to. If they get desperate, they can also go to the local library. Hopefully this post has sparked your interest and you're entertaining the idea of creating instructional videos for your students. The technology is there, why not use it? Technorati Tags: education| learning | SchoolTube Check out: SMARTBoard Mini-Movies | Number Properties | Angles in Geometry  New Teaching Resources on misterteacher.comWhat's New on misterteacher.com  Clip Art Rather than offer new mini-movies this month, I've created new pages with a lot of the clip art that appears in them and the related student activities. Teachers can use the clip art in their Notebook presentations or for creating worksheets. You can find the clip art on the mini-movie page, or you can just click below:
Math & Social Studies Printables Introduce your students to writing in the math classroom with a popular resource on misterteacher.com. The 59 printable math prompts that you can find in the Bright Ideas section of the site (click here to see the prompts) are perfect for assessing disposition, learning, and process. All of the webpages that you'll find in the Slavery in America and Waves of Immigration student activities are printable. Just look for the GRAB IT! button:  The printed pages (or web-based activities) would be perfect for teaching nonfiction reading or as supplements to a social studies curriculum. You can use them to teach about the following:
Look for more mini-movies in the weeks ahead. For immediate updates, follow misterteacher.com (jtubbs) on Twitter. More Social Studies Resources: Declaration of Independence | Constitution WebQuest  New Teaching Resources on misterteacher.com
Using dominoes is an effective approach to teaching addition and subtraction. This month I created almost 40 new SMARTBoard mini-movies that teachers can use to teach doubles addition and family of facts with dominoes. With the domino doubles, students can write an addition equation horizontally and then click the button to turn the domino vertically and write the equation with one number on top of the other. Family of facts dominoes present students with a domino with no dots on one side. Above the domino is a number. Using that number, and the number of dots on the domino, students must figure out the number of dots on the blank side.  Fall is the Perfect Time to Teach about Nature & Photosynthesis With the change of season comes less daylight. Less daylight results in the fall color change for trees. This is the perfect time to get your students outside into nature to explore a local habitat, gather some leaves, and discuss the connection between the leaf change and photosynthesis. Check out the resources below for ideas and activities:
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 Teach Multiplication with SMARTBoard Version of Circles and Stars
In the SMARTBoard version, students come to the board, push the CIRCLES button for the number of circles and then the STARS button for the number of stars. From there, students can write the multiplication expression over (or under) the mini-movie. The circles and stars animations aren't revealed until students click the buttons. There are 24 multiplication mini-movies in all so most teachers should be able to create a SMART Notebook presentation with enough problems to engage the whole class. Have some cool ideas for using this game? Add them as a comment. Check out: SMARTBoard Mini-movies | Light Energy | Forces | Thermal Energy  New Teaching Resources for SeptemberSeveral new student activities have been added since the last update. Teachers can find a set of three activities that will help students learn how to represent and compare integers and determine absolute value. How many computer-generated arithmetic problems can your students answer in 60 seconds? Arithmattac k is a new math resource on misterteacher.com that teachers can use for drilling math facts. A number of science activities have been added as well. First, there is a set of activities that teach students about thermal energy and temperature. Next, students will be able to define reflection and refraction after completing activities on the properties of light. Finally, activities on forces will teach your students about contact and non-contact forces like air resistance, gravity, magnetism, and friction. SMARTBoard Mini-movies There are few new SMARTBoard mini-movies for math teachers. You can find one on parallel lines and two on parallelograms: one that shows congruent angles and one that shows congruent sides. Two new probability mini-movies are now up: coin flip and roll of the dice. re will be many more mini-movies to come for this section. There are four new science mini-movies, all on the topic of simple machines. Teach your students about the three classes of levers with two simple animations. Also, be sure to download both inclined plane movies to teach about the relationship between length and effort force. If you like the resources on misterteacher.com please share this post. 
Check out: Everything Geometry Alphabet Geometry Social Studies Resources   |
