I’ve already fallen behind on my commitment to blog weekly but this week has provided some things worth writing about.

It is clear that it will take some time to get the Yr 7s all using Edmodo and blogging as I would like, but that’s only what I expected and realistically, I should be happy with the progress. Most managed to upload their keynote, and as I blogged previously, several are getting the idea of commenting constructively on other people’s work. Their current task is to create an Educreations video on one of 4 skills related to their work on angles, their choice. Tasks were of varying difficulty and they were encouraged to choose to teach something that was new to them this year, rather than something they already knew about. For example, those who already knew how to measure and draw reflex angles accurately completed the quadrilateral or complementary and supplementary angles tasks. I completed a sample which included some suggestions on preparing slides and photos in advance, and how to upload to Edmodo. Quite a few have already been submitted and I can already see the improvement with several showing a better understanding of what it means to be  teaching someone else, not just showing the teacher that they can get an answer. Their iPad skills are improving too, with protractors moving into place to demonstrate measuring and neatly typed slides rather than messy finger drawing. Early in the week I showed them a video I came across, Austin’s butterfly, and we talked about the value of persistence and specific feedback.

In my Yr 10 advanced maths class we spent a very hot Friday last period learning about domains and ranges and various other functions using the desmos graphing calculator. I had seen a post on Edmodo outlining the success of a lesson getting students to write their names using functions so decided to give it a go. These students were introduced to linear and quadratic functions last year and are a bright bunch so I thought it was worth it. With the site showing on the projector I initially had the students copy me while I sketched a straight line, talked aboutdomain and showed them how to restrict it. I then added a parabola and we discussed how I could restrict its domain and move it to join the line I had previously sketched. We added a horizontal and vertical line for good measure. Then I added a circle (which was new to them) and showed them the standard equation and how I could transform the equation in the same way as out quadratic. I showed them some sample from the desmos page and then set them to either writing their name or doing a drawing of their choice. It was a fabulous lesson full of engaged kids asking questions like “so how do I draw an oval?’ ‘so how do I move this up?’ ‘What if I want only the top of the circle?’. So in one lesson we covered, domain and range and equations of parabolas, circles, ellipses, sine and exponentials, all because the students wanted to know.