Grade 1 is Going Digital with Formative Assessment

 Ms. Phelan has been using the Three Ring app in her first grade math class as a formative assessment tool. Threering.com is a great web tool and ipad app that allows teachers to collect and organize student work in a digital format.

During math workshop Ms. Phelan meets with individual students and small groups to facilitate learning. Using the Three Ring app on the ipad she captures evidence of learning in multiple formats. She takes pictures of student work, captures video and audio clips, and also takes digital notes on student progress. After collecting formative data on the ipad, the information is automatically uploaded to her threering.com account. From her computer she can organize, edit, and tag the content she collected and use the information to make instructional decisions. At the end of the math lesson, Ms. Phelan displays her threering.com feed on the smartboard so that students can reflect on their learning by viewing and discussing video clips and images together.  Using the ipad and an app such as Three Ring as a formative assessment tool is a great example of effective technology integration. Check it out! It's free!

Investigating Arrays with Educreations

Mrs. Leonard's grade 4 students have been using the Educreations app and Edmodo to communicate mathematical concepts and articulate their learning. During their study of arrays, the class set out on an "array hunt". Using the iPad, students took photographs of different objects in and around the school that represent arrays. They had to defend whether or not their photo was in fact an array. This led the class to discover what attributes defined an array, fostering a deeper understanding of this mathematical concept. Next, students had to figure out how many objects were represented in the array and defended their reasoning by combining their oral explanation with digital annotations. They posted their work to their 4th grade Edmodo group.  Check out the examples below to see how these young mathematicians use academic vocabulary and apply mathematics to real world situations.

This project is laying foundational math skills for CCSS NBT.B.5, NBT.B.6, MD.A.3. and engages students in the CCSS math practices MP3, MP4, MP6, MP7.

Want to learn more about using Educreations in the classroom? Check out this blog post by Matt Gomez (@mattBgomez) , Educreations 101 Video: Quick Intro to Basis of This App.

Kindergarten iPad Photography- A Guest Post by Mrs. Sweet

The Letter A

The Letter G

Ms. Gleason's Kindergarten class has teamed up with Mrs. Sweet's Art Enrichment period to photograph found letters of the alphabet. Students have a letter written on the back of each hand so they can identify letter shapes with found letters. Students can then "frame" their found letters with iPads and photograph them. Back in the classroom, students dialogue and share letters they have found.