Spring Break Time!

This is my last blog after a very stressful week before Spring break. It's like all the teachers plan to give us homework, tests, quizzes, midterms and lesson plans at the same time! Thankfully Dr. Parker is giving us extended time for our flipped lesson plan in edTPA format. That is a weight off my shoulders for sure!
  This week we only have SSED307 on Tuesday and we were in Washington. I was able to give an ORF reading test again. I am getting used to giving these test and they are getting easier and easier each time we practice. I also learned exactly how hot dots work today. The students have to read a passage and then on the back there are questions to answer about the story. They are supposed to right down what they think the answer is on a sheet of paper and then they check to see if they got it correct with the hot dot pen. They then have to mark on their paper if they got it correct or not. This is a good way to teach students honesty. The teacher isn't going to sit there and watch to make sure they are not cheating, but it is up to them to be honest and not change the answers once they find out the correct answer.
    My outside research with technology is an app that I have found for my February app evaluation assignment. This app is called Math Climber HD. This is an awesome app that includes 18 different categories of math and has three different levels of learning. level 1 being the easiest and level 3 being the hardest. Students can choose what level they want to work on and what different category of math they want to use. It has fun games and one of the games is a rock climbing wall. The students pick and design their own character. For every problem they answer correctly, they move up the wall and for every question they answer incorrectly, they move down the wall. This will motivate students to really practice their math facts, especially the students who are competitive because they will not want to go down a level. This is definitely an app I will use in my future classroom during centers. It includes technology and is a great way to get better at math while having fun. This app covers NCTCS standard 4 Teachers facilitate learning for their students under the category "teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction." It is a great way to include technology in math and a great way for students to practice all types of different math problems.