Math – Page 21 – iLearn Technology

The Stock Market Game

June 16, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2338 views

What it is: The Stock Market Game gives students the chance to practice hands on real-world math. Each student gets the chance to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in an on-line portfolio. While playing the game, students learn economic and financial concepts that they will use the rest of their lives. The Stock Market Game is intended for students in 4-12 grades. Teachers can register teams of 3 to 5 students. Teachers can register for a FREE team, teachers who want to test out the game before using with their students can register for a FREE teacher team. The cost for actually participating is $10 per team. When teams register they will receive all game materials, state standards that are reached with the Stock Market Game, The math behind the market (units covering math concepts using the Stock Market Game), standards-based lesson plans using the local newspaper, two newspapers per team (Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday), daily accessiblity and support to the Stock Market Game coordinator and staff, an online learning resource center with teaching activities for various grade levels, and a free teacher team. If you do decide to register students as a team, that $10 stretches far!

How to integrate Stock Market Game into the classroom: Students constantly question how they will use math concepts in real life. The Stock Market Game will give them a window into real-life use of mathematics. Students will also gain valuable life skills that they can use outside of school, I wish that I had learned the basics of the stock market in the safety of the classroom using virtual money instead of actual money my first go round!

Tips: Prizes are awarded for winning teams, be sure to look into this soon if you plan on using in your classroom…there is some pre-preparation required.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Stock Market Game in your classroom.

Collection of Math Flash Games

June 10, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2426 views

What it is: This collection of Math Flash Games is free to download or use the source code to embed the games on your website. The collection of Math Flash Games includes Maths Hangman where students guess the math words before kicking the bucket, Mathionaire where students play the popular TV game with math questions, Higher or Lower where students use knowledge of probability, Countdown-a popular number and letter game, Numbers and Letters- another version of countdown with extra classroom controls, Maths Word Search where students hunt for hidden math words, Decanting puzzle -the classic jugs problem, Broken Calculator which challenges students to solve a problem with a broken calculator, Matching Game- memory matching up geometric shape and their names, and Hexagons where students put seven hexagons together like dominoes.

How to integrate Collection of Math Flash Games into the classroom: This collection of Math Flash Games is perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard, set up as a classroom math center, or played individually by students in a computer lab setting. The games will emphasize math vocabulary, problem solving skills, and several math concepts. Split students into teams and play games as a whole class using the interactive whiteboard. Embed games in your classroom website for students to play at school and at home. Hold a math challenge once a week where students can compete and play these Math Flash Games.

Tips: All of the games in the Math Flash Games collection are free to download and play. Every game requires a flash player.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Collection of Math Flash Games in your classroom.

Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math

May 19, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4158 views

What it is: Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math is a gold mine of interactive activities for the math classroom. The site has over 100 interactive math activities for teaching and practicing math in kindergarten through twelfth grades. These are high quality games, interactives, and simulations for the math classroom. You are sure to find something to use in your math class that will increase understanding!

How to integrate Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math into the classroom: This site is ideal for use with an interactive whiteboard in the math classroom. The activities help students understand concepts that can be difficult by inviting them to interact with the concept. If you don’t have access to an interactive whiteboard, you can demonstrate math concepts from a teacher computer connected to a projector. Students can practice and interact with concepts on classroom computers set up as a math center or individually in the computer lab setting.

Tips: To narrow the list of activities, choose a grade level to narrow activity results.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math in your classroom.

Popling

April 28, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3187 views

What it is: Popling is a free website and desktop application. Their motto is “Learning without Studying”. The idea is to make your own Poplings (flash card sets) and every few minutes (you determine the amount of time) while you work at the computer, a window pops up on the screen with your question. Click on it to see the full question. That is all there is to it, studying without really studying.

How to integrate Popling into the classroom: Popling is a little goodie that could help students in their learning. Set up classroom computers with Poplings about any subject. As students are working they can also be practicing math facts, vocabulary, geography, etc. Better yet, have students create the Popling sets! In the computer lab setting, create Popling flash cards that will quiz students about Internet safety, terminology, or short cuts while they work. It is like sneaking in extra learning, gotta love that! Encourage students to use Popling as a study tool at home…they can study for tests for weeks without it feeling like studying. Install Popling on your interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. As you are teaching, have related questions popup. This will keep your students engaged watching for the next Popling.

Tips: Tell parents about Popling, they are always looking for great ideas for helping their kids with studying.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Popling in your classroom.

Teacher Led Interactive Whiteboard

April 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2734 views

What it is: Teacher Led IWB is a collection of resources for use with an interactive whiteboard. This is an outstanding collection of 46 math tools and games, 3 geography maps and map makers, 6 English tools and games, and two multipurpose games. The collection is visually appealing and helps teach key concepts visually in each content area. There are too many great resources to go in depth here, I recommend heading over to Teacher Led IWB and taking a look right now!

How to integrate Teacher Led IWB into the classroom: This collection is VERY impressive. The tools and games are perfect for whole class instruction and practice in math, geography, language arts, and creating custom activities for other subjects. Most of the tools are designed for the elementary classroom but there are some that can be used in middle school as well.

Tips: If you have an interactive whiteboard, go to Teacher Led now and check out these awesome resources!

Leave a comment and tell us which of the Teacher Led resources you have used in your classroom.

Learning Clip

April 7, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2666 views

What it is: Learning Clip is a site that I reviewed in Nov. 2008 that I took another look at today and was even MORE impressed than I remembered being the first time I saw it. Learning Clip is a collection of interactive whiteboard resources for primary math. Resources and activities include topics such as: using and applying math, understanding numbers, number facts, calculating, understanding shape, measuring, and handling data. Each activity is interactive and encourages students involvement and discovery in math. Each activity comes with a brief description of the activity, a pdf of notes that accompany the activity, the age appropriateness, and a corresponding worksheet that can be printed out. Each topic has several sub-topics and each sub-topic has several interactive activities. When an activity is loaded, a video clip explaining the math concept will play. Each activity includes a game or interactive activity space for students to practice what they are learning.

How to integrate Learning Clip into the classroom: Learning Clip is an outstanding resource for interactive math activities! The video clips help students understand the math concept that can be practiced in an interactive environment. This site is perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard and whole class or small group instruction. Students can take turns interacting with the content to strengthen understanding of math concepts. Learning clip could also be successfully used in a computer lab or on classroom computers for individual student learning and practice. One thing that Learning Clip has added since I visited last is the ability to choose what currency you would like students to practice with in the Money activities. This site was created in the UK so this feature makes it very user friendly for us Yanks. 🙂 The activities are all wonderful!

Tips: Registration is required but it is free. If you create a username and password, consider creating one that is class friendly. This way if you do decide to use the activities in the lab setting, students will be able to logon and access activities easily.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Learning Clip in your classroom.

TutPup

April 2, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2216 views

What it is: TutPup is an outstanding, free math and spelling practice website. At TutPup students can compete in fun, educational games against kids from all over the world live. The site reminds me a lot of the World Math Day competition. Students are matched up with other students from around the world where they play fact games and compete in real time to see who best knows their stuff. I love that TutPup is available to students all year long (unlike the World Math Day site), it doesn’t collect personal information about students, and there are several games to choose from each with multiple levels. TutPup helps students build math skills in the areas of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, algebra, and a mixture of those skills. TutPup also helps students build spelling skills with a spelling game, students listen to a word and have to spell it before their opponent. The site is highly motivating, takes into account different learning levels, and builds a variety of skills.

How to integrate TutPup into the classroom: My students absolutely love this website. Any time they can take part in a little friendly competition they are ready to compete. The great thing about TutPup is that it can be differentiated for your different levels of learners. Each student can play games at their own ability level. This keeps the lower math students engaged and feeling successful and the higher level students challenged enough to hold their interest. These types of sites have my students asking, “can I play this game at home too?” When have you ever had a student ask if they could practice math or spelling facts at home?! They truly love the competition of this site and get the added benefit of increasing their math fact recall skills. Use TutPup as a math center in the classroom where students can practice math facts, or a practice center in the literacy block for additional spelling practice. This is also a fun whole class activity with an interactive whiteboard or projector, students can call out the answers to the questions as a class for the teacher to enter. You won’t have to assign this site for homework, students will ask to play from home. Tell parents about this site as an alternative to flash card math fact practice.

Tips: TutPup offers teacher accounts and student accounts for free. However, right now their are no available login ID’s. I contacted TutPup about this dilemma and they are working on a solution. In the mean time, students can access all the games as a guest player. I’ll update this post when TutPup has solved the registration issues.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using TutPup in your classroom.

Ideas to Inspire

March 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2651 views

What it is: Ideas to Inspire is a truly wonderful site and wealth of resources for teachers. On this site you will find a collection of Google Doc presentations that include a number of ideas for engaging lesson activities in a variety of curriculum areas. The collection comes from inspiring teachers from around the world. You can find Ideas to Inspire on Writing, Interactive Math, Incredible Science, Amazing Art, Marvelous Music, and learn interesting ways to use Google Docs, Pocket Video Cameras, Interactive Whiteboards, Google Earth, Twitter, Netbooks, Webcams, and Visualizers. Ideas to Inspire also has great tips for non-techy teachers (I remember being one of those once-upon-a-time). Ideas to Inspire is very easy to navigate and each presentation is jam packed with truly inspiring ideas.

How to integrate Ideas to Inspire into the classroom: It happens to the best of us, we get settled in our ways and fall into a teaching slump where we can’t come up with a creative lesson idea to save our lives. Sound familiar? Ideas to Inspire is the place to go, here you will find inspiration, helpful tips, and get those creative juices flowing again! Take a few minutes and look through some of the presentations, you will be happy you did. 🙂

Tips: This is my last post for the day, head over to Ideas to Inspire and be inspired today!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Ideas to Inspire in your classroom.

Toy Theater

March 19, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3398 views

What it is: Toy Theater is a fun place for students to practice math, reading, art, and music through puzzle type games. Toy Theater encourages students in k-4 to get their problem solving brain cells working as they explore and discover the games in Toy Theater. In the art section, students can animate their own cartoon character, put on a puppet show, or make a Matisse. In the music section, students can make music with the Composer, interact with notes with The Music Maker, or go on a pounding mission with the Drum Beats, you will have miniature maestros in no time. In Math students can practice math facts with flippy flashcards, or feeding Freddy, and take a math practice test to put those math skills to the test. In the reading section students can enjoy a good joke, play with words with a sliding crossword puzzle (highly entertaining for teachers too), write their own road sign, or practice their typing skills. In the puzzle section students brains gt put to the limit with tic tac toe and memory games. In the playset section, students can create their very own virtual diorama about cars, sea creatures, plant, insects, ships, characters, aircraft, blocks, dinosaurs, and buildings.

How to integrate Toy Theater into the classroom: Toy Theater is a great website to use as a learning center in your classroom. The short, easy to play games are perfect for short center activities. I love the puzzle type environment that encourages problem solving and bends the brain a little. The playset universe would be a great section to use with an interactive whiteboard, students could take turns creating a ‘universe’ to showcase learning on a topic such as ocean, plants, insects, dinosaurs, geometry, etc. Students can work together to show what they know together. After students create a playset, have them pull out a writing journal and journal about the playset the class created. Being a computer teacher I am constantly looking for fun ways to let students practice typing skills. In the read section you will find a game called letter fall, letter blocks fall from the sky, students have to type the letter before 5 blocks can stack up. There are multiple speeds to make the game a challenge for your different typing levels. In the computer lab setting, see who can last the longest before 5 letter blocks stack up (there is a timer at the bottom of the screen).

Tips: This is a great site to send your students to when they finish work early and are asking “what can I do now?”

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Toy Theater in your classroom.

The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 per Twitter Follower

March 18, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments1586 views

What it is: Twitter is an amazing networking tool. If you aren’t currently using Twitter, today is the day my friend! If you aren’t familiar with Twitter take a look at my prior posts here or watch the Common Craft video above. The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 per Twitter follower is an “ethical bribe” to get people to follow Tim Ferris on Twitter. Here’s how it works: for every new Twitter follower Tim gets before March 23, 2009, he will donate $1 to Donorschoose.org. An anonymous supporter will then donate $2 for every dollar that Tim donates. This means that for every follower of Tim, $3 are donated. What is the donation going toward? US Public School classrooms! The goal is to directly help 25,000 US public school students in low income and high need areas in two weeks time. I LOVE this idea! After seeing what is happening with our stimulus money (going to AIG for bonuses and cutting back on education), I think creative ideas like The Tweet to Beat are going to be the catalyst for change in this world!

How to integrate The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 per Twitter Follower into the classroom: This is such a simple idea and yet the impact could be significant. You can integrate Tweet to Beat into your classroom in a few ways. First, if you are on Twitter, follow Tim today (go ahead you can do it right now, I’ll wait). Second, if your students are on Twitter, encourage them to follow Tim. Third, use Tweet to Beat as a real world math problem. Ask questions such as how many followers does Tim need to raise $50,000? $150,000. Last, give older students (who have Facebook accounts) a homework assignment to post this story on their Facebook page to get others involved.

Tips: Twitter is a great way to communicate with families, build a personal learning network (PLN), communicate with other students around the world, and network. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Tweet to Beat in your classroom.