Why kids are not writing?????

Ok I am a math teacher but I am seeing some troubling signs. Most of my students are lazy when it comes to writing. Many of my students do not capitalize proper nouns, the first word in a sentence and I could pick a plethora of other grammar faux pas. My team's LA teacher is pulling her hair out trying to get these kids to write like 14 year olds.

I really noticed this when I responded to a grade 6 student from Australia. Her writing was excellent and she really impressed me with how she responded to my comment. I then saw what my students "concidered" a comment and started to think of ways to make the write with a purpose. With this in mind welcome to an epiphany that I had during one of my math classes today. My math students are going to write a story. Hot just any story but a math story.

This all stems back to Michael. He was a great student who did and unproject for me using The Sims.

This year students will create a story with and adventure theme. Part of the assignment will be teaching them how to write (long live the LA teacher) and part of the story will be dealing with integers. The students will have to incorporate needed math knowledge into their story. One suggestion I had for them was to have a character come across some perilous challenges. Each challenge a different math question. Who knows what they will come up with. I will not add too much structure and give lots of freedom. Here is the assignment. I hope this is a success and that I can get kids to write better in school while still learning math.

Games can kids make games...

This is a cross post with Sargent Park Math Zone.


I have been hunting a while for some game applications for your unprojects. While these still are not perfect you can create your games and have them as interludes during a fun filled action packed quiz or..... something.

So here they are. Different sites to make simple yet fun games to break up the thrill of doing your math quiz. happy game making.
Sploder.com

Gamebrix



My Game Builder

This is a simple movie showing the steps at mygamebuilder.com. Many others are available on Youtube.



Challenge You

Here is a movie on how to make one of these games







If anyone in my network knows of better or different sites please leave a comment behind.

Here are some sites people have left behind. Thanks

My Studiyo


Class tools


Purpose Games

The Unprojects are coming

With spring in the air, dust in our faces and hormones raging in the school this can only mean one thing. UNPROJECTS. The students will be given their tasks in a week and then have 6 weeks to complete a wiki page and then ..... whatever they want to complete the task. What is that task? They have to explain a math topic covered in school this year. Have a wiki page that explains that work in language that their parents would understand and have an"Unproject" to show their understanding of the topic.

Unprojects have been movies, songs, wiki quizes, online games and ........
Clarence just twitted about this movie


Last years sites were spfractions.wikispaces.com and Spunproject07

This years site is spunproject08.wikispaces.com. Drop on by and see what they are creating.

Refletions

I should have done this in June. Last year was my second year using 2.0 tools and applications with my math classes. I think that these students did a great job and learned in new and different ways. My learning curve was steep too. I let go, giving control to the students instead of being the omnipotent all wise being that I was in the first year of blogging.

What went right

Class blogs Students used the class blogs to do growing posts and scribe posts. This was a good introduction to blogging for most students. I was able to use these activities to prepare them for what was to come. I also made commenting part of the scribe post assignment. Students were given a list of other classes that scribe or use blogs and were asked to leave a comment behind. I found that many of my students were great commenter and started to comment more on their own school blogs. Problems.... Not everyone participated in their class blogs. It was hard to get the "less" motivated students to participate and do a scribe post. I also found it hard to find the time to comment regularly on these posts.

Class hub After switching to the "new blogger" at the beginning of the year the class hub was a great communicator with the students. I had my skype availability, chat boxes and email on the hub for students to use. Students skype chatted with me and g mail chatted regularly. This allowed the room to be open beyond the 330 bell. I would have students asking me questions up until my sleepy time it I was in front of the computer.

I liked hub post like "what did I do wrong?" This got the class thinking and doing different types of problem solving.

I will use the same hub this year. I am hoping that students will continue to use this hub as a place to get the class information that they need.

Wikis This was my first season with wikis. I used them to do student led conferences and the first and second unprojects. Students liked the feel of wiki's because of their familiarity with other apps like facebook and myspace. They created some amazing content and blinged it up using applications they learned on their own. This was a complete success. Wiki's got all of the students participating in communicating mathematically.


This year I will start the wiki's earlier and integrate them more into everyday homework, and assignments.


Darren mused about "expert voices".

This got me thinking. What do 13 and 14 year olds want to be experts in or more importantly how can they show that they are experts. My solution were unprojects. I called them unprojects because the only part of this assignment that was in my control was the topic and the amount of information needed to be provided so that a student could be an "expert". The rest was up to the students. The communicated math in so many different forms. Some sang, made movies, created wikis or blogs. The most important aspect of these projects was the participation rates. Over 90% of the students created some kind of unproject. All of these students pushed their own limits to new heights, some by just participating and others by going way beyond the call of duty. I found out during this assignment that once students have a grasp of some 2.0 tools out there they will start to do math work at home that is meaningful to them.




This year is going to be different. I have a class of students that has not blogged before and will be raw. They will need some extra pushes to get the creative juices flowing. I am confident that great things will continue to happen this year in the Sargent Park Math Zone. My goals are to do more interactive slide shows, make movies and podcasts and incorporate all of these pieces into the greatest Student Led Electronic Portfolio's my school has seen. As more and more 2.0 apps appear on the horizon it is going to be fun to mix them into my math teaching pedagogy.

Thanks to my former students for being so inspiring. To this years crew..

It is going to be a great year. Thanks you in advance.

Awesome Artist

I have a talented student in my math class. For her unproject she chose probability and drew a comic. Here is the link to the comic the way it should be viewed. Click on each picture in numerical order and you will see the detail she put into the project.




This is a movie I made of her artwork. It does not do the pictures and the detail of the work justice but it does show it to you in just under 2 minutes. Please see the origional artwork and enjoy the effort and detail in the drawing.

Remember this is a math project. Pretty cool EH!

The Unprojects are done

Finally the last unprojects are done. I am impressed with my students and their ability to communicate mathematically. I have tried to have students keep math journals and do paper based projects but these always met with groans and moans.

Giving students the power to choose the project and do what they want the "un-ness" of it produces higher quality work. Web 2.0 applications are the new playground for these students. Give them a toolbox and they will choose the tools to fill it with. Here are a few of the excellent unprojects that were turned in this time. There are more at the unprojects wiki but these are best. Please take time and comment on them at the wiki.

Movies
Algebra
How about a movie that uses the Sims (eerie but the students look like their avatars!!)

Here is Danny's excellent Ratio Movie


Finally would Grade 8 boys not want to do a movie like this, potty humor, mock goofy battles and yes....... math!!

Click To Play

Spresent

Jeopardy Game
Algebra and More

Songs
Algebra Song

Blinged up Wikis and Quizzes
Camille's Unproject
Algebra Quiz
Geometry Quiz
Jake and April
A quiz from QuizMaker Rainer and Matt

A student who had not participated much this year asked me if it was O.K. to do a Pizco unproject. I had only one responce.... it is an unproject. YES

Pheanix

I teach math. The subject people at parties say they hated. I hope my students enjoyed math this year!!

Super Duper UNPROJECTS

It was warm. No it was boiling the past few days. Why would you want to work on math? Beats me but my students have been working to the wee hours of the night.

Many chose spresent or many have made videos. Here is one I really like.



They are doing an excellent job. There exam has been done for a week and they have worked at home and in my lab to create excellent work at spunproject07.pbwiki.com.

Please check out this terrific work.

No rules, just a topic. Tons of terrific work.

Mash ups I want my kids to make Mash ups

From Drakes Takes he talks about mash ups and their possible educational uses. I want my students to create mashups. They won't look like this but they could be fun to do. He gives some great advise on using tools and sites that are cc friendly.




Here is another from the same artist rx2008



There are just a few weeks left in school. This would be a project that some of the kids would get a real kick out of. Putting a bunch of videos together that show off their math skills.

Stay tuned. I think there will be some new unproject final works coming up!!

Darren Makes me think

Darren as per usual had a great post a few days ago. He was talking about pedagogy and how it can change. It has changed for Darren. I feel confident in saying that he was an excellent teacher before 2.0 and an even better teacher using 2.0 tools. His thoughts often fall back on this question:

"What can I do now that I could not do before?"

Darren and I are not technology teachers. We teach math using the technology. Well he really teaches math, the high school kind, I teach middle school kids how to be good citizens.... and teach some math as well ;-)

Math is one of those subjects that kids either love or hate. I want to share with them the beauty of math not the 2 x 2 =4 type of math of our past. Using 2.0 tools and the ability of my class to be there 24 hours a day has made math more accessible for students. Why assess them only on tests. They will have enough of those as they progress through high school. I give them projects, Spfractions or UNprojects. The students are learning math but having a good time doing it.

We have dilemmas in our classes. We have the over achievers and the lumps. Using 2.0 projects allows both to do more. Darren in a recent comment said:

Darren said...
Chris & Sophie: Like Chris, I think students enjoy learning this way ... when they apply themselves to it. But I'm also thinking about those students who don't. The ones who sit in class, or in groups, watch through glazed eyes what's going on around them without ever really trying to learn.

I think it is important to celebrate the ability of kids to do excellent work. I have a hard time enriching students education. I am trying to save the ones with "glazed eyes" too much. Doing these projects lets students set their own standards and goals. The best go further than you ever could imagine and the other extreme..... they either do something instead of the ususal nothing or don't do anything at all.

When I first heard about Darren's Developing Expert Voices I knew this was a great idea. I created my version Spfractions or UNprojects and the results speak for themselves. Kids excel and participate in math speaking and communicating a difficult subject. I have tried math journals before but kids did not do them with any feeling. Their projects have feeling and voices too.

Darren also comments

Just today a colleague from across the hall shared with me how some of her students are trying to figure out a way to take a math class next year where they won't have to blog ... anything to avoid blogging. I contrast that with what my students are writing in the reflections at the end of their Developing Expert Voices projects where many of them say they have learned more than they thought they were able. Many say they were unable to do the material when it was covered in class but after doing their projects they have mastered it.

I know some of these students. They "hear about" blogging and complain. This is just what students do. As teachers we have to show them the power of their work. Sell them on the idea that blogging and online projects enhance their learning. You are going to be doing homework, don't you want to do homework that is "different" and fun.

The last bit of Darren's post that resonated with me was the following:

But you know, we don't really need these new tools to improve our teaching. We need to ask different questions. Not "What is 6 times 4?" but "How many ways can you multiply two numbers to get 24?" Not "Are there seasons on Mars?" but "What season is it right now on Mars? Is there any time of the year you could comfortably wear a t-shirt and shorts on Mars?" Not "List the parts of a cell." but "Design your own version of a cell that efficiently takes in food and excretes waste? Include a diagram of all the parts and describe how they work together."

Students need a reason to come to school. They need a reason to learn. When we ask the right questions and give them the tools to be creative in answering them, they will want to be in our building LEARNING. Once you have them..... you can go anywhere.

Take a risk, let them learn their way. You will go further than you think.

The Unproject continues

Friday was the "teacher directed" part of my students UNproject. Most have completed this task. With this being the busy season at our school, sport windups, exams and life in general, I was worried that many students would give this UNproject a pass. I was mistaken. Most students have done the "mundane" parts of the project and I am looking forward to the student created part of the UNproject.

I scheduled the lab in my room to be used for the week after their math exam. I hope that the students who have not participated yet will choose to participate now. I will be fighting an uphill battle with most students feeling that the year is over since they have written their exam.....



The next experiment is how will student who are highly motivated choose to spend their time. I hope they will wander around the school grounds making movies on their phones, and cameras. I hope they create animations, I just want them to solidify their math knowledge. Perhaps even edit and add detail to the background information at their wiki.

Time moves on and I hope they continue to have fun. This is the best group of 2.0 kids I have had. Hey they are my second group. I am curious where they will go next year. I am training other teachers in the art of 2.0. I hope those teachers use it. I hope the kids continue to use it in spite of their teachers. That is next year. Need to concentrate on this year.

Spring a season for Growing???

For the past few weeks the burden of work and family have been high. I am not complaining but why do we do this to ourselves. I have been procrastinating on this post but found a few moments to write.

Graham wrote about a similar phenomenon in Australia.

In Winnipeg where I live there is a very short season for kids to complete in a variety of activities before the official "lake" season. From April to June the kids just go go go (most have multiple extra_curricular activites) and on the Ist of July they then stop and go and smell the roses during their summer break. Why do we cram so much into such a short time.

If you put this season under the microscope even more we are finishing up the school year and expecting kids to complete projects and be prepared for exams. Yeah right lets make them do even more.
Are we expecting to much?
Should we change our teaching to have different activities planned for this time of year?

Hmmmm makes you wonder.


I am putting this season into the pedagogical lab and under the microscope. I had great success with a project called the UNPROJECT. The snow was on the ground and the air was frozen, kids had nothing better to do. I was impressed with their finished products.

Now as the flowers are in bloom and the silly speed season is upon us I have asked them to repeat the project. They are doing a second UNPROJECT. The two due dates fall before and after their math exam on June 6th.

Will they continue to work after their exam?
Will they use the unproject as a study guide?
Is this the wrong season to have a student initiated project?

I hope that having a student project where they set the rules of engagement and level of accomplishment will create projects

Busy Busy Busy

I have been very quiet during the past month and I do not know when my chatter will increase. School is uber busy with exams less than a month away. Top that off with the spring sporting season in Canada (twins playing soccer,swimming and my eldest swimming and playing basketball) I do not seem to have the time I had in the winter. Did I mention that it is gardening season as well.

I will try to write as much as I can but be sure that I am still reading all of you wonderful bloggers on a regular basis.

My students are participating in there second UNPROJECT. I know it will be a success.

Talk to you soon....... :-)

The last Unproject with some AWESOME Kids

This is hot off the presses. I hope for the same success as last time.

Here are the instructions for your final unproject. Pay attention to the due dates and ask questions on Tuesday.

The home wiki of this project is spunproject07.pbwiki.com

Your Final Unproject

Important Dates

May 7th Unproject is Launched
May 26th Part 1 is due. (This will provide you with great material to study from for your exam)
June 14th Part 2 is due.(You will have access to the Math lab during the week of June 11th to 14th)

This unproject is part of the Term 4. It will be worth 10% of that terms mark.

Instructions

Your job is to be an expert in 2 topics that we have learned this year. You will need to check your math portfolio to check the topics that we have covered.

1. Data Managemant and Graphs


2. Probability


3. Square Roots


4. Percent


5. Ratio


6. Proportional Reasoning


7. Fractions (only if you did not participate in the first Unproject)


8. Algebra


9. Geometry

You will be responsible to create a background page that explains both of your topics. It must be dynamic and hook the audience. You may create the background information at

• your class blogsite (just create the necessary link)


• here at the Final Unproject


• wikispaces (Just create the necessary link)

Your background page must include

• all needed math information


• pictures, graphics and other visual aides


• links to other sites to give more information


• One or more word problems that are solved correctly.

Your Final Unproject is your last math assignment of Grade 8. It is a celebration of what you have learned. Just like the first unproject you choose what it will be. It can be anything but you must check with me first.

Previous unprojects were

• songs


• 
  
  Click here to get your own player.
  
  
  


• movies


• 
  


• spresent (flash powerpoint)




• wiki quizes


• Look at this example or this example


• games (must be interacitve and online)


• you can choose anything you like. Just please check with me if you are going to do something different.

The timing of this project is to help you study for your final exam. If you choose to you can use this project as a way to study for exams.

You may work with a partner but you are both responsible for the final project. Once you have chosen a partner there is no changeing. There will be no groups of 3. Sorry.

Scoring Rubric

Pay Attention Video

Thanks Wes for the post.




More evidence that my unproject could be a way to go. Students like doing this work. They will work digitally. We must be ready to give them assignments and projects that make them want to work.

Did You Know...Unproject

There is a recent "Did You Know" mashup.

Original Video created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Howie DiBlasi. -Modified for Florida Educational Technology Conference. 21st Century Learning ,Global Economics and The Information Age. Technology Information & Global information- Developed for Educational Presentations...

I like the last few minutes of this movie and for what it says about todays students.... and educators.


My recent experience with students and letting them have control over their product makes me firmly believe as I paraphrase David Warlick

Students need to be amplifiers of knowledge not mirrors reflecting back what we teach.

My Unprojecthas proven to me that students desire creative freedoms and want to use different ways to get their information across.

If you can't tell... I am still riding the wave of success of the unproject. I will do more of them in the furture!!.

Unproject Student Reflections Vol. 1

Reactions to an Unproject
The unproject was an assignment that had little structure. Most if not all of the work was done at home by groups of students. They used the knowledge of Web 2.0 applications to create a finished work that explained FRACTIONS. As with most projects some kids fly and some never get off the ground. This project offered those who just wanted to "taxi on the runway" or those who want to fly opportunities for success. This is a great enrichment activity for students. I hoped to not limit the creativity of students. I think I succeeded.

I asked the students to reflect on their UNPROJECT in thier BOB's or blogging on blogging. These are blog posts that reflect on the unit which has just passed. Here are a sample of responses.


1) Did you like the unproject?

• Yes, I like the unproject because you got to do whatever you wanted to do for 10% which made it awesome because you did have to do a certain thing, you could just do what you were the most comfortable with.

• I did like doing the unproject because it was fun doing it and i got to show my "CREATIVE" side.
• 
  Yes, I really like doing our un-project because we didn't have specific rules and instructions to make or do our project. So we were free to do anything that we wanted, like a movie, a song, a game and more! I think that this un-project was fun because my partner and I got to choose what kinds of projects that we wanted to do that was comfortable to us.

2) Did the unproject make you work harder than you usually would ?

• Yes, it made me work harder because we had to do something other than some paper work.
• The good thing about it is there wasn't any writing to do, it could be whatever you wanted pretty much.
• Hmm.. the unproject did not make me work harder than i would in a project because we had the chance to choose what we want to do with our project.. not the traditional powerpoint, photostory, etc.
• Actually yes it did. But i work harder then anything when I work on computer because thats what I mainly do at home anyways so i can just work on something and still chat on msn while working :D.
• This un-project did kind of made me work harder because sometimes I was trying to get our project to look like something that would satisfy me and I had to do a great amount of tries to get the right ones but overall, it was fun to do and I didn't think it was hard.

3) What did you like best about the unproject?

• What I like best about the unproject was how Jeff and I got to act things and make our own movie about fractions. We had some pretty funny times haha.
• The thing that i would of thought was the best of doing the unproject was that we got to choose the partner I wanted and the way I was to show our topic.
• 
  

4) What would you change about the next unproject?

• I wouldn't change anything about the next unproject because it was so fun and you got to do whatever you wanted. It was awesome.
• thing i would change about my unproject was to film a scene at school, outside, or even at the mall. I would like to make it like that "street magic" thing you see one tv and go up to complete strangers and ask then to tell the kids at our school something about fractions.
• I would change the quiz , the quiz was a bit difficult to make because you got one right answer, then you have to make up some other possibilities and its just hard cause its a smile question. So if i had the chance to i'd change the quiz and make like a game or something.
• The best part about the un-project that I liked was that we got to choose and do any kind of project that we wanted and that we could do anything for our project so that I didn't really have to worry that I am going to lose some marks because I didn't follow the instructions. Also, another thing I liked was that I got to show my creativity in our projects.

5) Did the unproject make you learn more because you were doing a different type of project?

• It kind of made me learn more because of how some people explained how to do certain things which made it much easier for me to learn about and I caught onto things a lot quicker.
• Yes, the un-project did make me learn more because I learned how to use something called "spresent" and that I learned how to use it's gadgets and make a whole new thing that I new I couldn't even make.

Some Students chose to answer in paragraphs.

• I had fun and I liked the unproject that we did. My partner was Paola. The unproject wasn't hard for me at all because all we did was explain mixed, proper, improper and equivalent fractions, and we also had to explain how to convert mixed fraction into improper fraction and how to convert improper fraction into mixed number. We also had to make a lyrics and we had to sing it, but it make me work harder because we had to use recorder and stuffs and we also did the project all over again when we had mistakes. The best thing i liked about the unproject was when we sang and rap. That was really fun because I went to Paola's house to record and watch, eat, and chat. I would add more informations and take the project more seriously and have more pictures too if we're going to do another unproject like what we did before about fractions. This unproject didn't really made me learn more because all we did was explain the different kinds of fractions, that's all, but one thing I learned was how to use the COOL EDIT because that's where we recorded our song.

• We had an unassignment project that was unassigned to us and i chose the shawn as my partner. We worked together on it everyday in the break, we stayed up at night, talked on the phone all day and so on. For me... I don't want to put this into harsh words or anything, but i personally don't like projects or assignments and especially unassignments. The unassignment project was just like other projects i've done... it did make me work harder because i'm a procrastinator, but otherwise, it wasn't all that hard. The thing i like about doing the project is i got used to using this graphics program called Adobe Photoshop... i always see my brother use it... i guessed with the designs it carried, it can make my project creative. The thing i would change for the next unassignment project is the selection of the choices we had to choose from. I would like to create a video with friends. The unassignment project didn't really make me learn more, because i explaining what fractions are aren't all that hard... i was born with a fraction on my head. It did make me learn how to use other wikitools and picture programs.

• I had fun with doing my fractions assignment. My partner was Sarah, and I think we really worked hard as a team. We made a PowerPoint slide show for our project. The project really made me to work more harder than I usually would. If Mr. Harbeck didn't assign the project, I would have been fail the tests that we had during this unit. The best part of all was to make a slide show. The bubbleshare didn't work so I used slide.com instead, and it turned out really well so I think it was the best part. If I have another chance to do this project again, I'll write the information more specifically and will have more pictures and questions to explain more. This project made me learn more too.

These are real student voices. I have not made any edits to their words. I will add more here later as more BOB reflections roll in. I think you can see that the students enjoyed doing this project... no I mean UNPROJECT. Take a risk and create one too.