I have been researching and thinking about modern textbooks for a few weeks, and I have put together this little movie on Powtoons. I hope that you will be edutained.
What do I use in my classroom?
The math series that the district just bought, Go Math, has much, much, more. We have slowly been gaining access to the materials, so I will admit that I am not sure that I even know everything that it can do. I have been trying different features. My students favorite is a skills practice that has four parts. It teaches the skill, which is often more than what we cover in one lesson, gives practice, has work on your own and ends with a quiz. I will start out some classes with part of this skill builder. I do encourage students to use them at home, but I have had limited responses to that very fine suggestion. In class, however, they love it. In the practice section it will tell them when they are right. This is actually how they refer to the program, "Can we do 'That's Right!' Mrs. Lopez?" It is hard to turn down kids who can't wait to figure out math quickly on their whiteboards for the chance to type in an answer up front. Nothing is better to them to hear that movie phone voice say "That's Right!" Then I go into a daydream where we all have Chromebooks and decent wireless network in the building and think about how this would be if they all had their devices to do this part instead of their low tech white boards. That would be so cool.
