Introducing Growth Mindset with Video

How do you introduce growth mindset?  How about using a video clip for the first week or two as your warm-up ... invite students to find the growth mindset connection!  Check out these videos for ideas!

Videos for Math Class to Support Student Engagement #alg2chat

We had a great Algebra 2 Chat on Thursday night!  Our topic was student engagement ... folks shared many ideas!  Check out the Storify here!

One topic was using videos in math class.  I liked introducing units with videos or the occasional video to capture students' attention.  Here are some of my favorites:



You'll notice certain sources are repeated!  Check out these sources for videos that fit your curriculum:

TED
Ted Ed
Numberphile
Vi Hart

This is a new one ... might work out well ... Media4Math Math Labs Playlist on Youtube!

Do you have a video that inspires students in math class?  If so, share the title/link in the comments!  

Front-Loading Instruction

Last year I used videos to provide an extension of tutoring - short videos that I created or found online that illustrated lessons already taught in the classroom.  Students used those videos to review concepts they found difficult.  And they seemed to appreciate them.

This year I decided to extend the use of video to front load instruction.  I ask students to watch 1 - 2 short videos (usually not more than 10 - 12 minutes) to preteach vocabulary or illustrate a skill.  Students take notes on the video ... but the notes are not checked ... just recommended.  Many students report that watching the video to know what's coming in the next lesson has already been helpful!

Here are examples of videos I've used for frontloading ... 

1. Before teaching parent functions and basic transformation, students watched this song.  The song introduces the linear, quadratic, and absolute functions with a few key characteristics of each ... all under 4 minutes.
2. Not every pre-teach activity has been a video.  I used Desmos to give students an opportunity to explore transformations before class.
3. Before teaching how to solve wind and current problems in our systems unit, I asked students to view this video.  I loved the graphics and thought it would help make the next class go more smoothly.  Most of my students this year did well on the wind/current problem on the test!  Hooray!
4. The other problems in the unit on systems of equations that give students fits are the mixture problems.  And although some students still struggled with these on the day of the test, I thought this video did a great job introducing the concept.

Finding really good videos that illustrate vocabulary or a skill is the challenge!  I wish I were more skilled (or had more time) to create some of my own!  

There are obviously times were pre-teaching would not be appropriate ... for example, a discovery lesson planned in class.  But most times, front-loading is not only appropriate but primes students to be ready for the lesson planned.

Note, the video front-loading does not replace teaching in the classroom.  This is not a "flipped" model ... not really even partially flipped since I don't ask students to work out any problems based on the video itself.  That is an area worth thinking about ... but right now, it is enough for me to use the video just as a preview of what is to come!

Exploring video notes

My PLC teammates and I are creating videos to introduce upcoming lessons.  Our hope is that students will spend about 10 minutes prepping for the next class by watching our videos and responding in their notes.

Tonight I created a simple discovery lesson in Desmos that students can do at home in less than 10 minutes.




It gives students the opportunity to figure out the effects of a, h, and k on a graph, make notes at home, and bring in their questions.

I have created a couple of activities in Edpuzzle.  I wrote about those in this post.

My partner has create a couple from scratch that look really nice ... they are public on youtube so I'm sharing her links here and here!  I'm fortunate to work with talented folks!

Learning new tricks! New Faves!

OK ... so if old dogs can learn new tricks, this older than most teachers can learn them too!  This week I've learned two new tricks that I already love!  

The first new trick is creating online quizzes using Google forms.  I know - we all use Google forms to collect information ... but did you know that Flubaroo, a script, will grade those quizzes for you?  It's so awesome!  Simply create your quiz (and yes you can embed pictures like graphs and tables).  Choose a new spreadsheet as your response destination.  Take your quiz yourself.  When you are ready to grade, open the spreadsheet, and select Tools ... Script Gallery.  Search for Flubaroo.  Install it.  (It installs in just that one spreadsheet).  You have to have more than 2 responses to your quiz to test it out.  Flubaroo will ask questions ... what key do you want to use (you'll choose your answers) and how many points to give each question.  When you hit your next button, you'll have graded quizzes!  It's really quite simple!

The second trick I learned this week is how to make my own instructional videos using my laptop and document camera.  I uploaded my first and only today to Youtube ... my own channel, woohoo!  This first video is very basic - just defining a function using the Frayer model.  In the coming days, I plan to work classwork and homework problems - typically just one per video.  That keeps the videos short, and to the point.  Near the end of a unit, I'll work a set of review problems.  Students will be able to hear my voice, see me working out problems and writing notes.  And it was soooo easy!  I used movie maker because it is installed on my school computer.  I used my document camera.  The only extra cord I needed was a USB cord that went from my laptop to the camera.  After making choosing only a couple of pertinent settings, I was ready to record.  I like that this method simply captures my hands and the paper on which I am working.

These are my new faves!