Five for Friday

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! It's been a fun week in 3rd grade so here's some of the highlights from the week. 

I've been battling a cold and on Tuesday I completely lost my voice. This was a problem because I ha to introduce the distributive property the next day... only one of the trickiest 3rd grade concepts! Luckily I had planned on teaching it with a ninja theme, so we took a ninja vow of silence and boy did these kids get into it!

I first introduced it with drawing equal groups and "slashing" those groups into two smaller groups. This seemed to work better than slashing the arrays for us. 

 

We made little ninjas to hang in the hall showing the distributive property without picture support the next day!

We also couldn't be ninjas without headbands (black cloth from walmart cut into strips) and ninja star erasers! I'm so proud of my little ninjas in training!

All week we have been preparing for our Math & Science night at school. Each table group made a science fair project board showing how we've been using STEM bins in our classroom! The Stem bins are from Brook Brown and you can check them out here!

 

After students built different designs from the challenge cards they responded to prompts about what their challenges were using different building materials and what they would try next time. I highly suggest these STEM bins for a fun way to integrate STEM in your classroom! We plan on using them at least once a week or every other week.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner so next week we'll be doing this Thanksgiving Division activity! I finally finished it for TPT and added worksheets to go along with the activity. Included is clipart of food to practice the concept of division by sharing the food over several plates. After a few rounds students start to see the pattern of how it's multiplication flipped, and they get faster! I added the worksheet so after the activity I can check for understanding without the hands-on portion.

Check out the product here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Division-2871812

Are you a lularoe addict? I admit I have a problem. Such a problem that I even blogged about all the ways teachers can wear lularoe here

This is a new style called Carly and I'm loving it! I had to take a quick pic and share the lulalove.

Farm update- Meet Captain Hook!

Captain Hook is the dad to Indie, the baby we had this past summer. He's a handsome fella and we're hoping for more beautiful kids to come. He's just staying for a month... or maybe forever. I'll see how my talk with hubby goes :)

That's all folks, thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great and relaxing weekend. Short week next week- we can make it!

Rock on,

Diana

Using Google Forms for Grading

Have you seen everyone posting about Google Classroom? I would love to go paperless and have student assignments on google powerpoints or make collaborative projects on google docs but in our classroom we have the Amazon fire tablets which do not work as seamlessly with Google. 

If you're looking to incorporate more technology into your classroom but are on a tight budget, I highly suggest the amazon tablets (aff link). They can get many of the same apps as ipads and are only $50! If you keep an eye on them, they often go on sale in amazon for Black Friday or their Christmas in July for $35- you can't beat that!

So, if you're working with only a few tablets or if you're not ready for the full plunge into google classroom, I have a suggestion to get started and save yourself a lot of time! Using 'google forms" are a quick way to assess students and provide them immediate feedback on their work!

First, you will need a google account and be familiar with google drive

This tutorial isn't really for getting started with google or google drive. If you've saved docs on google drive before but not explored all that it has to offer, then you are right where I was several months ago. Here's how to get started once you're familiar with how google drive works. 

Making Your Google Form

Once in your google drive, you'll want to make a new google form. You may have to click on "more" to find where it says Google Forms.

From there, you will enter your information that you would like to assess. My students complete problems in a text book, so for the title I put the page and numbers they were to do. 

Tips and Tricks for your Google Form

Your first question will need to be where your student puts their name. You'll want to make it short answer, and don't forget to mark it "required"! In fact, I mark all of the questions "required" so that they don't accidentally submit before they've answered all the questions. 

I have found it best to make your answer choices multiple choice. If it's short answer then it won't automatically grade it for you. Now, there is a program out there called "Flubaroo" where it can grade short answer responses.. However, it must match EXACTLY to what you wrote or it will mark it wrong. For this reason, I just make it multiple choice and just let google grade it for me without using the add on for flubaroo.

To make the google form a "quiz" and give it a grade you will click on the "gear" at the top for settings. You'll then have to enter the answer key and the point value for the questions.

As I type this out I feel like it sounds like a million steps. However, once you get the hang of it you can make up a google form very quickly! I've forgotten to make one before and done it while the kiddos were unpacking in the morning. They can get very upset if they can't "scan their answers" :) They love checking their work with google forms!

So how does this work for the students?

This was my first year trying this, so I took a lot of time thinking about how third graders are with technology and troubleshooting some things in advance. For my kiddos it's easier for them to scan QR codes than to type in a URL, so I went ahead and made a QR code that always links to my classroom website. From there, I post the links to the google forms.

I've placed this paper right by their math assignments and the tablet charging area. When they're finished they simply get up to grab a tablet and scan. Due to the high traffic of this area I also put a code on the other side of the room. 

Once they scan the code, it brings them to my classroom website. I use a weebly site for free which was very user friendly to set up. You could make a QR code to go straight to the google form, but I didn't want to keep making codes and printing them out. 

On my weebly site I just linked the google form with the button for the day of the week. We submit answers on google forms almost everyday, so this helps keep it organized and to make sure they click on the right form. You could always just make it one link on the page so it's easy peasy to get to!

Once they click on the correct google form, this is what they see!

You could type the actual problem in for the question, but to save time I just put the question number and the answers. 

Once they submit they see this screen below. They can then click to view their score if you made this option available when you made the quiz. I highly suggest you let them view their score and which questions they missed. It's perfect for immediate feedback and I encourage students to see why they might have missed a question. 

Here's what it looks like when they click to view their score. The points show at the top and it shows what questions they missed in red. 

Now for the fun part- what you can see once your students submit their answers!

The grading is done for you!

I made a folder in my google drive just for their submitted math assignments. You can also change colors of folders so I've made it red to pop out- it's my most used folder in google drive!

When you click on your google form you can view responses and see overall how the class did, and also for individual students. 

You can also view your responses in a spreadsheet. I like to see all of the names at once verses clicking through each individual response on the google form page. The C column shows the name but I made it smaller to protect the privacy of my students. 

This spreadsheet is great to have, or print to view who needs reteaching, like my kiddo who got a 40 I need to address right away and review the patterns of multiplying by 9.

I have also put their scores on a checklist like this. This helps me view who did not submit their work and I also highlight the concerning scores so I can see any patterns of students who are consistently having trouble.

Google forms for the win!

I'd say google forms has really helped hold my students accountable and help me be a better teacher by addressing misconceptions and concerns even more quickly. I'm guilty from years past of not checking student daily work until a few days later.. what good does that do if they had been struggling? They may rock it in small group but struggle when they work independently and with google forms it helps you recognize right away who needs help. The students also know that they're work is being looked at daily.. They can't just blow it off because I will know right away! 

I hope you check out google forms and that it saves you some time and helps your students with that feedback! It's been a game changer this year!

Rock on, 

Diana

Five for Friday

Happy Veteran's Day! Thankful for all of those who have served and serve today! I know our great country has been on everyone's mind this week. As I reflect over the week in our classroom I can't help but be thankful to have the freedom to do what I love thanks to our veterans!

It's been almost two months since my last five for friday.. or any post for that matter! Teaching has been kicking my butt and it's been a tough few months but as I reflected I realized that many of the tough things that come with our jobs are blessings and we're not alone in feeling overwhelmed. I just have to remind myself of that sometimes! I shared some of those thoughts yesterday in my post: http://dianarowland.blogspot.com/2016/11/when-teaching-kicks-your-butt.html

We've started with our multiplication facts in third grade!

 

We fill up this monster on the door every time they pass a fact! They get to write their name on the piece they add. This is a great motivator, but doesn't point out anyone who takes a little longer to master their facts. 

I've also turned my desk into a little muliplication station! I put command hooks on the sides and used plastic sleeves from amazon (aff link included!) to place their facts inside. Each color is a different fact, so students grab whatever they're working on and use a dry erase marker. The back has the answers so they usually hold it out to another person and read off their answers while the other person checks. I get the sheets from math-aides.com 

I may have posted about my joke board before, but even so, I'm having so much fun with it I can't help but revisit some of the jokes posted this year! I've put this dry erase board above the hooks in the hall where students hang their book bag. The intended purpose of this board at the beginning of the year was for reminders, updates, and since it's magnetic I figured I could put pictures of the kids up there every now and again. However, I found this board had a much higher purpose... math jokes. 

I just wrote this last one yesterday after school. I look forward to the chuckles Monday morning, but also some of my students actually solving it to show me they know the answer!

Now that our third graders are getting into the multiplication, the word problems are becoming trickier. Students in the past just had to figure out if it was addition or subtraction... now cue the multiplication and division problems that use many of the same key words! I've been exploring a few different problem solving strategies and would love other teachers' input as to which you've found to be the best!

Here's some that I've used in the past... trying to decide! Maybe you know a different one that's worked well for your class!

The 3 reads is what I used last year, that I got from Simply Skilled in Second  and I really feel this helped my students understand what was going on in the problem. Plus it's only 3 steps! Only thing is there's no acronym to remember the steps.. So that's why I shortened the description of the steps here on my anchor chart. 

A teacher I worked with last year used this strategy and it worked extremely well for her students! It sort of combines the CUBES with the thinking portion by having the "action plan". 

My current plan is to stick with the 3 Reads, but for the second read they can also circle the numbers while they think of what they mean, and the 3rd read they can underline the question. I really believe that if they can picture the situation that the math story presents and what those numbers mean to the situation, it will make it easier to formulate that action plan and solve! 

Farm update!

Well, we're working on clearing the land for the future R&R farm! We've cleared the trees, burned the brush, and are now making piles of sticks to burn before we dig up stumps and plant some grass. Next steps would be to build the barn so we can move the animals. I doubt anyone will want to buy our current house with goats in the backyard :) Well.. I would.. but not most people!

We still have to prepare for winter here in the meantime. We covered the chicken coop in greenhouse plastic to cut back on the wind and help with the convection process inside! This was great to talk with my students about while learning about heat transfer! 

Hot Mess likes to think she's being helpful.

WA-LA! It has an opening at the top peak for ventilation, but oh man, I just walked in there this morning to feed the chickens and it was considerably warmer in there! I need to get one of those outdoor thermometers to see just what the difference is. Either way, we have some happy chickens!

Thanks for catching up with me, and I hope you've had a great week! If it's been a little rough, then hey, don't forget to check out http://dianarowland.blogspot.com/2016/11/when-teaching-kicks-your-butt.html and know you're not alone!

Happy Friday!!

-Diana