Digital Citizenship

Kids today have more access to more things than ever before. It's no wonder they're finding more and more ways to get themselves in trouble. There is no doubt that everyone has heard one of the tragic online bullying stories that turned deadly. In my classroom, I try my best to talk about positive digital citizenship as often as possible. The image below is displayed proudly in my room as well as multiple rooms in the building.  My goal as an educator is to teach the whole student- not just the student that is in our class and not just about my content area. Hal Urban puts it very eloquently by saying "[Students] are here for two reasons. To learn [the content area] and to learn to be a good citizen." If we do not teach students how to be good people, then some of them will never learn. Some have parents that will teach them how to be productive members of society, others rely on the schools to learn. When it comes to the question if administrators or educators in general should address student behavior online, I think the obvious answer is "yes!" In my opinion, we shouldn't wait until something happens to start talking to students about proper online behaviors. They need to know the expectations right away, and so do their parents.

In order to combat the cyberbullying, people need to me more educated about it. Parents need to be educated about laws and suggestions for how they can protect their kids, teachers and administrators need to know how to support kids in need, and students need to be educatedon how to be a good digital citizen. I don't care when the bullying is happening. I care if my students are being hurt in any way, and I want to do everything I can to take all their pain away. I don't think I have (or should have) the power to discipline a student for something that happened online. I do, however, know that my students look up to me and respect me. So, if I were to sit a student down and talk with them about something they said or did online, I know they would be embarrassed and ashamed enough to apologize, and hopefully stop. Depending on the relationship I have with the student/ family, I may call home and just say something along the lines of "I don't know if this is true, but I wanted to make you aware of it in case it is...." I would record the conversation as a protective measure for myself.


My recommendation to all educators:
1. Talk about digital citizenship regularly
2. Inform parents of how to properly maintain their child's accounts online
3. Allow students to openly talk to you about concerns they may have in their life

Google Classroom

I love Google Classroom. I used it even before our school became a true Google school. I post an announcement Every.Single.Day. that tells the kids what we’re doing that day, their goal (as an “I can…” statement) and their bellringer (what the should do the second they walk in the classroom.) I also attach any notes that we take, any homework that is assigned, and any additional instructional videos that may help some struggling students. The only problem I had with it was the fact that parents couldn’t access it without logging in using their student's’ information. Which leads me to: What’s New with Google Classroom! In a recent update on Classroom, Google now allows teachers to :

1. Create a question: Students can respond to others’ answers if the teacher sets it up that way. So cool!
2. Schedule posts: Make the announcement you want to post a week from now, schedule it, and forget it!
3. Send automatic parent e-mails: Parents can get automatic updates
4. Add Topics to posts: Categorize all posts

Obviously the one I am most excited about is the “sending automatic parent e-mails”! I am currently in the process of getting this set-up, but here’s what I love so far: once it’s set up, all you have to do is click “send guardians an e-mail” and it’s that easy! You can choose what to “share” with them, and they can decide how often they want to get e-mails.

I’ve also used the “Create a Question” feature in my Cheerleading Classroom page. I asked the girls what size t-shirt they needed. It was really helpful to have it done on there instead of on paper. Once a question is asked, everyone in the class gets an automatic e-mail saying that there’s something new on Classroom. This goes for everything- not just questions. My students get e-mails everyday before class letting them know what’s going on that day.

Other general reasons I love Google Classroom:

1. Absent work has become a breeze. Students ask for specific things things they missed. They don’t have to take time to copy notes because they’re already online for them. They ask for help if they don’t understand something, but a lot of times if a video is posted they don’t need help.
2. It helps keep me organized. Sometimes I get so off task I have to look at what we’re supposed to be doing that day to get back on track! It’s kindof like an online plan book.
3. “I left it at school” is no longer a valid excuse for not doing homework because they have access to an online version of everything. They know they can do the work on a piece of notebook paper if they can’t print it from the website.
4. Because Classroom keeps old posts archived, students can look back at former lessons for review

Calculators in the Classroom- Online and Otherwise

In today’s society we expect everything to be instant, and math calculations is no exception to this. Students deserve to use calculators because they are available and they are accurate. Without getting into a pro/con calculator use argument, I’d like to discuss the pros and cons of online calculators (such as Desmos.com) and handheld calculators such as ones on our phones, or graphing calculators. Calculators have a strong hold in today’s classrooms and will not be going away in the foreseeable future. Teachers and parents alike must learn to embrace these test-score-boosting machines that students have access to almost everywhere they go. So let’s talk about some options:

1. Handheld 10 key calculators: These are the calculators that my generation and older started with. They could add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers typically no larger than billion. I remember my mom balancing her checkbook with a larger version of this calculator that could also do percents (like tax) and printed each input after she hit “equals” Kids today have access to a 10 key calculator by simply swiping up on their iPhones and selecting the calculator app. Teachers need to be teaching students how to effectively use this tool!
2. Graphing Calculators: When I entered middle school my math teacher showed me her TI-83 black graphing calculator and said “after you know how to use this, you will never want another calculator again.” Boy, was she right! Around my math classroom you will see 6 of my personal TI-84 (new and improved TI-83) calculators that I use on a regular basis. One of my favorite things about them is that they keep a record of all actions done. This is currently the highest-functioning type of calculator that students can use while taking standardized tests. It can do all the regular things (add, subtract, etc.) plus it has applications for probability and statistics, graphing, solving equations, and much, much more. One of the only bad things about these calculators is that they’re expensive. Really expensive. Some of the newest ones can run about $150! As I teach my Algebra 1 class, I try and expose the kids to these calculators as often as I can. But, without a class set it’s hard to do. Only about 2 of my 30 Algebra kids have one of their own.
3. Online Calculators such as Desmos.com: These websites are AWESOME! They can provide all the typical graphing calculator positives without costing an arm and a leg. Desmos is pretty user friendly and gives the students a great way to interact with graphs in a way they can’t do on paper. They can zoom in and out to see how the graph “changes” when it gets bigger or smaller. They can graph multiple functions at once. Desmos even has math games to play to help reinforce concepts. I love using Desmos in my classroom because it’s so easily accessible. However, I’m careful to explain how to do whatever we’re doing on Desmos on a graphing calculator too, so they have experience with the calculator they can use on standardized tests.

Calculators aren’t going anywhere. In my opinion, as long as students understand what they’re doing when they’re telling the calculator to perform an operation, we should use them!

Graphing calculator graph

Desmos interactive graphing tool

Online Practice and Instant Feedback in the Classroom

My school has a subscription to an online based practice resource called IXL. IXL is described as “... an immersive K-12 learning experience that provides comprehensive, standards-aligned content for math, language arts, science, and social studies.” I have only been teaching for two years and have never experienced a classroom without IXL. I hope I never have to! What I love about IXL is the INSTANT feedback, the reteaching provided, the data and statistics for the teacher, and the selection of skills to practice. It is a very user friendly site. In a typical, low-technology math classroom students typically practice on worksheets or in notebooks. IXL provides an online based practice system that gives teachers great data and provides students with great feedback. The most important thing about it is students don’t have to wait for the teacher to grade their work to see if they’re doing something wrong! My students love that. It’s a great way for students to refine their skills. I have found some students practicing on IXL even though it hasn’t been assigned. One of my students from last year, who is now in highschool, even came back to ask me for a log-on so he could practice some of the concepts he’s learning in math now.

Another positive for IXL, or any online math practice, is that state tests are becoming more online-based. So the more practice a student has with going from a computer/ device to paper the better. They are beginning to learn why they need to write the whole problem down before beginning instead of trying to do things in their heads first. This has been beneficial because when it’s time to take a state test, they aren’t thrown off by the fact that it is online.

How I use IXL in my class:

1. As homework after a lesson. I assign an IXL topic instead of giving them book work or a worksheet. Most of my students have access to internet and a device at home, so this hasn’t been a problem for me.
2. As reteaching. After an assessment, if a student did poorly, that student is assigned corresponding IXL topics to practice and master in order to retake the quiz/test.
3. As suggested review before an assessment. I will give my students a list of IXL topics that will be on their upcoming assessment and suggest they practice those in order to prepare for their assessment.
4. As interventions. IXL has math topics ranging from Pre-K skills to Calculus skills. If I notice a student is struggling with something they should know from a previous class (such as integer rules) I suggest practice topics on IXL for them. It’s incredible how much it helps!

A few of the options for topics for 8th grade math

One of the data pages that shows what my kiddos need help on