Multiplication Videos, Socrative, and @ClassroomChamps

This week was quite the whirlwind.  I could not for the life of me keep track of what day was what!  Whew!

So we started off the week with the students creating their own multiplication videos.  I split the kids into groups of three, and each person was given a multiplication problem to solve.  One person had a two digit x two digit, one had a three digit x one digit, and one had a three digit x two digit.  The students then had to create a "one-take" video where each student explained the problem.  I love this project because the students end up having to do the videos over and over and over again, explaining every step of the process.  Meaning they get TONS of practice with the process of multiplication.  Much more than I could have given them in class with just throwing some problems at them!

I've linked a few below that were some of our better ones :)

We also took a quiz this week to judge how well the creation of the videos accomplished my goal of having them understand the process of multiplication.  The students took the quiz on paper, and then submitted their answers via the Socrative app.  I LOVE Socrative!  It's a really great tool, and free app, that allows any student to turn their device into a clicker pretty much!  I created a quick quiz online and started the quiz.  The students "joined" my quiz via the app,and input their answers.  When they were done Socrative graded it for me! (Because I had already put my answers in online)!  I'm then able to download the results via Microsoft Excel.  So much easier than having to grade all the papers by hand.

After taking the quiz I was able to work in a small group with those students who didn't do too well, while the other students took boxes of manipulatives and began creating their own multiplication word problems that could be solved using the manips they were working with!  It was an excellent use of my time and everyone was super engaged.

Unfortunately when I told the students with the maniupulatives to design a word problem that could be answered using the manipulatives, one group misunderstood me hahahaha (creative idea though...by the way the begged me to take a picture of this and share it on twitter, because I couldn't stop laughing!  They said "we want other teachers to laugh too, tweet this!"  Oh my kids are hilarious!)

Finally, on Friday we got to do our first ever Classroom Champions lesson.  If you don't know about Classroom Champions you need to head over to their website IMMEDIATELY.  They are an INCREDIBLE resource to use in the classroom for completely FREE to inspire your students!  

This month's lesson was "Goal Setting"  We started off by watching our Goal Setting video by our athlete, Josh Sweeney.  My students are already obsessed with Josh.  After listening to Josh inspire us to set our goals, I read "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss.  If you haven't read that book I can't recommend it enough.  It was the perfect story to read to my kids to remind them that they can all do INCREDIBLE things, but sometimes things we can't control will get in our way and try to destroy us.  My kids were fired up, and we set off!  My students each created a personal goal for themselves to accomplish at some point within this school year. After choosing a goal, they also decided on 3 steps of action they would take to reach those goals.  Then we created a big poster to all write our goals on. (And yes I made a goal too....I told my students I really wanted to present at ISTE next summer and that I was submitting a proposal and that I was hoping to get accepted!).

After writing our goals on our poster, we hung the poster in the hall to remind us every day of what we were going to work towards.  Then I recorded about 25 of my students on our iPad we got from Classroom Champions.  They shared their goals and their steps and we sent that video over to our athlete Josh :)  

It was a day of lost instruction, but in the long run, a lesson over goal setting will go much further in helping my students realize that they can dream big and if they work hard they can achieve their goals!