Can Math Actually Be Fun?

We live in a time that is extremely technology based. In this technology based society we find ourselves tethered to everyday most definitely has pros, but certainly has cons. We've become physically and socially disconnected from one another and while some people find comfort and from behind the screen, others feel detached from their friends, family, teachers, and coworkers. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, students of all ages have found it challenging to adapt to virtual learning and having to attend zoom class everyday. This is especially hard on our youngsters. Children thrive from social engagement and being in the classroom. Sitting and starting at your peers and teacher on a computer screen day after day just doesn't cut it grades could begin to suffer. 

My cousin is in 5th grade and I tutor him once a week for one hour. He introduced me to a game called Prodigy. When he told me he wanted to play a video game for the last 15 minutes of the session this past week, I was skeptical. Tyler said "Christina, I promise it's school related. It makes math fun." Math has never equaled fun in my book, like ever. Why not give it a shot though? It's video game based which kids love and if it will help with math skills, it's a win-win in my book. Tyler walked me through how to create an account since I'm "old and in college" (his words, not mine) and don't have access to a class code. Upon visiting the home page I could instantly tell that this was definitely an educational website. 

What's so cool about this 'game' is that everything can be customized. Students can design their little avatar to look just like them, pick a side kick animal that they'll train, and choose the world in which they battle- aka solve math problems, and they can change their grade each year they advance. 

As students advance and grade change their level in the game, questions become harder and more resources are provided while solving the equations. For example, I chose the highest grade option and it was 8th, I had a calculator provided to me when I was in a battle but Tyler is not provided with a calculator at the 5th grade level. All questions are submitted by 'casting a spell' and the feedback on whether or not the question was answered correctly is immediate. If the answer is correct you take 'energy' from your opponent, if the answer is incorrect 'energy' is sucked out of the player.

Overall, I was skeptical about the game but I truly believe that this is a wonderful resource for kiddos. The game is fun and most importantly educational. It gives the children the illusion that they're playing a video game but really the game is making them think and use knowledge in all sorts of ways. It's a great way to review for tests or get some extra practice in as it can be accessed from any computer at anytime. Parents can use it at home to help their children study and review too.  

Lastly, my absolute favorite thing about this game is that students can play together. This "old college girl" hasn't figured that part out yet but Tyler assures me that as classmates they can interact and play with one another in this virtual world. I think that is possibly the coolest aspect. It means that even behind our screens, socialization is still taking place all while learning. It's bringing a personal and friendship aspect back to learning when in all reality some students may not have even met all their classmates yet this year. 

My conclusion? Yes, math can be fun. 

Please visit Prodigy's website yourself to check it out!

Link: https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/ 

Sparkenotes for Summaries

Once in a while you don't comprehend your teacher, your course books have neither rhyme nor reason, and you need to understand several chapters by tomorrow. SparkNotes is an asset you can go to when you're confused. This website can assist you with getting books, composing papers, and studying for tests. Teachers tend to give a lot of homework and sometimes students' lives are already so hectic that they don't have time to read 100 pages in one night. Sparknotes is a great resource for summarizing chapters and more. 

SparkNotes editors' main goal is to help you figure out confusing homework. They are capable of helping out. They work with specialists to make books, web journals, tests and cheat sheets that will help you ace hard material. At SparkNotes, there are various approaches to examine: on the web, on your eReader, and with old fashioned books. One of their features is SparkNotes Guides. They have aides that contain intensive rundowns and canny basic examinations. This website offers resources for English, writing, and Shakespeare, and an immense number of aides for history, math, science, and different subjects. 

When you want to look up a book summary, you can search the book title and find not only chapter summaries but also main ideas, themes, character lists, and more. You can also find certain quotes to help the student write an essay on the book. 

I would recommend using this website. I myself have used it when I was in high school and didn't have time for reading homework because I would be so tired from basketball or soccer games. The late nights after games were reserved for math homework or studying. Even though English is important and my favorite subject, finding a chapter summary on Sparknotes would help me get through the discussion. Later, I would read the actual pages. I think that this is a great resource for any student. Even though I would want my students to read the actual book, sometimes it’s ok to find summaries. This website also has study resources and Shakespeare lessons because we all know how Shakespearean language is difficult to understand. Sparknotes is a great way for students to extend their knowledge on whatever they are reading. 

https://www.sparknotes.com/

 

An Aid for Math

It is pretty common for students to not like math. They think that they aren’t good at it and that’s it’s hard to understand. Which it is. But the best thing I learned about math and how to make it not so hard in practice. Practice makes perfect and with math, being able to practice doing equations and such is important. That’s where math aids come in. 

Math-Aids.Com gives free numerical worksheets to instructors, guardians, students, and homeschoolers. The numerical worksheets are powerfully created by number related worksheet generators. The site contains more than 94 distinctive numerical subjects with more than 1223 extraordinary worksheets. These math worksheets are an incredible asset for Kindergarten through twelfth grade. The worksheets are free and easy to download and print out. They also all come with a helpful answer key. Math aids worksheets a very customizable so teachers and parents can especially make these sheets that focus on their students' needs.

Instructors and homeschoolers utilize the numerical worksheets on this site to quantify the students’ dominance of fundamental mathematical abilities, give additional training, schoolwork practice, and save valuable arranging time. Parents can utilize the worksheets on this site to give their children additional training with fundamental math-related abilities. Utilizing the mathematical worksheets over breaks and throughout the summer will permit youngsters to remain sharp and prepare for the next school term. I use this website when tutoring because the student that I tutor needs extra help and her teachers don’t give her that. I use this website for her needs and it has everything that she is currently learning.

https://www.math-aids.com/ 

Code.org

During my last year of high school, I wanted to take a different type of math class. Regular math doesn’t interest me much and calculus didn’t feel like it would future my skills. I decided to take an AP introduction to computer science. The program that I was introduced to was code.org. It was super easy and fun to use. I think that this program is great for younger and older students to develop their coding skills.

Code.org is a charity devoted to extending admittance to software engineering in schools and expanding interest by young ladies and students from other underrepresented groups. They believe that each student in each school should have the chance to learn software engineering as a feature of their center K-12 training. The main supplier of K-12 software engineering educational plan in the biggest school areas in the United States. Code.org also made the yearly Hour of Code crusade, which has connected over 15% of all students on the planet. Code.org is upheld by liberal givers including Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and some more.

I think that this is a great resource that everyone should know about because it gives students the opportunity to learn a new skill without the expenses. I used this website to create my coding project and it teaches you about each process step-by-step. The cool thing about code.org is that you can see other people’s projects, look at their code, and revise it/make it your own. Personally, I’ve learned a skill that not many people know how to do and it’s useful as well. 

Here's my game! Check it out: https://studio.code.org/projects/applab/VZMwLBWBL-tJ2sOC3CQ-qD1tG0edSa0qIRdZaBC8gUc

https://code.org/

Gimkit Has Money and Wants You to Take It!

 

Gimkit Has Money and Wants You to Take It!

Gimkit is an online resource that allows students to play a quiz
game, or a "Kit" to learn class material. The "Kit" consists of questions, written as multiple choice or short answer, and different ways to increase one's score, displayed as a dollar amount. It is incredibly user friendly and has been proven to help promote students' learning and retention of class content. Gimkit was created by a high school student who built Gimkit "to be the game [he] wanted to play in class!" 

Find Scholarly Articles

Teachers always reiterate to make sure students are using reliable and truthful information when doing any kind of research. In Particular, they tell us not to use Wikipedia because anyone can change the information. Instead of searching long and hard for useful information, Google has a tool to help. It’s called Google Scholar. Google Scholar gives a straightforward method to extensively look for academic writing. From one spot, you can look across numerous controls and sources: articles, theories, books, modified works, from scholarly distributors, colleges, and other sites. Google Scholar causes you to find important work across the universe of insightful exploration. You can find just about anything when using Google Scholar. 

I think it’s important to have tools like this because students can be very gullible. I know I am because anything I see on the internet, even if it looks true and real, I will believe. When doing research, especially for a topic that needs to be extensively paid attention to, students need to make sure that their sources are reliable and credible. I find that using Google Scholar helps me find articles and theories that I wouldn't be able to find just by doing a normal Google search. I like how you can select a specific date or year. This helps when a teacher assigns a research paper and requires sources that are no more than six months old. Another great feature is saving articles or things you find, to your personalized library. Everything is safe in one place. 

I believe that this resource is great for students, teachers, and just about anyone. There are so many articles, academic books, theories, and more that you won't be able to find when doing a simple Google search. Google Scholar has access to free and reliable resources that will make essays so much stronger. 

https://scholar.google.com/

Grammarly the Much Needed Second Look

  Take a second to think about how many papers you have written in your academic career. Now take a second to ponder how much time you spent proofreading them just to find out you still miss something. Grammarly is a free extension that automatically makes grammar corrections. Not only does it provide insightful feedback in real-time it also offers replacement synonyms. I previously mentioned using it when writing papers but it assists your writing on any platform whether that be on an email or even on this blog post. In addition to the various benefits, I have just mentioned the true cherry on top is that it is completely free! Grammarly makes receiving and setting up an account simple and it probably will only take a few minutes of your time, if that. Although their basic program is free if you are looking for help with more advanced writing assistance Grammarly offers a premium program that does come with a fee. This relatively new writing assistance tool is something that everyone should seriously think about getting.

    In my personal experience, it saves time in the long run and I am sure teachers appreciate not having to correct small grammar errors. Furthermore, it has helped me sound more professional when I write. Grammarly takes spell check to a whole other level. Honestly, I have not any type of grammar expert by a long shot, and most of the time I can not spell to save my life. Thus, my discovery of Grammarly has exponentially improved my grammar.  

    Since most of us reading this blog are future teachers I would like to discuss what the future looks like with Grammarly. I am planning on becoming a science teacher and I will use Grammarly in my email to parents or in presentations for the students. However, English teachers will deal with this program more readily. All in I believe that Grammarly is a helpful tool to use when writing anything. 

http://www.grammarly.com/  

The Green Brothers

    In this day and age, people are consumed with the internet and videos on the internet. One of the biggest places to go to watch videos on the world wide web is Youtube. Youtube is a website where anyone can share videos of any length. However, some of these videos can be great for learning and the Green brothers are people to look out for when wanting to learn about certain subjects. 

    John and Hank Green are brothers who produce online educational videos that are straight to the point and fun to watch on their shared channel Crash Course. John Green creates American/World history and linguistic videos aimed towards Middle and High school students but I think they’re great for anyone. Hank Green produces STEM-related videos for people of all ages. He explains all questions anyone can have about biology, chemistry, physics, and more. These videos contain lots of information and are fast-paced. 

    Throughout high school, the Green brothers have occupied my history and science classes because they’re great resources for not only students but teachers as well. John Green specifically helped me study for my US history AP exam because he is so thorough and great at explaining difficult concepts. Hank Green, on the other hand, has moved platforms onto TikTok which is a social media app millions of people use. He answers random, weird science questions and makes short, 1-minute videos explaining whatever people ask. I love watching them.

    As a future middle school teacher, I want my students to be able to have fun resources like the Green brothers to help them understand concepts. I like how these brothers explain concepts in a short amount of time and are easy to understand. All of their videos are 10-15 minutes long so they dont take up the entire class time/day. 

FUN FACT: I actually met John Green in Chicago on a class trip!! 

https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/videos

BibMe is the Way to Go!

All through middle school and high school, students are taught how to cite sources properly. Students must know how to give credit to other authors and scholars when doing any type of research. When I first learned about citing sources properly, my sixth-grade teacher introduced me to BibMe. BibMe is a website that automatically creates the bibliography students need to put in their essays and projects. 

It has many options on what type of citation you want to create. You can choose APA formatting or MLA or more. The way it works if that students search for the author, title, or website link into the search bar and BibMe will automatically find it. Once you see the right one, you can click on it, and BibMe will find the author, publication date, and everything you need to create a proper citation. It’s will ask you to find certain information from your source if BibMe cannot find it, but the website does all the important work for you. This website has many other features but generating your bibliography is what it’s known most for. Another bonus is that it’s free.  

As a future teacher, I think that this website is a great way for students to learn how to create citations. Yes, I will teach them how to make their bibliography without needing this website, but everything is online nowadays, so giving them this resource isn’t a bad thing. I use it all the time and it’s one less thing to worry about when writing an essay. BibMe generates everything in less than five minutes. It really is a lifesaver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LeXLbGTF8 

https://indwes.libguides.com/citationmanagement/bibme 

Slides Carnival for that "Wow" Factor

Have you ever wondered how to put a “wow” factor in your powerpoints? Google Slides and Microsoft Powerpoint have limited templates when it comes to creating presentations. I was one of these people wondering how to make my Powerpoint presentations interesting without spending too much time. I discovered Slides Carnival. Slides Carnivals is a website where you can download free PowerPoint layouts and Google Slides topics for any type of presentation. All layouts are totally adjustable, simple to-alter, and free for both individual and business use. Other people make these presentation layouts for everyone to use. It’s easy to make these pre-made layouts your own. 

This website helps students (and adults) make their presentations more entertaining and different. Students are used to the same couple of layouts that Google Slides provides and their eyes are bored of seeing the same thing. Seeing something new, like a new layout, can be exciting. With the layouts come shapes and texts that are editable. 

I love this website because it’s so customizable and there are so many options to choose from. The website organizes the different templates by themes. If you want a formal layout, they have an entire section on it. If you want something for a nature PowerPoint, Slides Carnival has many to choose from. It’s organized very well and so easy to use. 

 

https://www.slidescarnival.com/hortensius-free-presentation-template/3272 

https://www.slidescarnival.com/category/free-templates