| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clickers | This tool, in its many forms, is a way for you to gather real-time data from students. You can use this for students to respond to polls, answer multiple choice questions, decide what step in solving a problem should come next, and so much more! |
You can have a class set of physical clickers, where each student is assigned to a certain clicker number that records their responses. We also live in a time where you don't always need a separate physical tool for data gathering. There are several cell phone and tablet applications that you can use as clickers in your classroom. Here are a few worth checking out:
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| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Excel | This is particularly helpful if students are working with data sets and need to create graphics from the data. Excel can also serve as a calculator, once students have learned a bit about how equations work in Excel. | As data analytics becomes more and more mainstream, proficiency with Excel is a necessary skill or people entering the work force. Exposing students early will help them develop comfort and fluency with this program. |
| Calculators | These should be used to help students with large computations (e.g., computing an average of several numbers) after conceptual understanding is in place (e.g., students understand that finding the mean is about equal sharing). | There are so many different types (e.g., basic, scientific, and graphing) and brands (e.g., Casio, and Texas Instruments) of calculators. Your school may already have class sets of certain calculators. Take time to review the functionality of whatever calculators your students use so you can support students in the effective use of the calculator |
| Graphing Applications | Students can use these to graph functions and create scatter plots. These skills become increasingly important as students get to upper middle school and high school. Of course, students must have a fundamental understanding of the coordinate plane and the way functions work before using these tools for more complicated functions. |
Check out some of these graphing apps:
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| Solving Equation Applications | Students can use these for support with solving equations. These should not be used in place of instruction on what an equation is and what it means to find a solution to an equation. However, if a student needs additional practice, this can be a very helpful tool. |
Check out some of these solving equation apps:
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| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Power My Learning | If you are interested in applying a blended learning approach (combining traditional classroom instruction with individualize learning pathways on adaptive software) to your classroom, PowerMyLearning offers a free platform for you to create "playlists" for students. These playlists can include instruction videos, practice problems, and other activities. You can also use this to create individualized review playlists or continuing practice for students. | Blended learning takes a lot of planning. You have to create the playlists for students, ensuring that the videos and activities are aligned to the content. With all that planning, you also get the power to individualize your instruction and let students go at their own pace, which helps students take even more ownership of their own learning. |
| Khan Academy | You can use Khan Academy (KA) to provide students with additional tutorial videos and practice for content. You can also set up a "class" within KA, set up a plan for each of your students, and track their progress through the plan. | Anyone can access all the videos and practice problems for free, even if you aren't part of a particular class. This tool can support the blended learning model as well. In fact, if you look up math blended learning, you are likely to see KA used heavily. |
| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Graphing Applications | Students can use graphing applications to create graphs of functions or to represent data. This is helpful when a visual is complicated to create by hand, or if students would benefit from seeing another representation of a relationship or set of data. |
Check out some of these graphing apps:
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| GeoGebra | This is great software for creating diagrams and interactive applets. It is particularly useful in helping students see the connection between geometry and algebra. You can create files for students to engage with during a lesson or you can use the program to create accurate diagrams and images for your lesson materials. | This is a free software! You can download it to your computer, tablet or phone. You can read more about GeoGebra here. You can also review pre-created resources on their website here. It does take some time to gain fluency with the functionality of the software, so you should allocate time for yourself for learning it. |
| Geometer's Sketchpad | This is another software option for mathematical visualization. You can use it to create geometric figures, graphs of complex functions, and interactive applets. You can create files for students to engage with during a lesson or you can use the program to create accurate diagrams and images for your lesson materials. | This software comes with a licensing fee. There are different pricing structures which correspond to the number of computers to which your school will need to download the software. You can learn more about the product here. |
| Applets | These are mini-applications that perform a single task. They require Java and are often created using tools like GeoGebra or Geometer's Sketchpad to highlight a specific mathematical property. They are especially useful for showing geometric properties as students can explore several cases through the applet. |
Check out a few of these applets:
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| Virtual Manipulatives | These can be used to support students' concrete, pictorial, and visual understanding of content. Instead of using physical manipulatives, these provide online visuals, like algebra tiles, equation balances, and counting chips. |
Check out these virtual manipulative websites:
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| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Khan Academy | You can use videos from Khan Academy to create individualized learning plans for students, supporting students with learning new content or reviewing older content. You can use the practice problems to track student progress and gather data on student achievement by content buckets. | You can explore all that Khan Academy has to offer here. You can create an account for yourself and have students join your "class" to track their progress. You can also explore the resources without creating an account. Videos and practice are organized by Common Core State Standards. |
| IXL | This website has adaptive practice for different skills (including non-math topics!), organized by grade or topic. You can have students use this for additional practice on various skills. | You can learn more and explore the practice on their website. Note that you can engage with some of the practice without payment, but for full access and the ability to track student progress, you will need to get the teacher membership. |
| DragonBox | This app is intended to support students in learning and practicing algebra skills, like solving equations. You can use this to have students practice their algebra skills as needed. | Note that there is a fee to this app and that there are different levels you can download. You can read more about the app on this website. You can read review learning resources created by the Dragon Box team on this website. |
| MathSpace | This app provides users with step-by-step feedback on solving equations. You can "write" the steps of the equation, and the app converts your work to math type, explains what you did for each step, and shows where errors were made. Students can use this app for guided practice with solving equations. The curriculum is adaptive, so students will get practice that meets them where they are. | You can read more about the app on this website. |
| Tool | Possible Purpose | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blogs | You could use a class blog to have students post projects and responses to other student work, or to share other ideas related to your content. | There are several different blogging service providers (e.g., WordPress, Typepad, Blogger, Tumblr). Given the times we live in, sharing work and ideas in a public forum is an important skill for students to develop. In order to do this effectively, you will have to teach students how to effectively engage in public forums, the expectations for what goes in posts and comments, and how their online voice builds over time. This will require additional instruction beyond the core content you'll be teaching students, but it is an important skill for students to develop over time. |
| Google Sheets/Docs | Students can use these to share work, record data, and create shared presentations. | Students will need to create a Google account and have access to the internet to use these tools. In addition, they will likely need instruction on the functionality of the tools before using them for complex tasks. If you'd like to flip your classroom, you'll likely need to use something like Google Sheets to share with students what content they need to get through and students can share with you their progress with the content. |