Is Mathematics abstract?

I believe that mathematics is not as abstract as other people's views.

I always remind my students that mathematics is not just floating around, there is always an application.

I was taking a selfie with my student then I asked, what did we just do?

All together they answered, "Selfie". Ok good, your answer is correct.

Would you be satisfied with that answer because it's true? Of course not, you have to dig further.

What I did earlier was sort of brain storming and then I started writing material that day.

Starting from the date of the day, the time and the title of the lesson "Transformations". 

We know that there are several types of transformations:

• Translation
• Reflection
• Rotation
• Dilation

At that time the next question, anyone brought a mirror? It is certain that women will say yes, please take it out

When removed all told to touch the ear. The students were surprised, after taking selfies, they took out the mirror.

When they finish the translation, they will understand because now we will discuss "reflection". Suddenly they screamed

"So, the selfie was Mr. like a reflection on the y-axis, huh...and the mirror can also be reflection about y-axis and x-axis depending on the position of the mirror". Exactly like that, kids. You are right.

Well, it doesn't need to be long, you can already understand the meaning of all the opening activities. Good job!

In conclusion, make the lesson fun show them the application of the mathematics to make them believe that mathematics is a great tool for engineers to make something happen.

I've discussed the same technique with elementary school students before when they were told to do activities with buckets and bottles.

Now it is proven that Mathematics is not a dream.

Read More

Blended Learning

The Definition

Oxford Dictionary Definition Of Blended Learning: a style of education in which students learn via electronic and online media as well as traditional face-to-face teaching.

Another meaning of Blended Learning

Blended learning is an approach to learning that combines face-to-face and online learning experiences. Ideally, each (both online and off) will complement the other by using its particular strength.

Based on the definition above some instruction may happen in:

• Class 
• Online / in a remote teaching environment

So we need to be ready and be prepared to shift from these two environments whether in class or online.

Planning your Blended Learning

1. Prepare your Learning Management System (LMS)
   
   There are plenty of LMS available and free, the most important is the way of using it. It must be well organised and easily navigable. Above all, it should be the exact replicas of our “in-person classroom”. There are so many things that we need to include in our LMS, such as resources, assignment, lesson, worksheets, tutorials …
   
   
2. Flip instruction (flipped classroom
   
   Flipped classroom is where students are introduced to content at home, and practice working through it at school supported by a teacher and/or peers. In this way, traditional roles for each space are ‘flipped.’
   
   
   
   
   
3. Interactive lesson

   
   Of course we need live Video conferencing but there are strategies that we can put in place to insure that the videos conferences are much more engaging and effective. Most of the time during our class time we just talk and students are passively experiencing class.

   So here, it is very important to use different programs that allow students to constantly be engaging of the content of a live video lesson. Some of them are promoting interactivity such as: Padlet, Flipgrid, Kahoot, Nearpod…
   
   
4. Focus on lesson design
   
   

   Strategically sequence lesson

   Use a suit of technology programs matched with goals  

   
   
5. Prepare to teach Students foundational technology skills
   
   

   Nowadays is pretty different from our era where our students as the called “digital natives” are much better than us as a digital immigrant.

   If necessary we can do a pre-assessment bout our digital tools that can support this strategy by asking “which foundational tech skills are necessary to introduce to our students?” 

• Touch typing
• Web navigation
• Search engine: mathematics of Google (introduce the use of good keywords, +, -, finding documents online in easy way)

Types of blended learning

Tools for Blended learning

My favorite Tools

Google classroom: https://classroom.google.com/

Schoology: https://www.schoology.com/

Kiddom: https://www.kiddom.co/

Moodle: https://moodle.org/

IXL: https://www.ixl.com/

ABCYA: https://www.abcya.com/

Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/

Padlet: https://padlet.com/

Does Blended Learning Work?

Strengths 

Not all students learn the same way. It encourages self-paced learning, providing benefit to both - the slow learners as well as the fast learners (Maniar, 2017).

• Students are actively engaged and they are learning by doing
• It transforms a largely “transmissive” method of teaching into a truly interactive one.
• It promotes independent study.

A 2010 meta-analysis published by the U.S. Department of Education suggests it does. According to the report, students exposed to both face-to-face and online education were more successful than students entirely in one camp or the other.

Limitations 

• Digital literacy skills are needed
• Management of group work
• A potential for some to fall behind.

Sources

• https://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-definition-of-blended-learning/
• https://www.teachthought.com/technology/37-blended-learning-resources-you-can-use-tomorrow/
• https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/the-definition-of-differentiated-instruction/
• http://youtu.be/hvYFToF97RA
• https://videomaker.simpleshow.com/video-technology-enhance-blended-learning/

Read More