Week 9

This past week included both the integration of technology into the classroom, as well as hours spent preparing for my graduate comprehensive exam.  To prepare for my exam, I reviewed concepts pertaining to Psychological Foundations in curriculum, more specifically the constructivist theory and its applications in the classroom.  Also in review was augmented reality, which I have gained a sparked interest in. I hope to be able to incorporate augmented reality into a math station soon to help motivate students as we prepare for the upcoming STAAR test.

This week students continued working on their robotics projects, and, due to a change in stations, students were given an opportunity each day to refine their math computation and fluency skills using two great programs: Reflex Math and Prodigy Math.

Reflex math is a program that I wrote a grant for and received for free for a year.  It is an amazing program that works on building students' math fluency.  Students create an avatar and play different games as they build their fluency.  Their goal each day is to reach their "green light," which means they have successfully completed a lesson in Reflex for that day. 

                                                      www.explorelearning.com
Prodigy Math is a program that I am new to having my students use, but am already in love with.  Like Reflex, students create an avatar and then travel about a virtual world defeating monsters and leveling up.  Students can collect special clothing items and weapons.  Teachers can log in and collect data to assess student math performance.  Best of all, it's free! 

This upcoming week we plan on going back to our Seesaw lessons, hopefully finishing and having students become "Seesaw Certified."