1. Flip your classroom

     A flipped classroom is one where students do the lesson (teacher instruction) at home, then come to school ready to practice (homework) the new skill. I make my own {math videos} for my students, but you can always find good videos through Kahn acadamy or on YouTube. I use Google Classroom to push out the videos. There is a class that is for math videos specifically. Students are also able to access past videos. Videos can also be placed in Google Drive for student access. These can even be made avaliable offline. By flipping your classroom, parents are able to watch the math video at home with their student. They can learn together! 

2.  Math videos with homework

     QR Codes are magical things! They can easily be printed small and copied on any paper. I like to use {QRstuff} to make my QR codes. Even if you aren't 1:1 with technology, most parents have a phone that can have a free QR scanning app. If the student is having trouble on homework, scan the code and watch a video that teaches the lesson. If the parent and student are disagreeing on how "the teacher wants them to do it," scan the code and watch the video! Problem solved! I have created an entire {math curriculum} that uses this method of helping parents, help students with homework. 

3. Hold a Math Night at school

     "New Math" looks scary. Breaking numbers down by tens then by ones looks complicated to parents who are use to doing these types of things in their head, without even realizing it. Many adults also hear the word "math" and freeze up like they are in middle school again. Make it less scary for parents, who in turn can make it less scary for their kid! I love how Brett Berry, blogger at {Math Memoirs} explains this "new math." 

   

    The first series I taught with was Pearson. We would watch a video "over the lesson," I would then pause the video multiple times to reexplain what the video was trying to teach them. When the video was over, we would do several problems together, then finally go to groups. After a couple years doing this, I thought there had to be a better way. A way to use time better, a way to explain to the students better, and a better way for students to take learning into their own hands. 

Here are my 3 reasons to use math videos!

1. " I just don't get this "new math. Why can't they teach the normal way?" 

     Hearing or reading this on Facebook makes me instantly angry, as I'm sure you can relate! Math videos that are accessable to students outside of school will give parents NO reason to say they don't understand, they just need to watch the video along with their student! Videos can be made accessable through a QR code, {Google Classroom}, or simply by sending the Google Drive link over {Class Dojo} or email. 

     Of course, this won't stop the complaints completely, but when you see Parent A complaining and Parent B ask what their problem is because they watched the math video and can help, it sure makes you feel good! 

2. Reteaching

    Students have good days and bad days. Days they focus and pay attention and days full of distraction and daydreaming. Having math videos accessable to students allows them to rewatch the parts or the whole video if they need to. They are amazing for helping absent students keep up with the curriculum too. 

    When it comes to regrouping, there are days students know it inside and out. Then a week later, nothing, like they have never heard of it! Math videos can be used to refresh their memory during their work time. They can be used in small groups, individually, as homework in a flipped classroom, or even for morning work!  

3. Videos save time!

    I am able to set up my math block to center around my small groups by assigning math videos for homework, morning work, or one of my groups itself. By having students watch the videos individually, I have more class time to work one on one with struggling students or expand the lesson with the high learners. 

    In my classroom, our homework/work page has a QR code on it that can be scanned with any QR reader. The code goes to a Google Drive link where the person scanning has access to the video. I also have videos loaded into Google Classroom individually (without the work page) in a Math Video Library class. 

Interested in math videos? Check one out for yourself! 

Want to see more math videos? Click below! 

This year, my teaching partner{Primary Scribbles} and I have started to flip our math program. We were getting a new curriculum, and are now 1:1 with iPads, so what better time to try something else new! 

In a typical classroom, students are taught a new skill and given a small amount of time to practice their new skill. Many times, students don't get that small group teacher time because after the lesson, who has time to meet with five small groups? So they end up with what is supposed to be a few minutes of homework, but according to parents takes 5-7 hours[insert eye roll here]. This is where we decided to challenge ourselves by trying a Flipped Classroom. 

A flipped classroom is one where students do the {"homework"} at school and the mini lesson at home. Each evening, students have a short video to watch over the new skill we will be practicing the next day. 

From there, I use the {Educreations} app to record and annotate on my video!  Educreations makes it so easy to grab the pictures/slides from Google Drive. The last slide is always a practice slide. I have been printing out the last slide and sending it home for my kids to do. I never type directions for the practice slide, I always say them on the recording. This helps me figure out who is really listening and who is not. The funny part about that is the ones who don't do it also don't realize I show them the right answer after I tell them to pause the video! Here is an example of one of my videos.

-Aimee

Hey y'all! Thanks for hopping over! Don't forget to enter to win the $100 TPT Gift Card at the bottom of this post!  I want to tell you about what I like to do when I teach subtraction with regrouping. Subtraction with regrouping makes me nervous. It worries me to see the look on my students' faces when they are completely confused the first time I introduce subtraction with regrouping. Last year, I didn't feel the students truly caught on for over a week of practice. I have a strategy this year, and my kids are going to rock! 

-Aimee

The best way to learn about BUILD is to click on the word in {}. This will take you to my previous post about BUILD. BUILD is my classes favorite part of math groups! They get to make their own choices about what activities they do.  Students use a BUILD tracker to keep track of the activities they do through out the week. Next to the letters, students write how many times they are supposed to visit each group. This helps me differentiate my Math group rotation. If you look closely, this student has written the number of times they are supposed to visit each group. This is determined by the monster page that is next to their folder. I fill this out at the beginning of the week for each student. This also helps prevent students from only doing Buddy Math each time they are in BUILD.