Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Kahoot! VS Quizizz




            I usually use Kahoot! and Quizizz a lot in class especially for lower forms. This is a great tool to create a fun and interactive class. I came across these kind of applications since 2017 which when I was still in university. So, I do not have problem understanding the concept of how it was done. The great thing about these applications is that there are a bunch of quiz and template created by other people that you can copy and duplicate to make it suitable for your class. I find it super convenience and helpful as this will ease the time taken to create the questions.


            For today’s class, we will do a revision session for Formative test 1 which will cover topic integer and BODMAS (Bracket, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction) the objective of today’s class is that to make sure the students are able to answer questions on basic BODMAS. This kind of activity is so fun when I did with lower forms, especially form 1 students.

            Today I manage to book the multimedia room so each student can have their own computer. This is the first time I managed to book this room as usually it was fully booked. So, I spent 5 to 10 minutes explaining to the students on how to open the computer and key in the password. Then after everything is settle, I asked them to search Quizizz first. Then I asked them to key in the code for that specific quiz I want them to participate.




            Here comes the first problem. Some of them manage to get in and some of them get in and directly can start the quiz, bare in mind, I did not click the start button yet. Other than that, there are some students that cannot even register their name. So, I need to call the technician to help this sorted. Then only I know that it has something to do wit not strong internet connection. I did know that our school now have a bit problem with internet connection, but I never have this experience yet. This is so new to me. The technician emphasise that maybe only for this application as it need a better connection.

            Then, luckily I did create another quiz through Kahoot!. I asked the students to search Kahoot! And enter their name and key in the code. Thank God this application does not need a very strong connection.




We manage to get in and all the students manage to answer the questions. But after two questions, I realised that some student gave a wrong answer although the questions is an easy one. Then, some of the students raise their hand and say that they could not see the answer correctly as the projector is a bit lowered. I need to improvise on the dot and I came up with an interactive kind of solution.


Normally, the students will sit down at their place, see the questions and answer and click the right answer. But after we did some impromptu solution to our problem, the students need to stand in front of the slide to make it fair for everyone. After they see the questions they need to see the answer and go back to their place and click the right answer. It was so chaotic at first but after the second try, they all manage to do it smoothly.


Everyone is pretty hype for this kind of activity. Although we did not have a good start, but we manage to do it and have fun. All of the students manage to answer all three set of questions that I have prepared. I am a happy teacher J but for the last set I did prepare three questions Higher Thinking Order Skills (HOTS) questions. There are only 3 students that cannot answer the questions as they have problem understanding the english. I then asked one of the students to explain and I add on a few things as reminder for them.

Thank God we can still finished the class on time although we have some glitch. By the end of the class all of the students understand all of the questions asked today in class.

Click the link below will lead you to the application that I used above, Kahoot! And Quizizz.  I hope you like it J
                   

If you wanted to see how my students play and react to this game click the link below J


XOXO,
Miss Nadia Nordin
Thursday class with 1 Creative
05.02.2020



Tuesday, February 4, 2020

I fall in love with VISUALISER




            My all times favourite technology to use in class is using VISUALISER. 

         

           I came across this beautiful and helpful thing back in 2018 a few months after I started teaching. It does help me a lot ever since. The concept is the same as extension camera for computer. Where whatever that we write within the camera frame will directly being showed at the projector.


my usual set up 


            I have been using this visualiser for each class and the kids loved it so much. We can also record and scan the notes and change it to pdf. This is indeed the best technology for me. Yes, power point is a great tool but for mathematics subject, to write the formula took a bit of time. On the other hand, visualiser does not have that problem as the concept is the same as using whiteboard but with smaller scale.

at this time, i was explaining and the students can see instantly through the projector. 

            Today’s class is with Form 1 Creative and the topic is Multiples. I did use visualiser to help me with class as I already have the sources from previous batch which I just need to add a bit of the notes on explanation and questions. The objective of today’s class is to make sure the students are able to understand the concept of Multiples and Common multiples. I will show the notes and explain about the topic by using visualiser and by doing this, I did save a lot of time as I already have it written and just need to broadcast it for the class. I also have extra space on whiteboard for me to write the addition question or explanation.


By using visualiser, I can make the class more interactive as I can asked the students to show their working through visualiser. The students are always excited for this kind of stuff. This way, the students are more interactive and eager to come in front to explain and answer the questions.


However, again, for today’s class I have problem to connect my computer with the projector. At first, they can connect with my computer but did not detect the visualiser but then after a few minutes of trying the projector decided to not even detect my computer. It was awful. It was not a good start. Luckily, the kids are so comforting and understand that this is beyond what I can control.  So we did try call the technician and he did come but unfortunately, he suggested that I need to borrow the next class. Thank God, I can use the next class as their teacher is on leave. J .  As this is not the first time, I think every week there will be a class or two that we need to borrow and exchange with the next class.


After we step up everything, we then started the class. I did start the class by showing the notes to the students and explain it to them without them copying the notes. This is because if they are copying the notes while I am explaining, 90 percent of them will not focusing on what I am trying to explain to them. By using visualiser, I can have extra space to write on the whiteboard to put further explanation. After I finished with the explanation, I then gave them the time to copy the notes and while they are doing it I did asked whether they like when I use visualiser and all of them said yes. But a few students tell me that when they sit at the back, they did not the it well as visualiser tend to blur out if the handwriting is so close to each other and small. I then change it and make my font bigger and using a thicker marker.


The same problem arise which was the glare one the slide. I know that we will have this problem but for this class, all the activity room were fully booked so I have no choice but to use the class. So, my solution at that particular time is that I asked them to move a bit closer to the slide if they could not see it clearly.


As conclusion, I love using visualiser as it does not require a lot of time to prepare the notes and it is so easy to use.

The link below will lead you to some of the scan notes that I did for this class J
Click the link to download it and I hope you like it J


If you wanted to see how I use visualiser for my class, click the link below J




XOXO,
Miss Nadia Nordin
Tuesday class with 1 Creative
04.02.2020



           


Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Who wants to be a Millionare, Maths version





Hi everyone, I’m back after such a long hiatus. For today’s entry I will be talking about my life as a Mathematics teacher J and how I use technology in my class. Stay tuned. 

This year is my first-year teaching Mathematics form 5, so everything is new for me as I did not have the sources to begin with. One of the technologies that I usually implement in my class is by using power point. There are various ways to use power point. I usually use power point to save time on writing questions in class and at the same time to save the space on whiteboard for explanation.

The template 😊

 For today’s class, we will be playing Who wants to be a Millionaire  J by using power point as my teaching aid. The objective of today’s class is to make sure the students are able to answer various type of questions on Variation topic. I usually use this kind of activity as preparation for Formative Test 1 or to make the class more fun J.


This kind of activity is suitable to use for topics that will be asked in Paper 1 which is the objective paper. The students will be given 1 to 1 and a half minutes to answer the questions given. This will help them for time management during exam.

Usually this game is played individually 

Usually we played this game individually however for today’s class the students will be playing in pairs. My reason for this is that I want the students to help each other because explaining will help you learn better. I personally choose the pairs based on the results and their chemistry in class for example, Isaac is paired with Max as Max understand it better when Isaac explain to him rather than other people.

The student will answer the questions in pair and stand up to show their answer. 

Usually I do not have any problem with using projector in my class but today, the projector decided to be broken prior of my class and it will take a while for the school to repair it as the technician is on leave. Thank God, the next class which is 5 Brilliant are going to the lab at that time, so I asked them if I can borrow their class for that period. Luckily, we manage to get into a class that have running projector J. Yeayyyyyyy


This is one of the problems when using projector as we could not do anything if it decided to be broken but alas everything has solution J

When everything is already set up. We started the game J this is the first time this class will be playing this game as I usually played it with lower forms. It took me 5 minutes to explain it to the students on how the game works, what they need to do and what they’ll be learning through this J.


Everyone is pretty hype for the game J this is a great start. After we finished the first question, I asked the students what they felt about the game. All of them like it and said it was fun, but they said that the music makes them nervous and anxious. J I can totally relate with that as while they are playing, I can see that some of them get very nervous when the music is on because they know that they are running out of time. But then I explain it to them that the music is just an indicator, they should not be nervous about that. The amount of time that they get is enough for them to answer the question.  

Then we continued playing the game till the last questions. Everyone was having so much fun. There are a few questions towards the end that some of them get it wrong, so I asked one of the students to explain it to their friends and I will add on if needed. 

James Janting is explaining question 7

Aziz is explaining question 8 

However, they did not have any representative to win the final prize because the final 5 pairs managed only to answer correctly 9 out of 10 questions. The last question is the higher order thinking skill (HOTS) kind of question. I then explained it to them on whiteboard on how to answer the question. What key word that they need to highlight for them to be able to answer the question. At the end of the game, they realised that they all understand this topic well but have problem when it comes to problem solving questions. 

One more obstacle that I need to get through is that some students did not see the questions well, so I need to give them extra time. This happens as the class was during noon which is so bright. Although we did close the curtain it still effects the slide as there are glares.

As conclusion, I can totally use this game again for my class as the students are having fun learning J However, for next class I think I will not use class and book teaching room with more projector so that all of the students can see the questions well.
The link below will lead you to the copy of Who wants to be a Millionaire, Mathematics version J
Click the link to download it and I hope you like it J


If you wanted to see how my students play and react to this game click the link below J


XOXO,
Miss Nadia Nordin
Wednesday class with 5 Dynamic
29.01.2020