Saturday, August 17, 2013

Place Value and TodaysMeet


Student Journal
Last year I made a place value chart and glued those orange wooden base 10 blocks to the chart to represent ones, tenths, and hundredths.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  If you teach primary, you probably give the tiny cube a value of "one" while in intermediate (or at least in fifth grade) that tiny cube represents "one hundredth".  That can be confusing to some kids.  That's why it is important to stress the value you assign to each block and to model what that looks like.  Anyway, back to the chart . . .

For homework the students watched a  Study Jams Place Value video and my Decimal Place Value video that I posted on Edmodo.  Then in class I had them use decimal grids to create a place value chart in their journals. By doing this the kids could really see that one tenth or .1 was completely different from 10. Next, we made a class chart and went to the thousands place.  It was easy to see that if you start at the decimal and move to the left, then “each place is 10 times bigger”.  Just like the song says.  

Once the chart was finished (it actually took two days to make) we used  TodaysMeet to discuss what we noticed about our place value chart. Using TodaysMeet really makes the students think about their thinking.  Now when we have our WSQ chats one student in the group has an iPad and they post the group's thinking during the chat.  After we finish the WSQ chats,  we meet back together as a whole group and use the transcripts from TodaysMeet to "see" what the smaller groups were thinking. I have the transcript projecting on the white board the entire time. 

Using TodaysMeet is so easy.  Simply go to the website, name your "room" and then start "talking".  You can choose how long you save your group.  I decided to save my group for a year.  Imagine, I will have a transcript of our math thinking for the entire school year!  Each time we log on, we enter the same address and we are reconnected to our ongoing chat.  It really is powerful to see their thinking and hear the conversations that result from reading the posts of others.  I guess you could say we are Rockin' the Standards!
  
 







Goodbye!

Wow! I can’t believe I have not posted anything this entire school year! I’m not sure what that means. I have decided that I will be retir...