Will You Be My Valentine? My Love Letter to Manga High

In honor of Valentine's Day, I would like to share with you just what has stolen my heart this Valentine's Day.

It is not chocolate, or an actor, or a cute puppy.  It is in fact a website. A wonderful, engaging website for students of all ages. And it goes by the dreamy name of Manga High.

I always spend way too much time during my planning and lunch break googling "fun angle games!" or "inequality games". Basically *insert common core standard here* and then games.  My google searches are so obviously that of a teacher, showing nothing but middle school resources and recipes for crock pots.

I have always seen Manga High games mentioned on different sites when the intro piece came up, but for whatever reason had never actually gone to the site myself because I knew it was one of the dreaded sites that COST MONEY.


via GIPHY

But one day about a month ago, I was scarfing down a ridiculous radish salad that I was pretending was anything but a radish salad, when I noticed that the website allows you a free trial with access to their site. 

AND NOW I AM IN LOVE PEOPLE!


via GIPHY

The website is easy to use.  You can actually assign each student a standard based on need or an entire class. What's better, is that the website also recommends to the students a skill based on how well or poorly they are doing.  

Because I am using this website with low level students, it is creating a wonderful atmosphere where the students come in excited because they can play a game and compete with each other. The program will actually show them how many points they have compared to other students.  While this isn't for every student, I have a large population of gentlemen in this class that always want to one up each other.  This has provided them a huge amount of momentum into actually wanting to do their math work! This allows me to successfully sit in small groups and provide small group instruction while the students go through lessons and games on their own.  

Overall, this year, my heart goes out to Manga High.  If I could, I would shout out my love for the website from the rooftops of my school.  Instead, I decided to be a bit more professional and meet with my principal to beg and plead for the funding to use all the aspects of the website.  Wish me luck!

For now, I will have to just continue on knowing that Manga High probably loves me too.

Interested?? Visit the website here. Be warned - your heart will never be the same.

Resources:

Giphy. (n.d).  Retrieved February 14, 2016, from https://www.giphy.com

Manga High. (n.d).  Retrieved February 14, 2016, from https://www.mangahigh.com

Resources

Every child deserves opportunity. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://code.org/

Go Animate. (n.d).  Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://www.goanimate.com.

Henriquez, S. (2015).  Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://www.goanimate.com.

Diving Into Math and Tech

 I've always been one to slowly put my toes in the water.  I like to test the waters before I make myself comfortable.  Teaching is nothing like this.  Teaching is a profession that you have to cannonball your way into a theoretical pool of experience.  You can't just ease your way in and teach a few kids while you get a hang of things.  You have to dive in head first and figure it out as you go.

When I was told I was teaching Math and Tech this year, I tried to whole "toe in the water" approach.  I slowly dabbled in ways to show the students different ways they could use technology while in my classroom.  What I quickly realized was that this was not the best way for them to use technology.  It was a million times easier for me to have them emerge themselves in the topic and develop their own knowledge about the concept or skill we were working on.  It not only gave them a sense of accomplishment but they then owned their own education.

Teachers everywhere are in the same boat as I am.  Here is a new class with  new set of rule and regulations that you have to plan for that you have never taught before.  You worry about classroom engagement, lesson plans, logistics, etc.  But at the end of the day, you know you are up for the job.

My first round of teaching Math and Tech was a learning experience.  I was dabbling in different technologies and apps to engage my students.  My favorite lesson I taught last marking period was during the Hour of Coding.  The purpose of the lesson was the show my students the benefit of knowing how to write coding.  The free website, Hour of Code, shows the students how to give game instructions for computer programs.  What I found is that my middle school students loved the independence of writing code with this program but also thought that this is something that they should have known how to do for quite some time.  I watched students who rarely use computers completely blossom in the class and realize that they had this potential in the computer science arena.

My students also started to create videos with the website GoAnimate, a website that allows teachers and students to create cartoon videos.  The students were told they could make any video they want, and then I gave them guidelines on how to make a video that teaches another students math.  They were able to pick a topic for a 6th grade student, create the cartoon video, and then we shared it with the 6th grade teachers in another school.  The students not only collaborated together, but also were able to all jump in at different entry levels on the website depending on how comfortable they were with the software. Many students went from making very basic 10 second movies to longer videos as the became more confident with the program. See the video below of a video that one of my students submitted.

This year has been nothing but stressful; however, I would never trade my Math and Tech class for anything else in the world.  I get to witness students grow and learn during the two marking periods and thrive in a way that is very different from the traditional math class.  This math blog will be devoted to sharing ways my students are learning and growing during the first marking period of Math and Tech. Stay tuned soon for lesson plans on how to incorporate art into math class with coordinate grids.

Until then -

One of Many Mathsters of the Universe

Adding and Subtracting by Symphony Henriquez on GoAnimate



Resources:

Every child deserves opportunity. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://code.org/

Go Animate. (n.d).  Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://www.goanimate.com.

Henriquez, S. (2015).  Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://www.goanimate.com.

Welcome!

Stay tuned for information about how I'm implementing STEAM into my middle school math classes.