Megan Mongelli, technology integration specialist at Fort Mill School District, SC, offered a host of ideas for remote math instruction during the edWeb.net webinar, “Teaching Math Remotely at Any Grade Level,” sponsored by texthelp and edWeb.net’s “Building Understanding in Mathematics” community (www.edweb.net/ math). Mongelli, who taught elementary school, also offers a free activity for download on Teachers Pay Teachers.
When transitioning from paper to digital, take it slowly, Mongelli advised. Don’t introduce too many tech tools at once, and when you do introduce a tool, make it a digital version of something you have already done on paper, such as a worksheet.
Mongelli makes extensive use of Google Classroom, and invites teachers to view the activities she has created. To do so, first create a Google Classroom teacher account if you don’t have one. Then go to classroom.google.com with your personal Google account, click the “+” sign, click “Join class,” and enter code h773pb7. You can now use the following links to see Mongelli’s activities. You can also see this chart in the webinar archives at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SFTy7JMiTWaJWINc9W-saUokkogYSX98R7UVseBo98Y/preview.
Creating Digital Worksheets
- Complete on pencil & paper and upload an image of work
- Use the Google Classroom app for mobile devices to annotate on files
Google Slides allow you to make worksheets more interactive, such as drag and drop answers and fill in the blanks. Mongelli advised making the background as a jpg/image file so items on it will not move when selected.
- Drag and drop activities (PRO TIP: Color code activities for quick grading in Google Classroom)
- Fill in the blanks
- Insert image of paper pencil work onto Slide
Creating Quizzes with Google Forms
Seesaw allows students to use built-in annotation tools to capture what they know, allowing teachers to understand student thiinking and progress. It also provides a tool for engaging families in student progress. Check out the activities provided, then copy and edit them to customize them as you wish.
- Activities (the free version of Seesaw allows 100 activities per teacher)
- Copy and edit an activity to make it your own
- Use the video and photo feature along with text an audio to find examples of math in real life.
Flipgrid is a social learning platform that allows educators to ask a question, then the students respond in a video. Students are then able to respond to one another, creating a web of discussion.
- Building a K12 Mathematics Flipgrid Community
- Solving math problems with Flipgrid’s Whiteboard tool (YouTube video)
- Disco Library (Topics created by the Flipgrid community to start your discussion — requires a Flipgrid teacher account which is free)
- Flipgrid AR blog which provides directions
Desmos allows students to graph functions, plot data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, and more, for free.
Pear Deck is an add-on for Google Slides, which allows you to add formative assessment and interactive questions.
- Use this add-on to create interactive Googe Slides
- Built-in assessment and engagement templates
- Student self-paced instruction
- Teacher feedback feature (beta version)
EdPuzzle allows you to customize videos for instruction. You can also take a video of your computer screen while doing a voiceover with Screencastify.
- Article: Teaching Elementary Students to Tell Time with Edpuzzle
- Take a video of your computer screen while doing a voiceover with Screencastify
- Obtaining parental consent for students to use Edpuzzle
EquatIO allows you to easily add complex equations, chemical formulas, graphs and more to G Suite for Education apps and Microsoft Word. It’s free for teachers.