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TEACHER ACADEMY
SCHOOL EDUCATION GATEWAY

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CHRISTOS CHACHOUDIS , GREECE
HELLO, I AM CHRISTOS AND I TEACH MATHS AND SCIENCE IN ALONNISOS ISLAND HIGH SCOOL TO STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. I LIKE TO TEACH AND HELP MY STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND AND COMMUNICATE USING THE MATH LANGUAGE. IN ORDER TO MAKE STUDENTS COOPERAATE AND ENGAGE THEMSELVES TO THE TEAM, I TRY TO SHOW THEM THE BEAUTY OF MATHS, USING VIDEOS, PROGRAMMS AND MANY APPS AND GAMES. WE ALSO SPEND ENOUGH TIME TALKING ABOUT THEIR NEEDS AND BELIEFS ABOVE MATHS, SCIENCE AND LIFE.

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                       COURSE INTRODUCTION

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                       COURSE INTRODUCTION

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Date: 18/09/2017
Main points to remember
1 - Modules & Activities
2 - Deadlines
3- Discussions & Exchanges
4 - Duration & Workload
5 - Assessment & Certificate
A. Course Timeline and Participants
B. Your Learning Diary

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ΤΟ ΣΧΟΛΕΙΟ

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Main points to remember
1 - Modules & Activities
2 - Deadlines
3- Discussions & Exchanges
4 - Duration & Workload
5 - Assessment & Certificate

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          A. Course Timeline and Participants                         

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          A. Course Timeline and Participants                         

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Course Timeline

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                              Course Participants

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                              Course Participants

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If you’re curious about who is taking this course alongside you, click here to view some data about your fellow participants (e.g. age, gender, experience level). As of 13.09.2017 we are 500 participants. We are a large enough group to guarantee lots of diversity in backgrounds and views, which will be great for our discussions.

B. Learning Diary
The learning diary should be a COLLECTION OF YOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE COURSE QUESTIONS AS WELL AS ALL ELEMENTS FROM THE COURSE RELEVANT FOR YOUR OWN CONTEXT. A good learning diary will provide you with a summary of the course at a later stage and focus your attention on those areas that are especially relevant for your own context. A good learning diary will also show that you have reflected on the questions introduced on the course and that you have
engaged with the ideas of others on the course.
REFLECTION: I AM GOING TO MAKE MY LEARNING DIARY
C. The Learning Designer
To create this learning design we use a very nice tool called the Learning Designer which was developed by the London Institute of Education. We highly recommend that you create an account now and get familiar with the Learning Designer as soon as possible so that you are well prepared for the next steps on the course.
REFLECTION: A QUICK VIEW AT LEARNING DESIGNER
D. Alumni Group & Editorial Board
Alumni Group
Everyone who finishes the course will be invited to join the course alumni group. The alumni group offers a place to continue the activities and exchanges with fellow course completers after the course has come to an end. The group will be moderated by Irina, who will offer you
regular events or activities linked to the topic of the course. The editorial board will be recruited from members of the alumni group.

Editorial Board
The editorial board will consist of 10-30 people who have demonstrated commitment and outstanding work during the course. The purpose of the board is to review and rate lesson plans which have been flagged as noteworthy, in order to finally select 20 lesson plans which will be professionally edited, translated and then published on the School Education Gateway. The board will have a designated online space to discuss their reviews and ratings, and will be led by Irina.
So, make sure to complete the course and submit excellent work. Your work might be selected for publication, or you might want to join the editorial board! More details will be provided via email at the end of the course.
E. Netiquette, Copyright & eSafety
1 - Netiquette

We are an online learning community and all online communities have their own codes of conduct. It is therefore very important that we all know and follow this code of conduct to create a good working climate and ensure everyone feels safe. In most cases, these are just common-sense rules, good manners and other good practices normally observed in any social interaction.

However, it is important to take into account that we are communicating online and therefore missing very important pieces of information, like tone of voice, gestures, etc. As such, it’s very easy to misunderstand what others say or take words out of context.

Take a look at our Code of Conduct, Use Policy and Honour Code to make sure you are aware of how to interact on the course.

2 - Copyright

The Internet is a space for sharing and exchanging. But when and how can you use material found on the Internet? Can you use copyrighted music when creating a video/presentation? Can you use a nice picture found on a Flickr album on the web without a second thought? If you are at a loss about copyright issues or have trouble understanding complicated law statements related to terms and conditions of use of certain materials, take a look at this Childnet International website.

And what happens when you create your own material? Would you like to share it with fellow colleagues but protect it from any misuse? Take a look at Creative Commons, which can help you answer these questions. It is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of materials and resources through free legal tools. Learn more about the different licenses and what they mean. On their website, they have a simple tool that will help you choose the type of license you need. Once you have picked the one you need, you can download it in high quality and different formats here.
3 - eSafety

Your online reputation is the “perception, estimation and opinion that is formed when you are encountered online". Learn more about online reputation here.

What can you do to protect your personal data and online reputation? The golden rule is “think before you post”. Is the content you are about to share online going to affect your or someone else’s privacy? Can you be friends with pupils on social networking services? What should you do if other people post inappropriate images of you online? And if you fall victim to cyberbullying? Take a look at this guide, which includes advice and interesting questions regarding your online reputation for you to reflect on.

For more information about eSafety as well as lots of resources to use with your students, check out the following links:

1. eTwinning Featured Group: Bringing eSafety into eTwinning projects (you need to be a member of eTwinning to join the group)

2. Better Internet for Kids

3. Web We Want

4. eSafety Label

5. Safer Internet Day

The above texts have been adapted from the eTwinning Ambassadors course.
F. Course Intro Quiz

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Tell us something about the students you teach and your capacity to personalise your lessons for them. Do you have access to the type of data/information that is provided by the computer games in the video? Would you want this information, and how would you use it? What kind of activities do your students like? What communities do they come from? What topics are they interested in? What is one thing that always works with them, and what is one thing that never works? And how do you take all these aspects into account in your lesson planning? Share some general reflections on personalising learning in your classroom in your Learning Diary and in the Padlet below. If you do not teach any students, consider your potential audience: how could you find out their preferred learning styles before or at the onset of a lesson/workshop, and how could you spontaneously accommodate the outcome of such an activity?
REFLECTION: AS I TEACH STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS, I HAVE TO MAKE MY LESSON VERY PERSONAL IN ORER TO BE  UNDERSTOOD FROM THEM. I USE GEOGEBRA AND OTHER PROGRAMS TO MAKE MY LESSON MORE CONVINIENT AND USEFUL FOR THEM. WE DON'T HAVE ALL THE    TECHNOLOGY WE NEED BUT WE DO WHAT WE CAN.

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                            SELF INTRODUCTION

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                            SELF INTRODUCTION

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HELLO, I AM CHRISTOS AND I TEACH MATHS AND SCIENCE IN ALONNISOS ISLAND HIGH SCOOL TO STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. I LIKE TO TEACH AND HELP MY STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND AND COMMUNICATE USING THE MATH LANGUAGE. IN ORDER TO MAKE STUDENTS COOPERAATE AND ENGAGE THEMSELVES TO THE TEAM, I TRY TO SHOW THEM THE BEAUTY OF MATHS, USING VIDEOS, PROGRAMMS AND MANY APPS AND GAMES. WE ALSO SPEND ENOUGH TIME TALKING ABOUT THEIR NEEDS AND BELIEFS ABOVE MATHS, SCIENCE AND LIFE.

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                   Module 1: Why Maths 2.0

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                   Module 1: Why Maths 2.0

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WELCOME TO MODULE 1

Let's get started with our first module on the course. In this module we have the following Learning Objectives:

1. Understanding why traditional Maths teaching is often considered problematic and can leave many people with the feeling that they are simply not good at it.

2. Understanding how Maths can be made more engaging and facilitating a deeper learning of mathematical concepts and processes, rather than simple memorisation and application of formula.

3. Understanding why personalising learning as much as possible can help student engagement.

4. Reflecting on and assessing our own Maths teaching practice, and identifying some key goals to focus on during the course.

5. Identifying some specific innovative actions or ideas that we would like to incorporate in our Maths teaching.

6. Incorporating some key reflections in our Learning Diary.

7. Identifying a class and topic to use for the Learning Design course, and setting up a Learning Design on the Learning Designer.

In the Course Introduction we already saw some general statistics on who else is on this course, but let's get a more personal picture of who we actually are. For this purpose, let's build a Course Selfie together: just post a picture and a short description in the Padlet below. We would highly recommend using this Trading Card tool to create your own trading card that you can then upload to the Padlet.

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So what are your ideas and goals at this stage? Which of the above ideas can you realistically implement in your classroom? What other things can you think of that you could try out to make Maths more relevant and engaging? Prepare a mindmap with at least 5 different actions/ideas that you would like to put into practice in your Maths classroom; see here for a simple example. You can build on your mindmap as you progress through the course. You can use a free Mindmapping tool like Bubbl.us or any other tool you know, then share your mindmap in the Padlet below. You can even draw one by hand and then paste a photo of it in the Padlet. Of course, make sure to also include your mindmap in your Learning Diary.
MY MINDMAP

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English Español 한국어 日本語 Deutsch Português Français Magyar Italiano

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               1.1 Why is Maths unpopular?

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               1.1 Why is Maths unpopular?

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"Why a Maths 2.0 course?" you may ask. We've been teaching Maths for so long and it seems to work fine, right? Well, not really, if you think about the large numbers of young people as well as adults who believe they are inherently bad at Maths. Are they actually bad at Maths or have we maybe failed them in how we teach Maths? At the very least we should consider why Maths, unlike most other school subjects, has such a bad reputation. This is nicely reflected in the below video clip depicting how Hollywood sees Maths:

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An important aspect here, and one reflected in numerous Hollywood movies, is that many students quickly come to the conclusion that they are simply not good at Maths and lose motivation and drive to improve. And this is a problem not only in our classrooms, but also at a much higher economic level. In a time when students’ motivation for studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects needs to dramatically increase all over Europe (only 12% of the European students get a STEM degree, compared to 45% of Chinese students), it is essential we find methods to teach a new, friendlier, more enjoyable, more useful and less abstract Mathematics, a subject for each of our students, adapted to their particular skills and competences, a subject that is not merely a tedious hour on the timetable, but a vehicle for mutual understanding and for communication.

So what exactly is the problem? Dan Meyer, a US Maths teacher, outlines why he thinks Maths education needs a makeover in the below presentation.

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Math class needs a makeover -  Dan Meyer

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                          1.2 Moving to Maths 2.0

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                          1.2 Moving to Maths 2.0

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So how can we change our way of teaching Maths? First, it's important we are clear about what we want to achieve. The European Union's Key Competences framework provides a short and clear definition of mathematical competence that we can strive toward as teachers: the ability to develop and apply mathematical thinking in order to solve a range of problems in everyday situations, with the emphasis being placed on process, activity and knowledge.

To achieve this we will look at four themes throughout the course (real-world application, creativity, collaboration, ICT) which should help develop mathematical thinking (and other crucial skills) in your students and allow them to apply such thinking in the real world around them.

Dan Meyer already gave us some ideas on how to get there in the previous section, but let's explore what we might want to call Maths 2.0 a bit further. Take a look at the video below, where Dan Finkel, another US Maths teacher, outlines five important principles to consider for your innovative Maths teaching.

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Five Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching | Dan Finkel | TEDxRainier

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1.3 Personalising learning in your Maths classroom

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1.3 Personalising learning in your Maths classroom

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One of the key questions you should ask yourself before embarking on innovating your Maths classroom is how familiar you are with your students' learning preferences, interests, confidence levels, etc. All of this information will substantially help you to realise all the activities and ideas that will be explored on this course. Of course, the premise here is that you will use this knowledge to personalise the activities according to the requirements, interests and preferences of your students (insofar as this is possible), thereby engaging them more easily and more effectively in their Maths learning. Linda Flanagan goes some way into explaining this process in her MindShift article, How to Make Math More Emotionally Engaging for Students.

Technology can help us with this and in Module 5 we will explore the role of digital technologies in our Maths classroom in more detail. However, for now, let's take a look at an example of personalising Maths learning by using adaptive computer games.

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Online Math Games Balance Challenge with Mastery Learning

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Game designers at Mangahigh strive to find the perfect match between player skill and difficulty level in the standards-based teaching resources they build, and allow teachers to track student progress from within the games. More resources at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/mangahigh-games-to-differentiate-instruction-kristof-mueller and http://www.edutopia.org/made-with-play-game-based-learning-resources

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Now reflect on your own past and current students and their appreciation or dislike of Maths, while considering the following questions. Add your views to your Learning Diary and the Padlet below. What was or is your students' motivation and engagement level? Do they believe in their ability to improve? Have you had students voice their dislike of Maths to you? What were their justifications? Why do you think many students are frustrated by Maths?
REFLECTION: THE MAJORITY OF STUDENTS ARE AFRAID OF MATHS BECAUSE THEY FEEL THAT THEY ARE NOT GOOD AT MATHS. THIS IS A ILLUSSION THEY HAVE BECAUSE WE THE TEACHER HAAVE NOT MAKE MATHS APROACHABLE TO OUR STUDENTS. WE ALL SHOULD SHOW OUR STUDENTS THE WAYS TO USE IN EVERYDAY LIFE THE SUBJECTS WE TEACH..

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1.4 Twitter Chat: Strategies for engaging students in the Maths classroom

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1.4 Twitter Chat: Strategies for engaging students in the Maths classroom

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Our first live event of the course is the #Math2MOOC Twitter chat, which will take place on Thursday, 21st September from 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm CET (Brussels Time).

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1.5 Getting started with your Learning Designs

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1.5 Getting started with your Learning Designs

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As part of this course you will be building a Learning Design that will allow you to implement some of the ideas, tools and activities you have come across on this course (either via the course content or the course participants) in your classroom. The goal is that by the end of the course you have a concrete plan on how to go about innovating your Maths teaching.In the Course Introduction you will have already come across the Learning Designer, the tool that we ask you to use for this activity. As we will be reviewing each other's work, and to ensure some consistency, it is important that you use the Learning Designer tool for your Learning Design.

1. As a first step, if you haven't already done so as part of the Course Introduction, create an account on the Learning Designer and browse a bit to familiarise yourself with the tool. For an introduction to the tool, see here.

2. Next comes the creation of your Maths 2.0 Design: Create a new Learning Design, and at the top you will see some general fields to be filled.

3. In the field "Name", add a name for the lesson(s). In the field "Topic", add the curriculum topics that you would like to address as part of the implementation.

4. In the field "Learning Time", fill in the anticipated or ideal time for what you are planning. Don't fill in the "Designed Learning Time" field, as this is automatically completed when you add TLAs (Teaching and Learning Activities) later on.

5. If you already have a good idea of what you would like to do, briefly summarise it in the field "Description". Otherwise, you can leave this blank for now and add it later, once you have a better idea of what exactly you plan to do.

6. In the field "Aims", outline what you anticipate to achieve and what you hope will be the final outcome of students' work in the lesson.

7. In the field "Outcomes", you can add a selection of predefined learning outcomesby clicking on the + sign and then adding a short description for each.

8. Make sure to save your Learning Design, as you will have to continue your work on it in the following modules.

We will come back to your Learning Design in the next modules, so this was simply to get you started with the Learning Designer tool. Please resolve any questions about the Learning Designer as soon as possible, so that you do not get into trouble later when you need to submit your work.

Please make sure that all information is provided in the English language, as otherwise the peer-review process in Modules 2-5 does not work.

REFLECTION: A QUICK VIEW TO LEARNING DESIGNER...

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As a final step in this module, we ask you to further reflect on your current teaching approach by completing the following self-assessment table: Word version & OpenOffice version. Download the table, complete it and upload it on your Learning Diary. As we recommend submitting your Learning Diary together with your Learning Design in the peer-review activities, the completed self-assessment form will provide valuable context to your reviewer and hopefully allow them to provide more valuable feedback to you.

Use the activity to think about which areas you would like to improve on and what some of your work in this course could focus on. While not all parts directly pertain to Maths teaching, most of the aspects covered will be addressed during the course in some form. It should therefore provide you with a good outset from which to shape your learning on this course.

You can see an example of this table below, but please note that you cannot fill it in here; rather, you need to download it via the above links.

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Module 2: Bringing the real world into your Maths classroom

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Module 2: Bringing the real world into your Maths classroom

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Welcome to Module 2

Connecting Maths to everyday life and to our direct environment gives it a purpose and a meaning. Remember the question students tend to ask: “Why do we have to study this?” In order to avoid it, we can try to show them how Maths can be applied to other sciences, such as Biology or Physics, but also how one can use it in everyday tasks such as cooking, cost-effective packaging, and gardening.

In this module we explore several approaches for bringing the real world into your Maths classroom. Some of them are more comprehensive, like the project-based learning (PBL) approach, others are simpler, like using examples from the students' environment for Maths activities. Whatever approach you use, the important thing is that students are genuinely interested in finding the answer to the Maths problem as it has meaning and purpose for them.

Our Learning Objectives for this module are:

1. Understanding how project-based learning can help make Maths more meaningful and result in deep learning in a Maths context

2. Understanding how the normally mundane activities found in textbooks can be made more "real" and engaging to the students

3. Identifying a PBL problem or challenge that can result in Maths learning

4. Sharing a textbook activity and explaining how it could be made more "real" and engaging for students

5. Identifying and sharing a picture of the students' surroundings that could be used in the classroom to introduce a Maths topic

6. Incorporating some key reflections and resources in the Learning Diary

7. Continuing to work on the Learning Design by adding some activities

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2.1 Applying Maths skills to a real-world problem

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2.1 Applying Maths skills to a real-world problem

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There are many different ways you can bring the real world into your Maths classroom. We will start with the most challenging one, but at the same time the richest and the most rewarding: project-based learning. For an illuminating take on this concept, you can check out the Edutopia article PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit, which makes the case that "using project-based learning in science, technology, engineering, art, and math classes is a way to solve problems in real-world contexts."

Take a look at the following example of how a Maths class can be turned into a cross-curricular project that allows students to apply Maths skills in a meaningful way, allows them to see where Maths is used in the real world, highlights careers where Maths is used, and develops a range of essential skills such as collaboration, presentation, creativity, etc.

Of course, organising these types of projects is ambitious and takes time. However, once you have set them up they can be easily reproduced, and the amount and depth of learning yielded by such a project can often save plenty of time in other areas, such as practice and revision. If you are interested in project-based learning, make sure to also check out the Teacher Academy's course on it.

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Applying Math Skills to a Real-World Problem

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PBL in the Maths Classroom

Identify a challenge or problem for students to solve where they have to use a certain set of Maths skills. Make sure to identify which type of Maths skills are required by the students
MY PBL:
The activity was addressed to students with special educational needs in the age og 13 - 14 years old. They had to make a board of statistics measuring the grades of their fellow student of their general class, making groups of grades, and finding the percentages of each group, making diagramms and calculate the average and the interstitial of their sample and estimate the grades of the whole class. The project wasn't easy for my students, we had some problems but eventually the results were very promising. We worked using PC and exel diagramms and the teamwork was the key to achieve the good results.

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2.2 Textbook-type problems in the real world

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2.2 Textbook-type problems in the real world

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While a project-based learning approach is an ideal way to bring the real world into the Maths classroom, there are plenty of other, simpler ways to make the link to real-world situations. In fact, most textbooks feature activities that give examples from real-world situations in sports, business or many other areas. The problem is that these situations usually remain very abstract for the students, and the question that is asked of them merely functions as an excuse to apply a certain set of integers into a formula of sorts.

Dan Meyer, who we already met in Module 1, therefore looked at some textbook activities and decided to make them more real and tangible for the students. Most importantly, he wanted to start with a question and make the students unable to resist answering it. Take a look at the video below to discover how he did this through a series of experiments.

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Textbook type problems in the real world

"Last year i taught my students how to calculate the real cost of a loan, credit card, and other types of borrowing.  in order to achieve better results we went to a bank we talked with the manager who gave us usefull information and  explained to the students how a bank works. In the class we used :

Paper credit cards

pictures or photos of popular cars/motorcycles with prices (each with different interest rates and terms)

calculators (optional),

paper

pencil

and we made workteams, where each team had to calculate the cost of a buy of 1000 euros in one year. My students were all  surprised by the cost of purchases with interest added. This is something that i think they'll never forget!!!"

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An even simpler means of bringing the real world into your Maths classroom is simply showing your students that they are surrounded by Maths every day. This is a nice way to engage students and to pique their curiosity, and accordingly it is a great way to start a lesson. For instance, Math in the Real World uses a mathematical backdrop to teach students personal finance and economic concepts, presenting the subject from a more practical angle. The following video also offers some nice examples of this tactic:

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Maths in everyday life

Take a picture of something that would be in your students' surrounding or everyday life and briefly explain how you could use it to start out a lesson on a certain Maths topic.
In order to give my students how useful and practical is maths in real life  and understand the meaning of functions we made a virtual market in class and using virtual money we tried to figure the amount of products we could get with the money each one had. So all students understood the meaning of fuctions/norms.

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Part of bringing the real world into the Maths classroom is showing how important Maths is for students' future careers and establishing links to a range of professions which use Maths on a regular basis. And given the huge shortage of professionals with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) qualifications in Europe, we should always think about how our teaching can motivate students to continue studying Maths and pursuing a Maths-related career.

Make sure to browse the Experiencing Mathematics website where you'll find plenty of example activities and problems to use in a range of mathematical areas. For each area there are guidelines on which professions would come across these types of Maths problems, as well as some suggestions for finding more resources.

The following video provides an overview of how Maths is the foundation of weather forecasting. It can function as a career-advice video for students or as a starting point for a project-based learning activity focusing on students producing their own weather forecasts.

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Maths and real-world jobs

In order to motivate my students to continue studing maths, from time to time i call some  experts to my class or via skype to explain the wai they work the nature of their job and the math problems they have to solve. Once last year we called a paintworker and he explained how he calculates the amount of paint he buys when he paints a house and the way he calculates the price he asks. All students were amazed because they thought that maths wasn't necessary for him to know maths.

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There are plenty of resources and tools out there that can help you bring the real world into your Maths classroom. Take a look:

Tasks such as treasure hunts can combine Google Maps, Geometry and information about the environment. Here is an article about how to use Google Maps in Maths classrooms and some great inspiration can also be found on Real World Math, a site that offers ideas and resources for using Google Earth in the Maths curriculum.

Yummy Maths is another site that aims “to provide teachers with an easy way to bring real life into their math classrooms” according to the idea that “when math is explored in contexts that are familiar and of interest to students, they will be more engaged to do math, reason, think critically, question and communicate.”

Maths can also be connected with sports, news, fashion, music or even space travel (see next point).

NASA offers a wide array of Maths-related activities on its site (http://www.nasa.gov/) and here you'll find some NASA videos about real-world use of Maths.

You can also take a look at the Algebra in the Real World Movies for more ideas!

In this blog post the author describes a useful tool for helping students to model and work through the problems for addition, multiplication, fractions, and ratios and see how algebraic reasoning works, by using interactive templates made of coloured blocks. Students are also given feedback about using the correct sequence for solving the problems. The tool is suitable for use on interactive whiteboards, as well.

Living Maths books offers a list of books that present real-life concepts in a relevant context, and reinforces Maths skills.

Last but not least, help your students experience Mathematics, make hypotheses and trials, validate and demonstrate in a virtual exhibition you can find here.
REFLECTION:

Further resources

Know of any other resources or tools? Share them here.

Here in my country we have
www.maths4u.edu.gr
http://dschool.edu.gr
http://photodentro.edu.gr
and some from the web
http://www.maths4all.co.in
http://www.coolmath-games.com

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2.6 Continuing with your Learning Designs

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2.6 Continuing with your Learning Designs

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In Module 1 you started setting up your Learning Design. For this module it's time to get more concrete and start adding some activities. You should begin with a starter activity, ensuring that a link to the real world is made right from the start. It is essential that students are engaged and want to find out the answer not primarily because you tell them to, but because they are genuinely curious. Think about how to achieve this, taking into account the different areas addressed in this module. Continue by adding at least one more activity, potentially more, depending on the topic and focus of your lesson. Bear in mind that you will continue working on this Learning Design in the next modules, so you might revise and add more activities in the next few weeks; there's no need to add lots of activities right now.

Take into account the following criteria, which are part of the final assessment rubric that will be used on the course.

The starting point of the lesson/project stimulates curiosity and is directly connected to students’ life; for example, it addresses issues in their community or meets a real need beyond the classroom.
The mathematical content is relevant to the students’ needs and interests and based on their previous experiences and knowledge.
Math learning is embedded in real-world contexts, and the activities allow students to understand how the procedures they learn are applied in real-life situations.
Some of the learning activities are carried out outside the classroom, for example measurements, observations, etc.
The teacher offers access to mathematical knowledge through different channels (intuitive, modeling, diagrams, abstract, applicative) and on different levels of math proficiency.
In the next section you can submit your provisional Learning Design for peer review. That way, you'll be able to get some first feedback from your peers about your activities. However, this is optional! At the end of the course you will have to submit your work and it will be reviewed using these rubrics. It would therefore help if you already took a close look at them to better understand how your Learning Design should develop as you continue working on it throughout the course.

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2.7 OPTIONAL Peer Review - Give and Get Feedback on your Learning Design

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2.7 OPTIONAL Peer Review - Give and Get Feedback on your Learning Design

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As identified in the Course Introduction, Modules 2-4 all contain an optional peer-review activity that allows you to submit your ongoing work on the Learning Design to your peers for some feedback. This is OPTIONAL: it is not necessary to do this for the course certificate. However, it should help you to improve your work on the Learning Design and the process of reviewing someone else's work will further help you develop your own thinking and give you new ideas.

Please follow these steps in order to take part in the peer-review activity:

Paste the link to your Learning Design in the text box further below. Don't just take the URL from your browser, but use the sharing function of the Learning Designer. You can see how to do this here.
Paste the link to your Learning Diary in the text box further below. This is important for your reviewer to better understand the context in which you are working and thereby provide a more appropriate review.
Submit both links, ideally before the end of the week so that you'll get timely feedback. However, the final deadline to submit is Wednesday, 25th October, 23:59h CET.
Wait until you receive an email informing you that there is work for you to review.
For the reviews, take a look at the Learning Designs together with their Learning Diaries and complete the first section of this rubric document (the part that focuses on real-world connections). For an ODT version, see here. Make sure to add some explanatory comments and recommendations in the relevant section and don't just give a score for each category.
Submit your completed rubric documents as soon as possible, so that your fellow participants can benefit from your feedback as they continue with their work. That being said, the final deadline is Wednesday 1st November, 23:59 CET.
This is my first attempt of my lesson using the Learning Designer:
https://v.gd/XHz5lo

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                                   Module 3

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                                   Module 3

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Creativity in your Maths classroom

WELCOME TO MODULE 3

Generally speaking, Maths is valued for developing our students’ analytical and critical thinking rather than their creative thinking, and in most cases this is also the focus of the Maths curriculum. But one of the most wonderful capacities of childhood is creativity and curiosity. How can we nurture those in our Maths classes?

In this module we explore a range of cross-curricular Maths activities, in particular subjects/areas that are usually thought to require - and to stimulate - our students' creativity. You might not want to or be able to realise all of them, but they should inspire you to see connections between subjects that you previously might not have been aware of. After this module, why not go to one of your colleagues in the sports, dance, arts or music department and suggest a joint project? Can you convince them?

Our Learning Objectives for this module are:

1. Acquiring a range of ideas for linking Maths to "creative" subjects and areas such as music, crafts, dance, etc.

2. Sharing a range of resources and ideas on how to combine Maths with other subjects

3. Continuing to work on the Learning Design

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                       3.1 Music and Maths

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                       3.1 Music and Maths

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Music and Maths are more natural partners than you might initially think. Playing musical instruments and composing music requires you to think in rhythms and patterns, as well as to recognise these and manipulate them, something quite mathematical in nature. Take a look at the video below to get an idea of how such a concrete link between the two disciplines can be established.
https://youtu.be/6b5MM4x-3aQ

Now, this will be difficult for most of us to reproduce in our own classroom, but even providing these types of examples can spark an interest in students who thus far might not have been engaged, and who preferred to make or listen to music.

It is these very students who we can further engage, not only by making music ourselves, but by providing the students the option to use music for learning Maths. Students might use songs or rhythms to learn, for example by chanting the timetable and thereby learning it 'by heart'. We can nurture this type of learning by integrating into our lessons activities that encourage students' musical talents; by teaching them about mathematical notions in music; by playing music for the class and assigning tasks that involve creating songs about the material being taught; creating a musical about an episode in the history of Math; or playing background music for various activities and different moods in the classroom.

A nice example can be viewed below, featuring moderator Irina recording a radio show with her students in Maths class:
https://soundcloud.com/irinavasilescu/the-numbers-show

Below you can find some other nice examples of how music and maths can be combined in an engaging manner.
https://youtu.be/b3X1S3T7udY

REFLECTION:

Music and Maths

It's a fact that maths are everywhere in our life. Art, music, literature, etc. It is crucial to use all our ideas to make maths interesting and usable for all our students. Music is one of the most popular teaching tool we are able to use. In my class we try to make songs and poems in order to learn mathematical types. It is very common to do that but i really liked the ideas of the videos above and I am thinking to try and make something simmilar. Thanks!!!

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                          3.2 Dance and Maths

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                          3.2 Dance and Maths

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In conjunction with the previous section on music, we wish to show you how dance and maths can be combined. This is a great way to help kinesthetic learners memorise or make sense of mathematical concepts. Such learners enjoy all types of sports and physical activities, they need to be touching and manipulating objects, moving around and acting. For these learners, performing physical actions can lead to learning mental operations, i.e. the mathematical notions are represented by actions.

Some examples:

Dancing by the numbers and bringing the groove back to Maths - studying number patterns using dance. See this article and the videos on the main page.

A really nice lesson plan on data analysis. It involves jumping and playing, so it is guaranteed to engage your students and help them learn statistics in a fun way! See also our example on "Jumping Statistics" here!

Musical fraction bars that your students can use to make melodies with fractions. In so doing, they may begin to see a connection between the order and symmetry of Maths and the order and symmetry of music.

While it might be difficult to immediately turn the dance examples below into reality in your classroom, hopefully they will give you some inspiration regarding what is possible and how you could establish some collaborative projects with other school subjects.

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How I Teach Math & Dance at the Same Time

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Dancing statistics: explaining the statistical concept of variance through dance

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Dance and Maths

I knew that dance and maths was related in many ways but the video above gave me several ideas of using similar patterns and actions to make my students to understand some statistical and not only structures

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                      3.3 Crafts and Maths

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                      3.3 Crafts and Maths

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For some ideas and inspiration on how to conjoin arts and crafts with Maths, see the links and videos below.

Origami is a great activity and there are lots of ideas and resources to explore and use, such as the ones here or the origami proof in the video further below. Here is our origami workshop!

Proofs using paper constructions. Folding fractions. Volumes proofs. More paper folding!

Math with legos

Geometry bake-off: sconic sections, toast tangrams and the Möbius bagel. Yummy!

String art combines geometry and the creative process to form complex-looking designs.

Constructing a wide array of things, such as polyhedra, rockets or a bridge, but also creating Valentine, fractal or Moebius cards or even hair braids or a kite.

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Origami Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

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Crafts and Maths

Why not give one of the above activities a try yourself and take a picture of the result? For example, can you craft a nice packaging for Mr. Cube? Do you have further ideas or resources to link crafts and maths? Share them here.

This lesson we take is very interesting, although we all use some patterns during our lessons, I personally get more ideas to make learning more exciting and easy for my students.

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             3.4 Writing, Storytelling and Maths

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             3.4 Writing, Storytelling and Maths

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Writing and storytelling are usually considered staples of language or literature lessons, but with some creativity they can also be used in the Maths classroom. Here are some ideas:

Blogging is widely used in teaching nowadays, even in Maths. There are many blogging platforms, each with its pluses and minuses. It’s a rewarding and collaborative learning activity that pupils usually enjoy for its teamwork and visibility. Here is just one of the countless examples one can find on the web.

A Maths magazine with a lot of collaborative work.

Learning Maths through fiction writing. The students in this project wrote a novel inspired by The Number Devil, which incorporated writing, art, and the beauty of math.

A funny activity could be writing Maths poems. The mathematical aspect can consist in the content or the fixed form of the lines: the number of words on each line can follow a pattern. You can use the Fibonacci numbers (as in the Mixbook on the side of the page) or the digits of the number Pi (these are called “piems” instead of “poems”). Here is an example, and more in this ebook.

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Writing, Storytelling and Maths

Why not give one of the above activities a try yourself and see if what you come up with. For example write a Mathematical poem and share it with the course community on the Padlet here. Do you have any other ideas or resources on how to link writing, storytelling and maths?

'Last year i made a story about the migrants who come in my country to avoid war and the drama little children live. I came up with this as a diathematical lesson using ITC and providing information for the situation of newly arrived migrants. The students were very happy to work in teams to make this short movie. thi is what we made.'
https://www.dropbox.com/s/02b9nnl7xubkuf9/MY%20STORY.X.X..mp4?dl=0

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        3.5 Continuing your Learning Design

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        3.5 Continuing your Learning Design

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It's time to continue working on our Learning Designs. Make sure to add at least one activity that focuses on a cross-curricular aspect involving subjects/areas that are usually thought to require and stimulate creativity.

Take into account the following criteria, which are part of the final assessment rubric that will be used on the course.

1. The lesson has a cross-curricular aspect, for example using a connection between math and an apparently opposite domain or referring to the use of math in other sciences.

2. The students are involved in new type of activity that allows them to value skills usually not put to use in Maths classes.

3. Students create their own learning materials, for example posters, videos, webquests, proofs, etc. The focus shifts from taking notes and solving to experimenting and creating.

4. The teacher uses Maths to help students understand cultural aspects such as Maths history, the natural or political environment, sociological aspects, etc.

5. The lesson fosters curiosity by introducing intriguing or peculiar mathematical concepts such as magic squares, encryption, the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci sequence, or Moebius’ band (just a few examples, any other topic is appropriate).

6. The teacher facilitates students’ development by allowing them to explore and develop their own mathematical hypotheses and conjectures.

In the next section you can submit your provisional Learning Design for peer review. That way you'll be able to get some preliminary feedback on your activities from your peers. However, this is optional! At the end of the course you will have to submit your work and it will be reviewed using these rubrics. It would therefore help if you already took a close look at them to better understand how your Learning Design should develop as you continue working on it throughout the course.

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    3.6 OPTIONAL Peer Review of Learning Designs

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    3.6 OPTIONAL Peer Review of Learning Designs

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As identified in the Course Introduction, in each of Modules 2-4 there is an optional peer-review activity that allows you to submit your ongoing work on the Learning Design to your peers for some feedback. This is OPTIONAL: it is not necessary to do this for the course certificate. However, it should help you to improve your work on the Learning Design, and the process of reviewing someone else's work will further help you develop your own thinking and give you new ideas.

Please follow these steps in order to take part in the peer-review activity:

1. Paste the link to your Learning Design in the text box further below. Don't just take the URL from your browser, but use the sharing function of the Learning Designer. You can see how to do this here.

2. Paste the link to your Learning Diary in the text box further below. This is important for your reviewer to better understand the context in which you are working and thereby provide a more appropriate review.

3. Submit both links, ideally before the end of the week so that you get timely feedback. However, the final deadline to submit is Wednesday, 25th October, 23:59h CET.

4. Wait until you receive an email informing you that there is work for you to review.

5. For the reviews, take a look at the Learning Designs together with their Learning Diaries and complete the first section of this rubric document(the part that focuses on real-world connections). For an ODT version, see here. Make sure to add some explanatory comments and recommendations in the relevant section and don't just give a score for each category.

6. Submit your completed rubric documents as soon as possible so that your fellow participants can benefit from your feedback as they continue with their work. That being said, the final deadline is Wednesday, 1st November, 23:59 CET.

MY LESSON PLAN:
Hi, I am Christos Chachoudis from Alonnisos Greece. This is my second try for the lesson i have made. I made some changes according to my peers observations. Thanks.

https://v.gd/XHz5lo

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      Module 4 Collaboration in your Maths classroom

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      Module 4 Collaboration in your Maths classroom

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WELCOME TO MODULE 4

We are slowly approaching the end of our course; only two more modules to go. In this fourth module we look at the role of collaboration in our Maths classrooms. The module looks at different dimensions and includes different types of activities. It then looks at some social aspects we can focus on in our Maths classroom, and explores a range of collaborative communities and projects that we can use in our Maths teaching. Foremost here is of course the eTwinning community, the School Education Gateway's sister platform.

Finally, you should make sure to continue working on your Learning Design. Next week we will reach the final module, where the Learning Design activity is no longer optional but obligatory if you would like to receive the course certificate.

Our Learning Objectives for this module are:

1. Thinking about the social interactions that you can develop in your Maths class

2. Exploring a range of eTwinning Maths project examples and thinking about your own project

3. Continuing to work on your Learning Design

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TEACHMEET - LISTEN TO YOUR PEERS

Please don't forget our upcoming TeachMeet!

A TeachMeet is an informal way of sharing ideas, interesting resources and good practices amongst teachers. If you would like to participate as a speaker in the TeachMeet, keep on reading!

The TeachMeet will take place on Saturday, 14th October at 16:00 CET (Brussels Time) in a similar format to a webinar but with different teachers presenting their work.

You can apply for the TeachMeet on this page, and you can join the TeachMeet on the 14th October by using this link. If you are asked for a password, enter teacheracademy.

The TeachMeet will be hosted by our course moderators Nair and Irina.

The TeachMeet will be recorded and the recording will be shared on the platform. We look forward to seeing you at the TeachMeet on the 14th!

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Let's start with some basics: looking at how we can focus on social interactions in our Maths classroom. The following video provides an overview of how collaboration and positive social interactions can be embedded into a Maths class. Not only do collaborative activities develop students' capacity to work together effectively, a crucial skill for succeeding later in life, but such activities also engage students better in the mathematical topics and thereby help them to assimilate what they are studying in the classroom.

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What collaborative strategies and activities do you use in your classroom? Do you agree with the idea presented in the video that we can only address the diversity of learners in the classroom by getting students to collaborate? What challenges do you face when getting students to work together and finding out they are of very mixed abilities? Share your reflections and feedback in the Padlet below.
REFLECTION:

Teaching Maths as a Social Activity

What collaborative strategies and activities do you use in your classroom? Do you agree with the idea presented in the video that only by getting students to collaborate we can address the diversity of learners in the classroom? What challenges do you face when getting students to work together and they are of very mixed abilities? Share your reflections and feedback in the Padlet below.
In my classes, the diversity of the learning  - educational needs is rather very obvious. The collaboration with all class is difficult. I always devide in groups of two or three students and at first we try to collborate in small groups and at the end we always try to make a creation collaborating the whole  class. It's not always a success story but I try everyone to give something in the class and from time to time we could become engaged to teamwork.

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         4.3 Collaborative Projects in Maths: eTwinning

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         4.3 Collaborative Projects in Maths: eTwinning

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In the previous section we looked at collaboration within the Maths classroom; in this section we focus on collaboration between Maths classrooms. Having said that, collaboration between Maths classrooms usually also involves collaboration within the Maths classroom. :-)

A fantastic way of organising collaborative projects with another Maths class is via eTwinning. If you are not yet familiar with eTwinning, make sure to check it out. It is a platform that allows teachers to find partners across Europe with whom to organise collaborative projects. Irina, our course moderator, is an avid eTwinner and winner of multiple eTwinning prizes. Check out a summary of her winning Maths project from 2012:

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eTwinning 2012 winner project: A Taste Of Maths, best eTwinning project 2012

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The power of engagement of such a project is very visible in the video, which also highlights how some of the other topics addressed in previous modules can be integrated and embedded into a collaborative project-based learning approach. You can find more information on A Taste of Months here and download the project kit here (available in multiple languages).

You can see some more results from eTwinning Maths projects below:

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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Why not start your own eTwinning project and find a partner on this course? You can look for partners with whom to set up a joint eTwinning project on the corresponding forum thread, or put out a call on social media. If you have questions about how best to go about organising a project, don't hesitate to ask. Irina has plenty of experience in this area and will most likely be able to give you an answer. And even if not, there are plenty of other eTwinning teachers on this course, so share your experiences and ideas for running an eTwinning project in the Padlet below.
REFLECTION:

eTwinning Maths Projects

Share your experiences and ideas for running and eTwinning project in the Padlet below.
'I really don't have any experience of eTwinning projects but I look forward to participate in at least one project.'

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           4.4 Continuing your Learning Design

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           4.4 Continuing your Learning Design

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Once again, please continue working on your Learning Designs. Add some new activities to your Learning Design that specifically focus on collaboration in your Maths class. Alternatively, you can also try to add a collaborative element to most of your existing activities.

Take into account the following criteria and try to include as many of them as possible when designing your new activities or adapting your existing ones. These criteria are part of the final assessment rubric that will be used on the course.

1. The instruction time is balanced between full groups and small groups, including a good mixture of individual and team work.

2. The lesson plan clearly mentions collaborative work strategies such as small group discussions, creating a joint outcome, giving each other feedback, collaborative problem-solving, working in pairs, debates, etc.

3. Students are divided into teams that share substantial responsibility for a common learning outcome: research, experiment, conjecture, learning material, etc.

4. In the groups, students’ work is interdependent, i.e. they cannot work in parallel, and students need their peers’ results to complete their own.

5. The lesson/project includes the participation of professionals outside the school, people from the community, organisations, etc.

6. Students are offered regular, structured opportunities to assess themselves and reflect on their progress, as well as assess their peers.

As usual, in the next section you can submit your provisional Learning Design for peer review. That way, you'll be able to get some feedback on your activities from your peers. However, this is optional! At the end of the course you will have to submit your work and it will be reviewed using these rubrics. It would therefore help if you already took a close look at them to better understand how your Learning Design should develop as you continue working on it throughout the course.

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4.5 OPTIONAL Peer Review of Learning Designs

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4.5 OPTIONAL Peer Review of Learning Designs

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As mentioned in the Course Introduction, in each of Modules 2-4 there is an optional peer-review activity that allows you to submit your ongoing work on the Learning Design to your peers for some feedback. This is OPTIONAL: it is not necessary to do this for the course certificate. However, it should help you to improve your work on the Learning Design, and the process of reviewing someone else's work will further help you develop your own thinking and give you new ideas.
Please follow these steps in order to take part in the peer-review activity:
Paste the link to your Learning Design in the textbox further below. Don't just take the URL from your browser, but use the sharing function of the Learning Designer. You can see how to do this here.
Paste the link to your Learning Diary in the textbox further below. This is important for your reviewer to better understand the context in which you are working and thereby provide a more appropriate review.
Submit both links, ideally before the end of the week so that you get timely feedback. However, the final deadline to submit is Wednesday, 25th October, 23:59h CET.
Wait until you receive an email informing you that there is work for you to review.
For the reviews, take a look at the Learning Designs together with their Learning Diaries and complete the first section of this rubric document (the part that focuses on collaboration). For an ODT version, see here. Make sure to add some explanatory comments and recommendations in the relevant section and don't just give a score for each category.
Submit your completed rubric documents as soon as possible, so that your fellow participants can benefit from your feedback as they continue with their work. That being said, the final deadline is Wednesday, 1st November, 23:59 CET.

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                      	Module 5: Digital technologies in your Maths classroom

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                      	Module 5: Digital technologies in your Maths classroom

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WELCOME TO MODULE 5

This is our final module! We hope you have enjoyed the journey so far. In this final module we look at the role of digital technologies in our Maths classroom. We start with a general exploration of how digital technologies can benefit our students; while it's important to be aware of how digital technologies, if used incorrectly, can be detrimental to student learning, it is equally important to realise the potential digital technologies have to fundamentally shift how we teach Maths in our classroom. (This point is clearly articulated by Conrad Wolfram in the section 1.1 video, which is definitely worth a watch.) We then explore a range of techniques and tools using digital technologies in the Maths class. Even though you might not have lots of technology in your classroom, we hope that there will be something for everyone. And if not, why not share what technology you have available and ask your peers for ideas on how to put this to effective use in a Maths classroom?

In this module we also have our final required Learning Activity! It is essential that you complete all steps of this activity if you would like to get the course certificate. Please read the instructions closely and take the work seriously. As this is a peer-review activity we rely on everybody's professionalism to make this work.

Good luck with the final steps!

The Learning Objectives for this module are:

Understanding how digital technologies can facilitate student learning in Maths
Understanding how digital technologies could potentially change the way we currently approach Maths teaching
Considering ways in which a range of tools such as QR codes, Minecraft, or Geogebra can be used in your classroom context
Reflecting on how the Flipped Classroom approach could be implemented in your own context
Finalising your Learning Design
Peer-reviewing the work of three other course participants and thereby reflecting on your own Learning Design

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         5.1 Why use digital technologies in Maths

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         5.1 Why use digital technologies in Maths

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We will begin this module by looking at the role technology can and should play in Maths education before exploring some specific examples of how we can use technology in our Maths classrooms.

"A teacher who could be replaced by a machine should be." (Arthur C. Clarke) Using digital technologies should never become an end in itself; rather, technology should always be seen as a tool that facilitates learning in our classroom. It's important for us to constantly question our use of technology in the classroom in this way, as technology can quickly become a distraction for us and the students.

However, when used appropriately, digital technologies can be extremely powerful in facilitating learning through engagement, differentiation, collaboration, and application.
For a more conceptual approach and rationale for using computers, in particular in our Maths classroom, check out Conrad Wolfram's TED talk below. It's a bit longer but definitely worth watching, as he makes a powerful case for a shift in our Maths teaching through the use of the computer.

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Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers

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Why use digital technologies in Maths

In the Prezi and the video a range of reasons for using digital technologies in the Maths classroom are identified. Can you think of more reasons how digital technologies can help us teach Maths to our students? What are some of the downsides or dangers of using digital technologies in our Maths classroom? Share your views in the Padlet here.

Using ICT in maths education is a toolkit to make maths accessible and more attractive to nowadays students who are very familiar using technology. But in my opinion we have not to be focused using technology but we have to ispire ouy students to use their imagination beyond technology. We also have to give them the chance to have humman collaboration instead of e - collaboration in order to improve their communication skills. Maths is a universal language that connects people extend their horizons.

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                      5.2 Flipped Maths Classroom

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                      5.2 Flipped Maths Classroom

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One of the most popular pedagogical approaches using technology in recent years has been the flipped classroom model. If you're not yet familiar with this approach, take a look at the short video below.

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A flipped class is one that inverts the typical cycle of content acquisition and application so that

> students gain necessary knowledge before class, and 
> instructors guide students to actively and interactively clarify and apply that knowledge during class.

For more information see: facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/instructional-strategies/flipped-classroom

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This can also be a particularly powerful way to teach Maths, especially with the increasing number of high-quality Maths instruction videos available online, so that you as a teacher do not need to record yourself to create the flipped classroom materials. For example, you can have your students watch the videos on Khan Academy or Youcubed to get a first understanding of certain mathematical concepts, which they can then apply and practice in the lesson with your help. Edutopia and EdTech have each assembled a list with a number of useful videos. Another useful tool is Wolfram|Alpha, a computational engine which gets stronger every day, and which students can use to experiment with mathematical problems before coming to class to discuss them. Here you'll find some activities that can help students make use of it.

Of course, nowadays there are also plenty of very easy-to-use applications for you to record yourself or make a screencast, allowing you to quickly and efficiently create your own video material for the flipped classroom. Check out the video below for an example of how a Maths teacher has used the flipped classroom model.

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Teacher, Niall O'Connor, from Le Chéile Secondary School, demonstrates how he uses a flipped learning approach using ICT to differentiate and personalise learning in his Maths classroom. Niall has created several instructional videos using the app Explain Everything. These are accessed online by students as homework in advance of a class. In-class time is spent by students applying what they have learned in the video by completing exercises on the topic. This approach helps Niall to better assess students' achievement of the learning objective/s as well as giving him more time to provide individualised support to students.

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REFLECTION: Flipped Maths ClassroomIn the video, the teacher refers to Khan Academy and uses the Explain Everything tool. What other resources, apps and tools do you know that could be useful when trying to implement a flipped classroom model? What challenges do you see in implementing the model? Share your views in the Padlet.

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REFLECTION: Flipped Maths ClassroomIn the video, the teacher refers to Khan Academy and uses the Explain Everything tool. What other resources, apps and tools do you know that could be useful when trying to implement a flipped classroom model? What challenges do you see in implementing the model? Share your views in the Padlet.

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"The idea of flipped Maths Classroom is very promising and ideal  for many students. But we must overflow funding problems and equipment lack in my country. To be honest we should make as State some steps ahead in teachers educational and development projects in order to make the school staff capable of using all the ITC technology we can provide to our students."

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                5.3 Online Graphing Calculators

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                5.3 Online Graphing Calculators

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Graphing calculators have been around for a long time, but the great thing about the Internet is that they are now much more powerful, and available to everyone for free.

Probably the most well-known Maths application is Geogebra, a free graphing calculator linked to a large community of educators sharing their experiences and best practices. While the tool itself is great, it is probably the community that makes the Geogebra experience so powerful, with more than 600.000 materials having been shared on the site (to use with Geogebra). It's available on pretty much all platforms, so you can use it on mobile as well as normal computers and directly via the browser here. Why not give it a try and play around directly in the embedded web version further below? To see an example of what you can do with Geogebra, check out the video below, in which Irina presents an example of the work done with Geogebra by one of her class.https://www.geogebra.org/download

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One more tutorial for our project partners

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RELECTION: Online Graphing CalculatorsHave you used Geogebra or another online graphing calculator tool before? Share your experiences and projects in the Padlet below.

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RELECTION: Online Graphing CalculatorsHave you used Geogebra or another online graphing calculator tool before? Share your experiences and projects in the Padlet below.

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"I try to use Geogebra while I teach Maths in my class but it's not always possible to do so as we have lack of technology in my school. When I can use the computerlab I use Geogebra mostly and the results are very promising."

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               5.4 Using Minecraft to teach Maths

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               5.4 Using Minecraft to teach Maths

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Minecraft is a fantastic tool for learning across many different subjects, and it also lends itself to the Maths classroom. By building structures in Minecraft, geometric shapes can be nicely illustrated and simple calculations can be visualised for students. Geometry World, for example, comes with a number of Minecraft-based activities and learning objectives, which help students delve into the relationships between area and perimeter. For another example, watch the video further below, where a Maths teacher uses Minecraft to get students to consider and perform an activity on volume and capacity. Students can then explore the Minecraft constructions themselves and try to figure out the answer to the question posed by the teacher. The fact that this is done in Minecraft will not only make it more engaging than looking at a normal jug, but will also allow students to better experience and explore the concepts of capacity and volume, as they can "fly" into the jug and count the number of Minecraft blocks. They can also start building their own constructs and calculate their volume and capacity.

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Minecraft and Maths

How else could you use Minecraft in the Maths classroom? What other Maths concepts do you think you could visualise or explore with your students in a Minecraft world? Or do you feel Minecraft is just a big distraction for students and better not used in our Maths classrooms?
"This program I tried to use it while i was teaching my son, the results were mixed and  as a matter of fact I didn't try to use it in my class, but watching the video i thought to give one more chance. I think the use in the video was quite good."

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       5.5 QR Codes in the Maths Classroom

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       5.5 QR Codes in the Maths Classroom

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QR codes are visual codes that contain simple text, data, URLs, etc. They can be used in Maths classrooms for students to check their work at their own pace, to provide additional resources or information to students, or to construct engaging activities like treasure hunts. In the following video you will see a general introduction to QR codes, and if you skip to 2:05, you can see examples of how this teacher has used QR codes in her Maths activities. Most of these are about checking answers on behalf of the students, but there are plenty of other examples of how you can use them: see here and here for other examples that you could easily apply to a Maths context.

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How to Scan QR Codes and Ideas for Classroom Use (mainly math)

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If you would like to get started with QR codes, it's very easy to create them yourself. Check out the following video for a quick introduction.

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Teacher Author Tip 2: How to Make QR Codes

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QR Codes in the Maths Classroom

Do you have any other ideas on how to use QR codes in a Maths context? And do you know of other interesting resources or tools to use together with QR codes?

"I really haven't used this app ever!! But as I saw it's quite interesting, useful and appealing to young students. Of course I will try to use it. Thanks to Teacher Academy we learn new things and meet new tools to use in our classroom!!!!!!"

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                5.6 Webinar 16th October 17:30

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                5.6 Webinar 16th October 17:30

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Webinar with Tullia

16th Oct at 17:30 CET

Title: Learning maths through code and robotics

Summary of the webinar:

Over the last few years, educational robotics has become a teaching method used by an increasing number of teachers to support learning and to encourage the development of multiple skills in their students. Educational robotics is a methodology that involves the use of robots to generate competences inside regular curricula. It aims to involve students of all ages, from kindergarten to high school, in the study of STEM subjects with a new approach. More generally, educational robotics combines the use of coding (programming) with physical objects - the robots - which are used as a learning mediators to help one understand abstract concepts by connecting them to the real world.

These are some of the questions addressed in the webinar: If robots are learning mediators, what approach do you think a teacher should take when using them in his/her lessons? Do you think it would be more convenient to first provide the concepts and then test them through robots, or would it be better to present a problem and encourage students to discover the mathematical concepts needed to solve it?

The webinar will feature a presentation from the expert Tullia Urschitz, as well as a question-and-answer session where you can directly interact with her. You can already highlight some of your questions on the padlet further below.

When will it take place?

Join us on 16th October at 17:30h CET for the webinar. It will be recorded, and the recording will be made available in this section shortly after the webinar has concluded.

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    5.7 Final Activity: Finalising Your Learning Designs

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    5.7 Final Activity: Finalising Your Learning Designs

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In this final activity you have to

1. Finalise the Learning Design you have been working on in the previous modules and

2. Submitting your Learning Design and reviewing the designs of 3 colleagues (next section).

Your Learning Design

As already mentioned in the Course Introduction, the idea is for you to reflect on everything you have learned on the course and integrate it into a final product that is directly useful for your work in the classroom - a Learning Design or lesson plan. By reviewing other participants' Learning Designs you will also receive some more ideas and further reflect on your own application of what you have learnt on the course.

For this module you should continue your Learning Design, implementing some technology tools and activities using these in your Design. For this, take into account the following points that are part of the rubric used for the peer review:

1. Students make use of technology inside or outside of class. For example, they use mobile phones or other handheld devices to take pictures, record data, calculate, graph etc.

2. The ICT tools are mentioned in the lesson plan and are appropriate for students’ age and expertise, for example don’t require an email account, allow teachers to create students’ accounts etc.

3. The ICT tools are usable across devices, so there is no digital gap between students.

4. The selected ICT tools promote and facilitate students’ collaboration, communication, organizing, sharing and publishing their work.

5. The technology is integrated in the content, supporting the Math curriculum and adds value to the lesson, for example more creative or new activities are made possible.

6. The technology supports every stage of the lesson, including students’ assessment.

However, please also go over your entire plan making sure that all parts correspond well to the rubrics that will be used in the next section for the peer review process.

You can also see an example of a lesson plan created in the Learning Designer further back in the Course Introduction. We also invite you to have a look at the following video to the Learning Designer which was created by Reyhan Güneş, a participant on a course on the European Schoolnet Academy where there was a similar activity. She outlines how she has been using the Learning Designer and why it is a great tool to use for lesson planning and sharing ideas with colleagues. A big thanks to her for preparing this video.

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The Learning Designer experience of a Turkish teacher trainer and secondary school language teacher

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Please remember to complete your Learning Design in English! Don't worry if you are not so confident in English. Just try to make the work understandable. Language mistakes should not be included in the review of your Design. However, if you do not write your Design in English it won't be possible for your peers to provide you feedback. If, for some reason, you cannot get the link for your Learning Design, then export it or take a screenshot and submit the file.

For all Italian colleagues out there, take a look at an Italian introduction to the Learning Designer here. Have you also written a blog post, an article or another form of digital content introducing the Learning Designer in your own language? Let us know and we will spread the word!

Your peer reviews

You will be required to provide 3 reviews of other participants' Learning Designs. We will provide more detail on what to include in your reviews in the next section but in order to understand more generally what is required of you take a look at the 2nd video below where Reyhan Güneş explains what is important to consider and be aware of when writing a peer review of someone else's work.

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The peer assessment experience of a Turkish teacher trainer and secondary school language teacher

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       5.8 Final Activity: Submission & Peer Review

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       5.8 Final Activity: Submission & Peer Review

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PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT CLOSELY, so that you understand exactly how to complete this final activity. You can submit your Learning Design and the peer reviews further below.

If you want to receive the course certificate, you need to submit your Design in this section by the 25th October 23:59h CET and also review the three Learning Designs you receive in this same section by the 1st November 23:59h CET.

To complete the final task, it is essential that you follow all the steps indicated below:

1. Make sure your own Learning Design follows all the criteria set out in this rubric document.

2. Once your Learning Design is finished, click on the "Share button" and copy the link.

3. Submit your Learning Design together with your Learning Diary by posting the links in the textbox below and clicking the "Hand-in task" button. By submitting your Learning Diary with your Design you provide some context for your Design, allowing your reviewer to better understand your Design. Make sure you submit the correct links as once you have submitted them, there is no way to subsequently change it.Remember, the final deadline to submit your Learning Design is the 25th October at 23:59h CET.

4. Review three Learning Designs. Wait until you have received an email confirming that you have been allocated 3 tasks of your peers to review (if you don't receive an email just check this section again to see if you have been allocated some reviews). Take a look at each design and use the following rubric document to provide feedback:

Word Version

OpenOffice Version

Once completed, upload the filled-in rubrics document for each of the 3 designs via the text box that will be available below each of the tasks.  Make sure that after having posted your rubric document, you click the "Review" button. Please keep in mind that the final deadline to submit your reviews is the 1st November at 23:59h CET.

5. If the work you are reviewing is of excellent quality, please nominate it for consideration by the alumni editorial board by filling in this short form here. It only takes 2 minutes. This means that the work will be considered by the editorial board for publication on the School Education Gateway and is a great way to acknowledge the good work of your colleague.

6. Read the feedback for your own Learning Design. You will receive an email once you can look at the feedback that has been provided for your Design. The feedback will be available in this section further below.

Now this whole activity relies on your integrity and professionalism. Please take it seriously, don't plagiarise and provide valuable and friendly feedback. There is nothing more frustrating than having put a lot of work into a great design and then not being provided the professional courtesy by someone who does not take the review process seriously.

The review process is NOT anonymous so you will see the name of the person who has reviewed your lesson plan. But please note that if you are not happy with the review you have been provided, we are not in a position to check this.

If you encounter any issues with your OWN submission to the P2P, please consult the FAQ.

If you encounter any issues with someone else’s work (the work you are supposed to review or the review you have received), then please fill in this form.

Please also remember that the process of reviewing someone's work is a great learning exercise so participating in this exercise should be valuable in itself, even if you feel the feedback you have received has not been that helpful.

And remember, this is the final task of the whole course so use all the ideas, resources and inspiration you have gained so far. Enjoy!

If you are still unsure about the process watch the video below which outlines the main steps. Please note that some of the references in the video are slightly different as the video was developed for another platform.

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MY LESSON PLAN: https://v.gd/XHz5lo