ISTE Student Standards Guide by Cassidy Grant https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3 For Middle School Math Teachers en-us 2019-02-25 22:07:46 UTC 2019-03-04 02:54:35 UTC hello@padlet.com Empowered Learner cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505326 An empowered learner is a student that is active in their learning through making choices on what and how they learn, how they demonstrate their competency in topics, how, when, and if they seek feedback, and generalizing problem-solving strategies from one problem to another.
Encouraging your students to be empowered learners, creates a culture in your classroom that fosters participation (since students are more likely to participate when they are active in their learning), encourages risk taking, 
One great way of empowering your students is allowing them the chance to choose the path they take during the learning process. Plan out a unit that has a video incorporated with each lesson and allow your students to choose which lesson they start with. For example, if you are doing a unit over geometric transformations, find or create videos that cover each type of transformation separately and then create practice for each transformation. Allow students to work their way through the transformations anyway they want, while ending with a practice that covers the transformations together.
Another way to create a culture of empowerment is to incorporate your students passions into what you are learning. This could mean tying your lesson into social issues, incorporating pop culture like video games, have a project over traveling, creating your own restaurant, or even your own city. Tying in real-world situations that your students care about while allowing them to solve these problems through their own means. This is known as Passion-Based Learning.
One last way to empower your students is to allow them to demonstrate their knowledge and proficiency on the topic in multiple different ways. This can be through online resources like Desmos, creating a blog or vlog to track what they are learning, mathgames.com, Khan Academy, Quizizz, and any other resource you or your students can find.]]> 2019-02-26 17:44:05 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505326 Digital Citizen cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505739 2019-02-26 17:44:40 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505739 Knowledge Constructor cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505985 A student that is a knowledge constructor can gather multiple online resources 
This is important as it goes along with the 5th Mathematical Practice Standard, 
The best way to facilitate this skill in your classroom is by presenting or allowing students to pick a task/problem and having them research and find resources they believe they can use to help solve the problem.
To help students determine if they have found a good resource, teach them the acronym SOURCE.
S - How is the source Sponsored?
O - Does it contain Opinions or Facts?
U - What is the Underlying Bias? What assumptions are being made?
R - How Reputable is the source and/or organization? 
C - How Current is the source?
E - Is the author a known Expert? 
(To read more about this, visit: www.thelandscapeoflearning.com/2018/02/how-to-become-knowledge-constructor-in.html)
Teach students about different search engines that allow them to find different answers. Lifehacker.com (lifehacker.com/top-10-ways-to-find-better-answers-online-that-arent-g-5714481) offers 10 ways to find answers other than Google. This provides students with multiple resources to find even more resources
]]> 2019-02-26 17:45:01 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335505985 Innovative Designer cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506155 Problem-solving is something that is encouraged by educators all across the globe. An innovative designer is a person who problem solves in an innovative and technology-based way. One way to promote this in a classroom is to have your students follow an already made and respected design process such as the PLTW model and learn about all the steps that go into it. Another this skill can be used in a classroom is coming up with actual problems that haven't been solved and having students create and test their prototypes or solutions. Lastly, educators can find current solution/ideas to problems and have their students rate and compare each solution the the same problem against each other weighing certain factors and suggesting possible improvements.]]> 2019-02-26 17:45:16 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506155 Creative Communicator cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506331 As a student being able to communicate clearly is something you are constantly improving over time and a skill that is extremely important to be successful in school and after. This section uses this skill and enhances it even more, taking the ability to communicate effectively and now in a creative, fun and interactive way. The first way to foster this skill is by allowing students to choose platforms or tools they see fit to help them with the objective. As a teacher pointing them in the right direction or showing them how to use these tools, i.e. Flipgrid, is your biggest job. The second way to empower this skill is by allowing students to use social or digital media in an assignment. Many students at the Middle and High School level are already using Facebook, Instagram etc so showing them how to use them in an educational way is great! Finally,students can customize their project or presentation to appeal to more of their audience. Making something able to portray the same message in many ways for many people is a great sub skill of being a creative communicator.]]> 2019-02-26 17:45:34 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506331 Global Collaborator cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506559 A Global Collaborator is a person who can connect, collaborate and learn from others around the globe using technology. The first way to facilitate this as an educator is to set up an assignment which gives every student in your class a goal which promotes some of these ideas, such as a global book read. As the teacher you find another class somewhere around the world and pick a book to read. The students then read the book on their own and come together to discuss the chapter with the students in the other class. Another way to help build this skill is by setting up groups in your class to each research another culture or area of the world. Students must work together and then share to the class their findings. Lastly, you can help make students aware of global current issues, through a daily blog or journal where they have to post the issue they found and how it relates to something they are familiar with.]]> 2019-02-26 17:45:53 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/335506559 Overview cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337153975 Welcome to our guide on how to implement the 7 standards into a middle school math classroom. Technology offers math teachers an abundance of opportunities to alter their lessons and provide students with different strategies to work through problems, giving them autonomy in their learning.

This guide offers a short overview of each standard, why they are so important, and offers ideas on ways to teach and encourage these skills in your classroom.]]> 2019-03-02 20:21:46 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337153975 Computational Thinker cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337154409 A computational thinker is a student that solves difficult problems by using these skills; decomposition (breaking apart a problem), pattern recognition (finding similarities and differences to create a prediction), abstraction (representing complicated systems with simple models), and algorithmic deign (step-by-step instructions that solve similar problems).
Encouraging students to use computational thinking, gives students a new skill of thinking critically and solving difficult, real-world problems.
When learning about data, allow students to work on a project where they use Poll Everywhere to gather data on something they care about then use this data to compare it to similar data and create conclusions.
Another is using apps like Hopscotch, Gamestar Mechanic, and Kodu that combine programming and mathematics to allow students to create their own video game. Students enjoy this activity since it is combining their love of games with mathematics and students feel empowered when they can play the game that they created at the end.]]> 2019-03-02 20:28:24 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337154409 Empowered Learner in Practice (Video) cagrant3 https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337272037 In this video, a math teacher, James Pike, incorporates Minecraft into his class to teach different math concepts. 
Mr. Pike is encouraging student empowerment through different ways. The main way he is encouraging empowerment is by incorporating students' interest of video games into class. Having students use this very popular video game in class fosters high participation from students.
Another ways is allowing students to use Minecraft to demonstrate their competency of different topics by creating artifacts in the game that show these topics. For example, he asked students to create a floor and then find the area and perimeter of that floor.
Lastly, he is encouraging empowerment is by allowing students to work at their own pace and giving them choice in how and when they work through the different topics.
To learn more about Minecraft and how to incorporate it into your lessons, visit: www.iste.org/explore/In-the-classroom/Use-Minecraft-to-teach-math]]> 2019-03-03 20:36:55 UTC https://padlet.com/cagrant3/qbyko7yyhdm3/wish/337272037