A digital spin on an old math favorite! #bmswired

When you tell a group of 6th grade math students that they're going to have to pull a fraction problem out of a bag and write out the steps to solving that problem, THEY GROAN!

When you tell them that the steps will be typed into a Google Doc on a Chromebook and then turned into a speaking avatar, THEY CHEER!

I love it when a teacher can look at a lesson or activity from the days of old and put a fresh, 21st century, digital spin on it!  Teachers - you don't have to reinvent the wheel or spend hours and hours prepping for a cool, updated activity!  Just think outside the box and don't be afraid!

Staci Stephens, an awesome new teacher at #bmswired, was not afraid to dive right in and I had a blast helping her with this lesson.  Her students had to type out every step they took to solve a fraction problem as they solved it.  Although this took much longer than anticipated, Staci said the process was much more valuable to her than getting the answer.  (Yeah, she's pretty awesome!)

When the kids were finished with their steps, they shared their Google doc with Ms. Stephens and she was able to digitally review their work.  The kids then copied and pasted an abbreviated version of their process into Voki.  (The free version of Voki only allows a 30 minute dialogue!)  Suddenly, the room came to life as all of the speaking avatars started delivering their speeches.  The kids were beside themselves (and so was I!)!


Ms. Stephens then asked the kids to paste their Voki embed code into the Google doc they had already shared with her.  She was able to use that code to create a webpage on her teacher website with the problems and all of the avatars.  AMAZING!





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