Monday, September 28, 2009

Something, but I'm not sure what...

Today my 4th period Fundamental Geometry kids were playing an online game called "Banana Hunt". It entails estimating the measure of a given angle which can be anywhere from 1 to 359 degrees. The assignment was to go to the site, play the game until a total of 35 bananas was gained within one 10 turn session - not easy. After this they take a screen shot of their score and "turn in" the file as part of an Edmodo assignment.

Now to say that to achieve any sort of positive educational experiences with this group of kids is difficult would definitely be an understatement...but anyway. Two of my students in the front of the room (both of which are not taking this course at grade level and they're not gifted) were playing the Banana Hunt game and doing quite poorly at first until one of them finally got 37 bananas. This success infuriated the other student.

"What? No way! I hate this game!" he said.

I asked, "You wanna cheat?"

"Really? Can I? How?"

"Here use this?", as I handed him a protractor I cleverly had on hand.

"How do I use this?" he uttered.

"I'm not sure; you'll have to figure it out." I replied as I left his side to help another student whose browser had frozen. A few minutes later I hear "Ha, 47 bananas." from the student I just have the protractor to.

"No way!" was the exclamation from the "protractor-less" student. "Give me one of those!"

So I gave him one, and the competition continued. Other students took interest and naturally asked the same. It wasn't too soon before the general buzz in the room was: "This is so much easier!", "Why didn't you just give me one of those to begin with?", "What's the highest number of bananas now?" They were motivated, challenged, and accomplishing the learning goal: measuring an angle up to 360 degrees with a protractor. What had just happened? I must admit, I ended the period very proud of the students and somewhat proud of myself. If I could just figure out the recipe of the instructional "tricks" that were somehow implemented and repeat it again...What a great year this would be...

I know it could have just been a good day for the kids. Sometimes luck is on a teacher's side, but what if...

Here is the link to this activity should you wish to check it out: http://bigmacmath.wikispaces.com/measuring_angles

2 comments:

Ty Yost said...

You rock, miss you at meetings. I am glad everything is working out well. Keep up the great work!

Tracy said...

Hey there Rich!

DreamBox Learning here - we think online math games are the best (seeing as how we make them for kids K-2)!

We found your blog through a FETC Twitter posting, and we love what you're doing. Any chance you'd like to check out DreamBox Learning? You can here: http://www.dreambox.com/

We love guest bloggers (http://www.dreambox.com/blog/), so if you have anything you want to say give us a heads up.

-The DreamBox Team