We spent last week at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematical Teaching, or C.A.M.T. We met so many fabulous educators, we heard about the wonderful work happening in classrooms all over Texas, and Noelle and Kim led a professional development on Small Group Instruction.
All in all, it was an amazing few days! There were two things that continued to surprise me as I talked to teachers from all over the state:
1) Many schools are 1:1! One-to-one means that for every one student, there is one iPad or Chromebook.
2) There are still many teachers out there who have to purchase their own paper! Luckily, technology is making the need for paper less and less important.
4 IDEAS FOR GOING PAPERLESS IN THE MATH CLASSROOM
So, how do you go paperless in the math classroom? Sure, there are small whiteboards, or you can use Expo markers on the desks. But what do you do for work that needs to be turned in on a daily or weekly basis? How do you assess mastery on a quiz or test?
Nearpod and Pear Deck
Nearpod and Pear Deck are both tools that allow you to go paperless. Both allow you to upload pre-existing slides or create lessons inside the tool. They are interactive: You can embed questions into the slides for students to respond to on their own devices. Students are able to work at their own pace, making the lessons more engaging, and teachers are able to monitor and offer feedback using the teacher dashboard in real time. Each offers some different features.
To read more about the specifics, check out this post on Nearpod and this post on Pear Deck.
Nearpod is a great resource to try out this summer and into the fall! There are three different types of accounts with different features: free Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Have you tried Nearpod in your classroom?
Showbie
While this is a tool that I have not used, I came across Showbie while researching paperless methods. It is similar to Nearpod and Pear Deck, but it has one feature that I think is pretty amazing! Students submit an assignment digitally (either by using a stylus on an iPad or taking a picture of the assignment and uploading), and the teacher can leave feedback by either marking it up on the app OR by leaving voice feedback. That’s right! You can leave a voice clip! So cool!
CANVAS OR GOOGLE CLASSROOM
Personally, I have not tried using Canvas, but I have seen Google Classroom in action, and I’ve read that they are similar. Has anyone tried it? Canvas’s website says it is a learning management system or a digital classroom. It’s where students go for lessons, assignments, and content — all paperless!
Canvas also has a tool called SpeedGrader, which allows teachers to provide feedback (using rubrics, annotations, or video clips); it populates your grade book, and it creates reports based on that data, so teachers can further differentiate skills and standards for students. I just can’t get over the idea of not bringing paper home and grading just using my laptop. Hallelujah!
GOOGLE FORMS FOR ASSESSMENTS
Speaking of all of this paperless glory, all Maneuvering the Middle unit assessments for CCSS and TEKS are now available! They are powered through Google Forms, which means they are self-grading, and you can send feedback to students after they have submitted!
After I gave a unit assessment, I would spend far too long grading the open-ended response questions, and now, I will not have to do that! Besides scratch paper (you could have students use individual whiteboards, too), you won’t have to collect pounds and pounds of paper or make copies. I am all about saving trees, but not fighting for the copier in the hot work room sounds way more enticing.
What team are you on? Team Paper or Team Digital? In what ways are you going paperless this school year?
If you are looking for more ways to go paperless, check out our digital activities.
SHOP DIGITAL ACTIVITIES
Hello!! All of your resources are fantastic! I taught middle school for one year and this is what got me through! I stopped by during CAMT and asked if you would ever start a curriculum for Algebra 1 and they mentioned many teachers were asking the same question. They had us write down what subjects we would like to see added and were taking a poll. I’m just curious at the responses and would like to know if you would be happening to work on a curriculum for Algebra 1 in the near future? Love all the new digital resources you have added and I’m crossing my fingers for Algebra I to be the next in line!
Y’all have a great year! Christina Guynes
Thanks so much! It was so great meeting you at CAMT. We are still planning our projects for the upcoming year. Please be sure that you are on our email list since we announce new products first!
We’re a small, poor rural district that is not 1:1. In fact, many of my students don’t have access to any kind of computer at home. Some of those students have smartphones, but with limited data plans (as you can imagine, this is making the “extra” week of Spring break more challenging to reach all of my students). For this reason I still use paper in my classroom for take-home assignments so as to not exclude at-risk students. I do like Pear Deck as a supplemental resource, and use Google Classroom extensively (though, to provide information, not to help with grading).