Using Flickr to Teach Math!
Darren Kuropatwa is at it again. This time, he has created a fascinating flickr assignment for his class. View his rubric and how he posted the first version of his rubric and allowed student feedback. This is an excellent good teaching (I read this in Marzano's Classroom Management that works.)
They were looking for Mathematics in places that people do not normally see it. They had to create “hotspots” (clickable squares) on their photo to show the mathematical concept identified.
I think that this is an EXCELLENT way to make math seem real and relevant and really helps get students thinking.
See the projects
- See the whole class' projects. http://flickr.com/photos/tags/pc40sf06/
- Look at the student's pink sweater where she saw trigonometry. (Make sure you put the mouse over to see the information.)
- Or the pizza that teaches trig.
How you could start your own
IF you can access Flickr. It would be neat to have students BEGIN by commenting on Darren's projects and then create their own. Take his rubric and modify it for yourself.
Why I think this is such a good project!
This is a great example of several things:
- Innovation – A teacher looking at a tool and saying — How can I teach with that?
- Bring reality in – Students want meaning in the classroom. This takes math into their lives.
- Bring the classroom out – You can be sure that students will be sharing their knowledge with others and showing off their photo. Everytime they explain something, they are reinforcing their topic and learning.
- Share best practices – I believe that the professionally responsible innovator shares their learning and innovation. This is collapsing the sharing of innovational practices and educators who stay tapped in will reap great results.
- Giving students ownership – As I said, student feedback on rubrics is great!
- Creating a tagging standard. You simply must have a tagging standard (he gave them a course number) so the photo can be found!
Incredible List from Miguel Guhlin!
Speaking of great teachers, check out Miguel Guhlin's list of Web 2.0 apps for K-12 classrooms.
Great job, Darren and Miguel. I went online for just a minute (since I'm taking somewhat of a break from technology! We all need time with the family!)
I'll see you in a couple of days!
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Never miss an episode
Get the 10-minute Teacher Show delivered to your inbox.
Thank you for subscribing to the 10 Minute Teacher! Now, check your email and confirm to get this podcast delivered to you every weekday. Check out our past episodes at www.coolcatteacher.com/podcast
4 comments
Hey Vicki, thanks!
Marzano’s book is also on my favourite list. ;-) Ewan McIntosh gave an hour long talk a while back where he ends by drawing parallels between Marzano’s 9 instructional strategies that work and read/write web teaching strategies/tools/ If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth every minute. ;-)
Cheers!
Darren
For second language teachers, Flickr can be an endless source of ideas for lessons and projects. I’m using Andrew Wright’s Pictures for Learning, originally written in 1989 as a template for my English lessons.
Hi Vikci – back in September I used Flickr for some simple primary maths revision http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/2006/09/21/flickr-notes-tool/
It has also been useful in other subjects and I am looking forward to using it more.
Tom
Thank you for sharing this information. The information was very helpful and saved a lot of my time.
Assignments Writing Help
Comments are closed.