Math 12

Today's assignment:
Complete:

• Function Review Worksheet

Math 10

Today's assignment:
Complete:

• Exercises pg.11-12 #3-22

Math 9

Today's assignment:
Complete

• p.55-56 #7-9, 11-14

Class Goals for 2014-2015

So the BC education crisis has finally been resolved and teachers and students are going back to school next week.  The whole crisis was very demoralizing and as a result I did not do much planning or prep work for this coming year.  Thankfully my course load for the 2014-2015 year are mostly classes I've taught already so the material is not going to be new to me.  Rather than let my practice get stagnant though, I'm going to implement a few changes in some of my classes with the intent that I will eventually roll out all the changes into all of my classes.

So here's a list of things I want to do for this year.

• Gamify my Foundations and Principals of Math 10 class.  I've taught this class a few times and the last time I taught it I made a list of all the assignments and tests I would give out (the reason I made the list was totally unrelated to gamifying the class).
  For those a little unfamiliar with gamification of a class it's the idea that you treat the class like a game.  Students will start at the bottom and work their way to end game.  Along the way they will earn achievements and awards and points that show their progress.  Having the list of assignments already prepared makes gamifying this class easier than my others and will allow me to explore the advantages of game based learning.
• Flip my Mathematics 9 class.  I've taught this class so many times that it will be very boring if I don't change something.  So what better way than to screencast my lessons and let the students work through it at their own pace.  Unfortunately I'd have to screencast multiple lessons so that the students who work faster can actually work faster, but that's not a problem.  Unlike other teachers who are just starting to screencast, I've already experimented with it and have a very good set up already.  Will probably live stream the lessons while I am recording so that students can watch after school if they did not fully understand in class.
  Why not gamify this class since I taught it a bunch already?  I don't have a list of all the assignments I give out because every time I taught the class in the past, it was with a different text book each time.
• Genius Hour in my Apprenticeship Math 11.  This is the only class that is brand spanking new for me.  It's a very basic math class designed to teach basic math skills such as measurement, unit conversions, simple trigonometry and geometry and basic finances.  Genius Hour should work wonderfully for this group as they need something other than lectures to keep them focused on the task and what they need to learn.  Not sure if I will do a full semester project or maybe a few shorter projects but one of them will involve setting up an online business using the many resources at Shopify (thanks to my sister who happens to be an design guru at Shopify).  Being a math class though the projects will probably have some direction (namely make the project math related in some way) so that people outside my class won't think it's just free time (truth be told genius hour kind of is free time though)
• Start a gaming club.  This one is going to be tough I think since I work an hour away from where I live.  Given the rise of esports and the fact that the video game population of schools is generally always underserved, this shouldn't be a bad idea on paper.  Besides, maybe if one of the players is good enough they might get an esports scholarship at the end of the day.  Ideally I could get a full 5 man team of League of Legends to play regulary and then maybe expand it by reaching out to other similar gamer teachers in the area and maybe start a Northern BC League of Legends league.  Call it the NBC Premiere League or something.

My Pre-Calculus 12 class is left out from any changes for now.  The nature of the course almost dictates a lecture from the front approach if one wants to cover all the material in a timely manner.  Mind you the year is long and some of my class changes may find their way into next semester's Pre-Calculus 12 class.

Hopefully I can meet at least one of the four (I will be super excited if I meet all four!) goals this year!

SWTOR in Math - Quest Example

Thought I'd share one of the quest chains I came up with for my SWTOR in Math course.  Keep in mind that the course is being designed for grade 8s in British Columbia (curriculum document found here: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/mathematics/2008math89.pdf)

This example is designed to meet the following prescribed learning outcome (PLO)

• C1 – Develop and apply the Pythagorean theorem to solve problems

The in-game map in SWTOR provides a lot of information and one of the most useful pieces is the (x,y) coordinates of both the cursor and the player.  Combine this with the fact that finding the distance between two points is really just an application of Pythagorean theorem, makes for a great activity where the students pick random points on their in-game map and calculate the distance between their players and these points.

The first part of the quest is to watch a few lessons on how to actually apply the Pythagorean theorem to find distance (lessons courtesy of the Khan Academy currently) and then there are a few questions that need to be answered to see if they understood.  This part of the quest can be attempted an unlimited number of times until they are satisfied with their XP gain.  Moodle does a good job of randomly selecting questions without duplication but does require a large enough question bank to be truly effective and random.

If they answer enough questions correctly a bonus mission becomes available where they can answer more Pythagoras/distance formula questions and if they answer enough of those correctly they get a badge.  This bonus challenge has a limited number of tries though so the students need to be fairly proficient if they want the badge.

The second part is then to play the game and pick two points on their map, take a screen shot of the map and show the calculations necessary to show the distance between the two points.  This part can also be done an infinite number of times (or until the student gets it right) so if the first attempt is wrong, I can correct the student and coach him/her on how to do it properly.

I think this is a great way to introduce Pythagoras/distance formula as the student can see an application of it within a somewhat useful (or at least fun) context.  For future quests I will expand on this skill and ask them to calculate their character's speed as one of the PLOs in Math 8 relates to solving problems involving rates.  And to further expand, once the students get their speeders (or other mount) they can calculate their speeder's speed and compare the percentages (another PLO deals with percent problems)

As I try to think of quests for the course, I am finding that I need to brush up on my SWTOR play (been a few months since I really played) because I've forgotten how certain things are done in the game.

SWTOR in school (my take on WoW in school)

On one of my escapades into the twitter educational hashtag world I ran into this website.
http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/

Absolutely amazing idea and has been around for a few years now.

The basic idea behind WoW in School is to use WoW (World of Warcraft) to help students learn.  At first the program started as an after school program to help some of the disenfranchised students catch up in a non-traditional environment, but then evolved into an alternative language arts course.

The class had no grades and instead you earned XP for completing various quests.  There's a scale that determines your level and students were free to choose what quests they did and how much XP they earned.  Each task had a rubric so students knew what to do to earn maximum XP and what was needed to advance their student level.  I couldn't find it, but I'm sure there are also course badges for reaching certain milestones.  The students had a lot of fun and were very successful in meeting the language arts outcomes in a way that surprised the more traditional teachers.

I loved this idea and chose to try and adapt it for a math class.  Now WoW does require a subscription so I decided to use a free MMORPG instead.  My choice was Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) as I had played it since launch (consistently for a year, then off and on after that).  The game itself is just as polished as WoW and offered interesting writing opportunities with the choice based dialogue.  SWTOR does have higher system requirements than WoW though and that might prove a hindrance in implementing it as the school computers in the district tend to be low powered even compared to the cheap pre-built systems you can buy.

The challenge was determining what in-game activities you could do that matched the various math key outcomes at the various grade levels.  The following document outlines activities in-game that would match the key math 8 outcomes our department identified.
Math 8

Because the original WoW in School project was a language arts based course, it would be easy to accommodate the english 8 outcomes and thus I envisioned the course to be a hybrid language arts/math 8 course.  I haven't approached any english teachers about joining me on this project as none of the ones in the building are gamers except for the one who got into a car accident and is still out with a concussion (no other serious injury thankfully)

I realized after coming up with that list that I would need to fit in actual math lessons so the students would know how to do the calculations.  This wasn't as hard as I thought it would be as I could present the math lessons as tasks in the quest chain that would give XP upon completion (and the XP scaled based on how well you completed the math task).  I added additional quizzes/worksheets as Bonus quests that gave out XP and if completed at a high enough level, achievement badges.  This mirrored the grinding Bonus quests in many of SWTORs quest chains.

Finding good lessons online is an on-going task and so far I have just been using Khan Academy videos as I find those the easiest to follow (and other schools around the world use their videos too).  I'm proficient with screen casting so may move to making my own videos that more closely match the in-game activities.

Once complete (still working out all the quest chains, activities and the Moodle logistics), I'm hoping the administration at whatever school I am at next year will let me pilot the project.  Although if they don't it won't be that much of a waste as I have already learned a lot about Moodle and have found many resources which will help my practice anyways.  Plus with Moodle's export function I can always have the course ready to go wherever I go.

I'd love to try and use 3d GameLab but their free account is not available yet.  From reviews 3d GameLab is more useful than Moodle for gamifying a class.

Games I want to incorporate into my classes

The Twitterverse is quite an amusing place.  So many people posting about so many things (both mundane and useful).

I have to admit that I post some pretty mundane stuff as well but I have enjoyed the amount of useful educational information Twitter has given me.  A lot of the trending hashtags and topics on my feed are education related and following them for even a few minutes a day gives me so many interesting things to read and to try in the future.

One of my favourite trends to follow are the various games based learning posts I see.  So many teachers and educators are involved in this (a lot more than I would have imagined) and gives me encouragement to try to incorporate more games based learning in my classes.

Among the games I want to try and incorporate are Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program.  I stumbled upon minecraftedu.com many months ago but today while browsing through the Digital Learning Day hashtags ran across kerbaledu.com.  Two great games that have amazing applicability to learning.  Now I just need to buy the games.

ELOs and Passing a Class

Rousing discussion today during our collaboration about ELOs (essential learning outcomes) and whether a student passes for not meeting one of them.  The whole thing seems kind of black and white to me.  Referencing back to my previous post, ELOs are the learning outcomes that must be met in order for a student to pass the course.  In my opinion if a student fails to meet one of those ELOs they have not done enough to pass the course.  That is what essential means (to me at least)

To put it in game terms, it's like trying to beat a level in Mario Bros. without learning how to jump.  Knowing how to jump is an essential skill to pass the first level in Mario Bros.  If you can't, you fail and will keep failing until you learn how.  The first half of this video kind of illustrates the idea that if you can't learn the skill, you can't move on (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM#t=16, quite a bit of profanity though so you have been warned)

So combining the two ideas of meeting an ELO in order to pass I put forward the idea of holding a student back if they are unable to meet one of the ELOs for that particular class.  Doesn't matter if they meet 9 of the 10 ELOs of the class, they still fail the course because they could not meet (or learn) that 10th ELO.  Being essential kind of means it has to be learned in order to move on right?  Well not quite according to the admin (the folks who presented this idea of ELOs to us in the first place).

For each ELO we  need to determine what exactly needs to be done in order to pass the ELO.  So for me, I teach math classes currently, I would give the student 10 problems for a particular ELO and tell the student they need to solve an arbitrary amount of them correctly in order to meet that ELO.  Arbitrary because there's lots of different ideas about what passing/meeting means.  Some educators say at least 1 problem is enough to demonstrate proficiency, others would say 50% of the problems, and still others would say 80%.

In our discussion we decided on giving them a series of problems of scaling difficulty and as long as they got one of them they would be proficient enough.  Some students only do well on hard problems while others only do well on easy problems.  If they can't solve at least one of those problems, that ELO would not be met (i.e. they didn't learn to jump) and they would be held back until they could meet that ELO.  Then repeat for each ELO.  If a student can't meet one of those ELOs they don't pass the course.

That last line kinda irked the admin I think.  I likened it to a driving test in that if they can't meet all the outcomes of a driving test, they fail the test.  Though it as pointed out that you are allowed a few mistakes and can retake the driving test so that's why I changed my stance slightly to say as long as some of the problems for that ELO were correct instead of all the problems.  Students are also welcome to take the test as many times as they want until they do pass.  The ability for a students to retake the course (or the course final exam) as many times as they want is definitely a bonus to being enrolled at EBUS as opposed to a traditional school and I pointed out to everyone that we have the ability to make a robust enough test bank that a student could take the final exam 100 times and still write a different exam each time.

Like a video game, if you can't learn all the necessary techniques or strategies to beat a level, you can't move on.  Thankfully unlike the old games where one had limited lives and continues, I'd probably take a more modern approach and give the student infinite tries.

The one thing I did not propose to the group was that we make all assignments and chapter tests worth nothing and have their entire mark ride on a final assessment.  Again mirroring a driving exam or similar qualifying exam.  That would cause quite a stir I think.  Maybe in the new year at our next collaboration meeting I will propose that idea.

Gamifying ELOs

A popular trend in education in the last few years (may have been around longer but I'm only in my 7th year of being a teacher) is the concept of essential learning outcomes or ELOs.  These ELOs are meant to be the most essential things a student should learn when they pass a class.  Ideally, from what I've learned from pro-d days, staff meetings and department meetings, is that each class should only have a small handful of ELOs that the teacher can focus on.

To put it in some more context, the BC government publishes documents that have a number of prescribed learning outcomes (PLOs).  In some cases there can be as many as 100 prescribed learning outcomes for a single course.  Each PLO basically amounting to a particular piece of discreet knowledge or a particular skill.  The ELO approach is meant to compress all these pieces into smaller broader outcomes.

A good example is trigonometry in junior high grades.  The PLOs have learning each trig ratio as a separate outcome and then each type of problem as their own outcome as well.  When learning trigonometry (at a junior high level at least) it really can be boiled down learning SOHCAHTOA and applying it to several problems.  So the ELO would just be the ability to apply SOHCAHTOA to a variety of problems.  Seems silly to be honest as we're just repackaging the same material but oh well.

Anyways, how can I use this in my own efforts to gamify my classes?  Well I first realized that the ELOs are basically the minimum amount of mastery needed to complete a course and, ideally, be successful in the next course.  So meeting the ELOs would be my pass requirement, or rank D if you will (for those not familiar with Asian games, rank D is generally the lowest level of success).  In order to get to rank S (the highest) the student would have to complete increasingly difficult assignments but the difference would be these assignments would be optional.  In many games getting the higher ranks is entirely optional but usually gave the player perks or prestige or some other reward.

It would require a change in my thinking of students and I'd have to be ok with students being content sitting at rank D (and there are a lot of them).  I might post a public leaderboard to show where students sit using rankings instead of actual grades.  This might not be allowed despite the students sharing their grades with each other anyways.  I never understood this as if someone is embarrassed by their grade, they can work harder to get a better one so they aren't as embarrassed so why not show everyone's grade?

The other issue is how much work would be needed to achieve a rank D?  It has to be enough that the rank D students can't finish it too quickly, but it can't be too much that the rank S students have no time to do the rank S stuff.

Things to think about before I get back to a classroom.

Gamifying my Classes

Let's start with a video

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94

I thought this was a great video, albeit hardly scientific or pedagogically sound but interesting nonetheless.  Really hits home with me as I am a gamer through and through and anything to make my classes more interesting/fun for me is always good (I can't control whether students have fun or not so if I can make my classes fun for me at least someone wins).  This concept of gamifying eduation has always been in the back of my mind since I saw this video about a year ago and I've sort of implemented some aspects of it in my classes (See Arocena Cup).

This year I've had the 'fortune' of working at EBUS Academy, the school district's online distance learning school.  Being at an online distance learning school has removed the need to make course material as the school seems to purchase the courses from other parties (part of my enjoyment of teaching is in developing my own course materials so this was kind of strange to get used to) and also the need to directly teach students as the course materials included fairly comprehensive tutorial videos.  This freed up a lot of time to do marking, lots and lots of marking as all my classes tend to have lots and lots of students.

However, all that marking does have some benefits.  For one I can listen to a lot of music while marking.  Admittedly that got boring after a while so I moved on to podcasts.  At first it was gaming podcasts like http://trinityforcepodcast.com/ and http://www.critjuice.com/ but I quickly listened to all those episodes.  So I moved on to education stuff and ran into this https://www.coursera.org/course/videogameslearning

I signed up and have been listening to their videos for the past few days and it's got me thinking of how I can revamp my classes to be more enjoyable to teach and hopefully more engaging and interesting for the students; though mainly those students who aren't normally engaged.  The good students are always engaged no matter what I do.  In some cases a trained monkey clicking through slides would be just fine for those students.

My first step is going to be figuring out a proper XP system that incorporates delivery of course content as well as the assignments and tests associated with that course content.