Technology As A Part of A Tic Tac Toe Menu

What Is A Tic Tac Toe Choice Board?

Basically a Tic Tac Toe Choice Board is a variation of centres and it is a great way to differentiate learning. You can use it in pretty much any subject. Choice Boards Tic-Tac-Toe Menu Boards outlines what they are in more detail and gives some examples. I have created my own template to use for my Tic-Tac-Toe activities. I usually have three things I want students to do so I strategically place each option.

I try to have accountability built into each activity. Sometimes that is as simple as having a peer check their work and other times it requires them recording a simple answer.

Technology Choices

I like to add technology as three choices. I instruct students verbally and on the template that they can only have one technology activity in their "line". I usually have a Smartboard centre (the rule is only two people at this one at a time and no line ups), a netbook/laptop centre (no line ups) a listening centre or video centre. If students finish their initial three activities before Tic Tac Toe time is over, they can choose additional activities from any square.

An Example: Measurement Tic Tac Toe

Planning

I recently wrapped up my grade two measurement unit. I wanted to give students an opportunity to review before I assessed them. So I created a Tic Tac Toe that lasted about an hour. My three topics were:

• Topic One: measuring with non-standard units
• Topic Two: drawing something to a measurement (non-standard units)
• Topic Three: technology and measurement

The three technology activities were:

1. Laptop Centre: The Fearless Flying Fleas (choose BOLD) 
2. Video Centre: * Video segment was from Math Monsters: Standard and Non-Standard Measurement  
3. Smartboard Centre: Simple Scales from Crickweb

How I Did the Video Centre

I used a laptop and connected it to a device that came with my listening centre. Then I set up three headphones. I used a video segment from Discovery Education.* I monitored when the video was over and told the class when the centre was available again for those who had it selected as a choice. 

Lesson

First I quickly reviewed all 9 activities and where they were set out in the class. As my students
had done a Tic Tac Toe before, I quickly reviewed how they work. Then I gave them about 45 minutes of centre time. During this time I checked in with student I knew needed guided review of certain topics. I kept track of on task behaviour as well and intervened if necessary. However, because students were so engaged and in charge of the speed at which they work, this was only necessary once.  Most students completed their "line" and went on two 1 - 2 other activities.

At the end of the activity, I review what was achieved for each square. For example, for the video, I had students who watched it reveal to the rest of the class that feet can be used as non-standard units.  For the Smartboard centre and two pan balance centre we review what were the heaviest and lightest objects.

Final Thoughts

Using a TIC TAC TOE is a great way to give students choice and create engagement. However they can be time consuming to set up. I also would not recommend them to teach a concept but rather for students to practice, extend or refine their understanding of concepts. More non-standard units online activities can be found in my post Non-Standard Measurement Activities. 

Non-Standard Measurement Activities

Here's a short and sweet post about some of the online resources I use for my measurement unit.

Links

I like the non-standard unit activities I found online  They are motivating and good reinforcement of what students learn with objects in class. I like that many of them have estimating as a part of the process of measurement.

Linear Measurement - Using Multiple Copies of a Unit

• How Tall
• How Big Are You?
• Crystals Rule
• The Fearless Flying Fleas

Linear Measurement - Compare and Order

• Long and Short
• Tall and Short
• Count Us In - Game 14 (height) put the people tallest to shortest
• Measuring Up

Mass (Weight) Measurement - Compare and Order

• Light and Heavy
• Bunny Balance
• Weigh It Up

Math Centres
My students do math centres about once a week. Two centres are always the same. One is a journal centre, where they work with me in small groups. One centre is a netbook centre where they are assigned Mathletics activities or they go to my webpage* (msmondor.wordpress.com) and work on websites I post there. The third centre changes depending on the needs of the class or the unit we are studying.

* I wrote a post about having a class website if you are interested in this.

What Type of Movement Culture Does Your Technology Classroom Have?

You've Got To Move It, Move It

Inspired by Marcia Tate many years ago, movement has become an important part of my classroom environment. Not only do I provide opportunities for students to move regularly but I try to instill in the students the importance of moving so they can self regulate. 

I think this is will become more and more important the more sedentary activities might become with the increased use of technology in classrooms. 

Small Movement Breaks

In my class, students are encourage to recognize when their body needs a break. Throughout the year I do direct teaching of small movement breaks during writing, typing or art activities. However, by the end of the year the goal is students are aware of the need for them. Small breaks might include:

• "spider" - students put their fingers together but leave their palms apart. Then they pump their palms in and out giving their fingers a stretch
• wrist circles
• neck stretches
• shoulder rolls
• body twists

Big Movement Breaks

If students are sitting for more than 15 - 10 minutes for an activity, I try to remember to incorporate a movement break into the activity. When using technology this might include:

• encouraging students to get up and get a drink of water
• stand up and stretch behind where you are working
• a "shake, shake, shake" break where students stand up and shake their bodies
• a whole class movement break*

* I put a list of whole class movement breaks at the bottom of this post.

Frustrated? Change the Mood

Often working with technology can lead to frustration (for you and/or the students). Stopping and doing a fun movement break can change the energy and mood of a classroom. Want to get students smiling? Try:

• Handshake #2 Brain Break
• Button Factory (to get kids laughing, I usually make the last "button" they have to push use their tongue, then they have to say the whole thing "hello my name is Joe..." with their tongue sticking out).

Some Whole Class Movement Break Ideas

• Double This Double That
• Captain’s Coming using cardinal directions instead of “bow” and “stern”. Some ideas for other calls can be found at Pirate Ship.
• Snowball
• My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean (lyrics at end of post) – for fun here’s the Beatles version.
  My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
  My bonnie lies over the ocean
  My bonnie lies over the sea
  My bonnie lies over the ocean
  Oh, bring back my bonnie to me
  Bring back, bring back,
  Bring back my bonnie to me, to me
  Bring back, bring back,
  Bring back my bonnie to me
  Actions: Start the song sitting down. On the first “B” in the song, stand up. At the next “B”, sit down again. Repeat throughout the song. Repeat the song a number of times, getting faster and faster!
• 10 Great Classroom Icebreakers
• Energizer: Classroom-based Physical Activities K-12
• A Physical Activity Idea Book for Elementary Classroom Teachers

Getting Started With Grade Ones and Google Apps

A grade one colleague shared with me her grade one's first Google Presentation. It is a super simple, yet motivating, first activity. The students really enjoyed the project.

It was successful because:

• it was a culminating activity, so students were knowledgeable on the topic.
• older buddies helped.
• the template the teacher created made it simple for her new-to-Google students to feel successful.
• she had access to the document her students were working on and could monitor their progress.

What she did:

1. She created a Google Doc and made a slide for each of her students. Each slide had 'by' and the student's name. 
2. She shared the document with her students.
3. With their buddies, the students had to find the slide with their name, type their sentences and add pictures.
4. When everyone was finished, each student got to come up and read his/her slide to the class.

Below is a copy of the final presentation. I have removed students names and just left the first initial.

Butterflies - Excitement, Empathy and Drama

 Animal Life Cycles Grade 3 Science

As part of the Grade 3 science unit, Animal Life Cycles, students are to observe and describe the growth and development of at least one living animal, as the animal develops from early to more advanced stages.  This is the story of how one class used a forum to record observations and share experiences. 

Last spring my grade three students were very engaged in our butterfly project. 

There was drama, empathy and excitement as students shared their experiences and recorded the development of their butterfly larvae on our class forum.  

Each student received three Painted Lady Butterfly larvae and were required to journal their observations on a forum. Students recorded their observations, responded to each other and shared pictures as the larvae developed. 

Here are some of the excerpts from our butterfly forum on 123 LearnNet. You will get a sense of the connection and learning that happened.

This is Hawk's post telling about the day his butterflies emerged from the chrysalis.

Here is Eva's hopeful post:

And Hawk's encouragement:

In the end things took a surprise turn for Hawk. This was an email I received: 

"It was an emotional release of the flying beauties. 2 flew away into the blue while one only had moments of freedom before it was a blue jays lunch .So sad but that's a butterfly s life. We have enjoyed this experience so much that we plan on raising more butterfly s in the future. Thank you for this project." 

And Eva's butterfly did finally emerge and fly away.  However the thought of a hungry Blue Jay was not far from her mind. 

The following Google presentation shows the development of one student's butterfly larva through each stage to the day he released them.  Take note of the last two slides they are delightful!  

Butterfly Life Cycle - Google Presentation

This particular forum was on 'Moodle',  the LMS (Learning Management System)  we use to deliver online courses at our school.  

If I were to do this activity in a classroom setting, I might consider sending the larvae home with the students.  This would give them incentive to record and share their individual observations on a class blog or through a Google Presentation. 

Paper or Netbook? The Student Decides.

What Normally Happens In The Morning For Bell Work

My students get a package on Monday that they can work on at their own pace in the mornings and that we review the answers for throughout the week. A paper-pencil activity is convenient for bell work in the morning. Typically they have an acrostic poem to complete as well, but I removed that from this experiment.

Choice Experiment

I decided to do a two week long experiment with my morning work routine. For three out five days I gave my students a choice. They could do their morning work on paper or on a netbook. I was curious if this would be time effective. We use netbooks quite often in my class, so my students are very proficient with getting the netbooks out, getting logged on and then returning the netbooks at the end. Each activity is no more than 20 minutes, some only 15 minutes or less. My students were also proficient with the online activities that they had to choose from.

Monday - New Words

They write their new spelling words into their agenda and get their choices for the week.

Tuesday - Practice Words

Paper choice - Look-Say-Cover-Write-Check
Netbook choice - Spelling City "Test Me" (I have a free Spelling City account)

Wednesday - Sentences

Paper choice - Five sentences on lined paper
Netbook choice - Five sentences on Google Docs

Thursday - Fill In The Blanks

All do this on paper due to going to music in the morning. 

Friday - Fun With Words

Paper choice - word search
Netbook choice - Spelling City or Spellodrome activities

Reflections

• I was surprised by the number of students who chose paper activities. Out of 17 students, each day there were 3-5 students who chose the paper activities both weeks. 
• Using technology for these short tasks did not add on as much time to the activities as I thought they might. Both groups (paper and netbook) finished their activities at about the same time.

What Next?

Going forward I am going to continue to give my students a choice for the sentence work on Wednesdays. On Fridays, I may try having students do their weekly poem using technology and early finishers can review their words online.

Another Grade Two Presentation Activity

Working In Meteghan Presentation

My students created a Google Presentation about working in Meteghan, Nova Scotia.

Background Information

This is a lesson that I did in March 2013. My students had created a number of Google Presentations already. They had also learned the terms natural resources, wildlife, goods and services as they related to Iqaluit. In this activity, they reviewed these terms and applied them to Meteghan. They also reviewed how to use keywords to search for images.

What We Did

Each day we did one slide and one term.

1. We would read about the topic. Sometimes together and sometime in partners. (My school uses Pearson's Many Voices.)
2. We would review what the term for the day meant.
3. I would have students list examples for that term specific to Meteghan.
4. Then students would create a slide for that term. This was guided.
• We came up with the definition for the term and that was the title for our slide.
• Then students had to search for images to represent examples for Meteghan.
• For goods and for services they also typed examples.
5. After students had a sufficient amount of working time, we'd review what they came up with and I used that to create an example slide on the Smartboard. 
6. On the last day they shared it with me.

An Example of One Day - Goods

1. Students logged onto Google Apps and then set their netbooks aside.
2. We reviewed what goods were. Students were able to look at a glossary before answering if needed.
3. Half the class read one page out loud. The other half had to identify three goods that were shared on that page. Then they switched roles. Half the class read a second page out loud. The other half had to identify three goods that were shared on that page.
4. I reviewed how to create a new slide that had a 'title and body'. 
5. We reviewed what goods were again and I typed a student's answer as the title.
6. I reviewed how to create bullets. 
7. I asked for one example of a good and used that to demonstrate that I wanted a list.
8. Then students opened their presentation (they had already started the presentation) and created the new slide.
9. After students had a sufficient amount of working time, I had them share what goods they added to their list (I had said they needed a minimum of six) and added what they shared to my example on the Smartboard. 
10. I then explained they needed three images for this slide. We reviewed what some good keywords might be.
11. I had them working time to add their images.

No Assessment

This activity was intended to support the students learning about working in Meteghan, therefore it was not taken in for assessment.

Examples

Here is the presentation I created as a summary of what my students did (step 5) - Working In Meteghan. Here is an example of a student's presentation - Example of Working In Meteghan.