Wicked Project Part D

My project and plan of using math games to engage and effectively teach students did get implemented as planned.  I noted every time we did math centers or used the SMARTboard for interactive learning, overall student enthusiasm increased.  Even though I know the SMARTboard is new in our classroom and students are excited to discover it, a majority of hands raised when they got the opportunity to complete a math problem on the board.  Although I would have liked to implement math centers a bit more, I got enough results to analyze.

After completing math centers or working on the SMARTboard, I have a quick discussion with my students on the positives and negatives of each technology used.  This is a great way for me to gauge student interest in particular math games and to realize what did not work well.  For example, my fifth graders just began adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.  For CEP 820, I am in the process of creating a unit on this concept.  I gave students the opportunity to play any of the games listed on my website Fraction Fun Website.  I discovered very quickly the games that were very popular (Fruit Shoot Fraction, Head to Paradise, Battleship Math) and the game that was not as action packed and popular (Math Playground).  I also found out that the online board game from Math-Play Board Game does not change its problems so this would be more effective as a SMARTboard activity where students would rotate through this station instead of play it over and over.

Also on my website, I created a Google Form that became a quick way for me to see if students were actually retaining knowledge on fractions after playing games.    My results were very positive, meaning that most students were understanding how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators.  This short tool became a perfect way to quickly assess their knowledge.  I can’t say enough about what Google has to offer.

Given a chance to redo this, I may be more successful now because I already had student feedback on what worked well and did not work as well.  In this way, I can now provide the tools that were the most effective and fun to my students without having them sort through non-effective games first.  I definitely learned how important it is to get student feedback in their learning.  This allows each child to take ownership in their education.  However, I also have to remember that all students learn differently and what interests one may not interest another.  Therefore, I will continue to search for a variety of online games to provide to the ever-changing learner.
 
This project allowed me to gain insight into effective teaching strategies for math and will be utilized in the future.