Elementary and Middle School Math on iPad (VIDEOS)

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of visiting several classrooms throughout the district to watch how our teachers are integrating technology at various grade levels in various subject areas. When I visit, I often capture very short snippets of video on iPhone or iPad.

Last week, I had the fortune of visiting a Grade 3 math lesson and then a Grade 6 math class on back-to-back days. The more I learn about the Math in Focus curriculum, the more I wish that my own math learning experience could have been like this! At the same time, I very much enjoy watching our creative and articulate math teachers provide authentic problem-solving experiences to our students who are genuinely engaged by the many learning modes used during a single math lesson.

I saw some excellent examples of iPad integration when I visited the classes of Kim Gillengerten at Barbara Rose School and Meg Knapik at BMS Prairie. Kim Gillengerten is part of Barrington 220's LaunchPad iPad initiative—our first-year iPad rollout for Grades PK–5 in our One to World program. Meg Knapik is in her second year of teaching students with 1:1 iPads in Grade 6. As luck would have it, I saw students in both Grade 3 and Grade 6 using a visual learning technique called "Bar Modeling" to help students navigate sophisticated word problems.

In both classes, teachers used a combination of full-class discussions, partnering, and individual time to work through the problem-solving process. Both teachers used Schoology to distribute and collect student work. Both teachers also used Notability to allow students to annotate problems and record their thinking. In the Grade 6 class, students ended by creating a video in Explain Everything that allowed them to record their own voices and write on the screen as they created a “play-by-play” demonstration of their understanding.

Check out the two classes below (each video is less than 1 minute).

Kim Gillengerten, Grade 3 Math, Barbara Rose School


Meg Knapik, Grade 6 Math, BMS Prairie