I Love When That Happens

I stumbled upon an app last evening that was right on time – the freebie entitled “Number Line” was just what I needed for today’s scheduled “no homework night”.  I had a worksheet planned on “Comparing and Ordering Rational Numbers” that has worked fine over the years, but before I filed it away, I thought I’d dangle a carrot…

After our daily “homework huddle”, I told the students I had prepared a Socrative quiz for them.  If they did well, I’d introduce them to a new app.  If they didn’t do well, the worksheet would reign!  Today, I chose to “Hide Live Results” for the 8 question teacher-paced Socrative quiz, until every student weighed in.  Oh, the pressure!  I watched students toil and squirm before covering their eyes to touch their iPad screens, in hopes they had chosen the correct answer.  When they received the instant feedback that they had chosen wisely, a resounding “Yes!” was heard!  For those who answered incorrectly, there was hair pulling and gnashing of teeth… and that is not much of an exaggeration!  The air was thick with anticipation as I revealed the live results for each prompt.  All in all, they did well enough to earn the new app, and the worksheets went back on the shelf.

Which brings me to this curious “Number Line” app – what a neat, interactive way to compare rational numbers!  A series of “bubbles” containing decimals, percents and fractions comes floating across the screen, as if to tease.  Once the bubbles stop moving, the clock starts ticking, and students race to drag each value onto the number line, ordering them from least to greatest as they go.  Green bubble = good number placement.  Red bubble = wrong order, please try again for green.  It’s that easy… and addicting!  Points are scored by racing the clock, so accuracy and speed both matter.

I will say that I wish the app had more settings, and after playing up to level 17 myself, I was disappointed that there weren’t any negative values (which is what my students could probably benefit from most) but all in all, I am confident that, even on this “no homework night”, a student is at home, playing this game right now!  *UPDATE*

 

I just checked my e-mail and have an artifact to share – proof that, indeed, on this        “no-homework night”, at least one student is still learning!  😉

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