Tech Tuesday on a Monday: Using Gmail for Student Email Accounts

I didn't intend for this to be it's own post, but as I was writing my post about using a program called Piazza in the classroom, I realized how important this was on it's own if you didn't already know how to use it. Using technology in the classroom is awesome, but many times we come to the realization that for every single student account we need to have an email for them. In high school and maybe even middle school for some of you out there, this isn't a problem; but many of my elementary kids don't have email. Even if they do have email, maybe you don't want them to be using it in school. Who knows what is on there!

An easy way to have different email accounts for each student is to use your ONE gmail account. 

For instance, my gmail is misshayden26@gmail.com. When I wanted to get all ten of my students Haiku Deck accounts, I used my gmail to set it up. 

By giving each student the email of misshayden26+InsertIdentifier@gmail.com, they all have their "own" email address, but all correspondence goes to my one account. You don't have to do anything online for this to work, simply tell your students their assigned email address.  Gmail does not recognize anything after the "+". For my students this summer, I simply used "Student1" and changed the number for each student. For the students I work with all year, I will use their names as identifiers. 

When the email comes to your inbox, you can see who it is for:

You can see that the email is to "misshayden26+David@gmail.com", but it and all of the other emails are still sent to the single email account. 

This is just a very simple tip that can help a lot in your classroom. When I found out about it a few years ago, my mind was blown! 

Is there a simple tip that made a big difference in your classroom?

Hope everyone is have a good end to their summer! I  know that Chloe and I are so excited to finally get to sleep in this weekend. She is doing a bit of napping to make up for her early morning as we speak. 

Happy teaching!

Mathematical Monday: Blowing Bubbles to Learn About Circles

Today I am linking up with I Heart Recess  for Mathematical Monday to share one of my most favorite math activities that we do all year long! I have done this activity the past two years and I... my kids love it. My math coach told me about it last year and I now have brought it to my new school and done it with my TAG students and some of the fifth graders. It is so much fun!

 

Educators like to have pi day and to use food to study circles. I love pi day too, but many schools are changing to where you can no longer give students food. Because of this, this is a great alternate or additional activity to give your students some time to have fun with circles on a hands on way. Not only do they have a blast, but boy your desks will never be cleaner!

Materials Needed: liquid hand soap, straw for each student, measuring tapes (the ones that tailors use), a cup or measuring cup, and cleared off desks. 

I make up a bucket of the soapy solution (just some liquid soap and water (Dawn works well)) and go ahead and pour some (a small cup or measuring cup works well) on an area where all students can see so that I can model the activity. I have a straw and put it down in the middle of some suds(it is important that you water is very sudsy). You want to make sure that you are holding the straw straight up and down. Then, you should blow lightly and a large bubble will appear on the desk. Once the bubble pops, show students how to measure the diameter and how you expect them to record it. 

Once your expectations are set and students are aware of how to do it, set them off! Put a scoop of the bubble solution on each desk. They will want to spread it around and then go ahead and start trying to blow bubbles. 

This is one of my fifth graders blowing his bubble, they get really big!

Another excellent bubble blown!

 This student  is measuring her diameter, you can see the ring of suds that they measure really well int this picture!

Important Things to Remember:

1. Make sure the straw is straight up and down when you try to blow.

2. Make sure you are sticking your straw into some suds.

3. If you already have a bubble partially  blown and want to make it bigger, put the straw straight up and down on the desk and drag it over to the edge of the bubble. Once it is touching, you can start blowing to make it larger. 

4. Make sure you keep track of what side of the straw has been touching the desk and what side you have been blowing with. Nobody wants to taste the soap! 

5. If there are not many suds on the desk, they can use their hands to scoop all of the mixture back to the middle of the desk.

6. A 5 minute practice bubble blowing session (without measuring the diameter each time) is always fun a good way to make sure students are ready to go. 

I have done this activity with two fifth grade classes. Both times it has been very successful, but there are always a few students that say they can not get a bubble. For these students, I demonstrate on their desk and then take a scoop of just suds from the top of the mixture to put onto their desk. They normally get it right afterwards. It will be a hectic lesson for you, your job will be to scoop more sud mixture onto their desks and they will always be asking for it. The hard work pays off though, with an excellent lesson and a ton of fun!  After a certain amount of time (I generally give them 5 minutes of practice and 10 minutes of blow and record time), have the students clean up. I then have them do the actual calculations with the circumference formula to find the circumference of the their bubble circles. Largest circumference gets a prize! 

I definitely recommend doing this activity with your students if you study the area or circumference of circles. It's a ton of fun. Just make sure you practice a bit with the bubble mixture before the lesson.

Happy Teaching Y'all!