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Access to technology has become increasingly easy. Technology is integrated into schoolwork effortlessly. Teachers can now use apps and websites for elementary math bell work. Here’s how to get started with online elementary math bell work.
Bellwork is schoolwork that students work on when the bell rings. It is always the first task of the class period. It is important to let students know that there will always be posted bellwork every day. Bellwork takes up the first five to ten minutes of class, eliminating the problem of settling in.
Bellwork should be simple and prepare students for the day’s lesson. It is a warm-up activity that incorporates reviews that teachers plan to do anyway. Bellwork should be doable, independent work. Teachers should not spend a lot of time grading bellwork, but the purpose is to get students thinking, not to assess performance.
Bellwork engages students the minute they walk through the door. As a result, the content of bellwork has a good chance of staying in working memory where thoughts and ideas connect to relevant or meaningful information.
Bellwork can help students calmly activate the part of their brain to maximize their learning in class. However, their readiness will vary because they see many different teachers with different content and different teaching styles.
With math bellwork, you create a meaningful activity that will prepare them for the day’s learning. It may be a review from yesterday, a skill from years ago, or some activity that activates prior knowledge to succeed in the day’s lesson. It may be an open-ended question to get them thinking about a topic. When math bellwork is used, it allows students more brain capacity for learning.
Bellwork is a powerful classroom management tool, especially when students are chaotic. The students know what to expect with consistent bellwork, and it is easier to get them focused when bellwork is set in place. Bellwork also allows teachers the ability to take attendance and do other housekeeping things. For example, returning grading work or distributing materials for the lesson can be done during bellwork.
Teachers can see how students interact with technology to do online math bellwork in real-time. It is easier for teachers to see and correct the mistakes in students’ responses. The technology supports what is taught in person. Interactive math worksheets help teachers complete math bellwork.
Teaching online is not the same as in person. Instruction has to be delivered online, teachers interact with students at a distance, feedback is provided virtually, and a community has to be built online. Math bellwork helps build a community and teach students at a distance online.
One source of technology that works for math bell work is Prodigy. It is a free site that has an app. Students answer questions to battle characters while playing a game. It allows the teacher to assign as many questions on a topic as they want. These assigned questions are given before other questions. Prodigy provides feedback to the teachers as well.
Students can battle each other and earn coins to buy fun things in the game. Students work on battles that are made up of problems at their level. Some students enjoy the game so much that they even play it at home!
Freckle Math gives the students a chance to do adaptive math practice and targeted assignments. Front row is an online source of potential math bellwork. Every weekend, it sends an e-mail to the teacher to tell them how the students are doing in Freckle. In addition, the students earn points or coins to dress up as an animal of their choice. The state standards are reached when an activity matches the math lesson that the teacher needs to teach. It is a self-paced learning tool that also has ELA activities.
Moby Max is a source of math bellwork that gives a level-determining test, then goes through lessons while building skills at a student’s level of success. Teachers can also go in and assign a skill that is covered in class. The students start with a pretest and then move on to mini-lessons. For example, suppose a student is struggling with an activity. A teacher can go in and assign related content for them to practice. Doing this helps them with the activity they are struggling with by making the skill more accessible. Moby max provides academic performance and a daily quick review.
SumDog is an engaging and competitive source of math bellwork. Teachers can even join and play against their students. Everyone works on skills at their specific levels but can still play against each other. It automatically adjusts questions to each student’s level.
Chances are you already have a lot of tools in your arsenal for bell work. They just aren’t digitized yet. TeacherMade is the solution for this. You can take any paper or PDF assignment and turn it into a digital worksheet. Your interactive activities will invite more engagement from students. You will love our auto-score features that give you instant feedback so you can start class better informed.
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