Twiddla, the Best Tool Currently Available for Online Tutoring

I am so flippin' excited to share this post with you all!  Please welcome Angela Culley, an online math tutor.  Today she shares with us her favorite online tool, Twiddla!  YES!!!  Please don't be bashful and leave questions or compliments in the comments.  Angela is super talented and here to help.  -Adrianne

As a math teacher and tutor, I have been looking for a website that allows students, teachers, and tutors to collaborate on homework, projects, and questions.  There are plenty of products out there, but I have only found one, Twiddla, that meets the majority of my needs. Twiddla is found at www.Twiddla.com.

FREE

First and foremost, I want to be able to collaborate with students and colleagues for free.  As educators, we spend our own money on many resources, but I want to avoid adding a monthly fee, for a collaborative website,to the list.  Luckily, Twiddla offers a web-based software that is free to use.  The free access is perfect for any meeting that doesn’t require privacy or the ability to login again later to review saved meetings.  Even better, if you create a 30-day trial account, you can contact info@twiddla.com from a teacher email account (.edu) and request that yourfree trial account be converted into a free pro version account! 

MATH SYMBOLS

It can be difficult to discuss mathematics without the necessary symbols.  This fact alone has held up my search until now.  Although many sites offer the interactive whiteboard, you will quickly find that the markers are meant to be a quick tool to focus attention, it is not extremely easy to write and read math expressions and equations.  Luckily, Twiddla has a great set of math symbols that can be embedded into your whiteboard space.

EASE OF USE

When inviting a colleague or student to collaborate, I want them to join the conversation without the hassle of creating an account or downloading software.  As long as you have a computer (pc or mac), browser and an Internet connection you can use Twiddla!   There is no software to download which is extremely helpful. All the host needs to do is select Go (Start a New Meeting) and you have a meeting started.  You are immediatelyprovided a URL to share with others. As others join, their username shows up on the right.

In addition to the stress-free invite process, each tool is easy to use, with very little explanation.  The site is basically set up so that you can explore each tool without the worry of ruining anything.  Did you make a mistake?  Use the erase tool or start a new sheet!

VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS

The user can upload a homework document to review and mark up, a picture of graph paper to graph an equation, a website for demonstration purposes,a text pad that allows all participants to type simultaneously, and a video to share. The possibilities are endless!

AUDIO AND TEXTING

Finally, you have options on how to communicate with others.  Texting and audio are both available. 

VIDEO CHAT AND GRAPHING SOFTWARE

With all of the positives, come only two negatives.  I would like to see video chat added to Twiddla.  It is always helpful to see facial expressions when working with others because the same words can be interpreted differently based on a person’s expression.  Also, I would love to see an embedded graphing calculator.  The best I can currently do is use a graphing website through Twiddla or take and upload pictures from TI-SmartView software.

All in all, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Twiddla is a self-described “web-based media playground,” and I have to say that I agree!  With free access, you get a bountiful list of useful tools to try out for yourself.  What have you got to lose?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

About the Author:

Angela Culley

Owner and Tutor at Math Ninja

As the founder of Math Ninja, Angela provides online and in person math tutoring for all ages including those studying for the GRE, GMAT, SAT, ACT, PPST, and other math specific subject assessments. Prior to launching her business, Angela coached K-12 educators on effective teaching strategies, curriculum writing, and assessment development. As a classroom teacher, she taught math to students ranging from grade 5 - 12. She has also taught both undergraduate and graduate math courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia and Mountain State University.

Book Review: Reading the Alphabet

Last year, I stumbled upon the blog This Reading Mama.  Becky is a reading expert and shares all kinds of goodies on her blog about emergent readers, struggling readers, sight words, handwriting...you really ought to follow her!  She is amazing.  I learn a lot of things from her.  My most favorite and interesting fact is that Becky at one time was a reading tutor!  You'll find helpful tips on her tutor page too.

She contacted me recently to review her latest book called, "Reading the Alphabet".  I was excited to flip through the pages and see what goodies she has put together.

One feature that I love with this book is that you can use it with beginner readers and those who are just plain old struggling.  As a tutor, I've found it hard to find comprehensive reading resources.  This book hits it right on the head.  Becky set up the lessons in sequence with detailed instructions on how to use her mini books and games.  It covers basic initial consonant sounds and builds upon itself.  She includes sight words in the lessons too.

For each letter in the alphabet, Becky has crafted mini books and games.  I am excited that I now have a large library of mini books that I can print, read with my students, and then send it home with them.

Just like Becky, I like working with syllables to help my students chunk out a word.  In this game, you say the word slowly and the student counts how many syllables they hear.  When my students are working with syllables, I have them place their hand under their chin and count how many times their jaw goes down when they say the word.

There are a wide variety of games included like word sorts, word searches, color by sight word, cut and paste a rhyme.  In a tutor lesson, you could easily complete one entire lesson with your student and still have time to model reading with your student.

If you're interested in getting your own copy of Reading the Alphabet by Becky Spence, head on over to her blog.  Download a free sample too!  Plan for a little time though, because you could spend hours looking at all her great ideas!

Tutor Organization Series: Paperless Tutoring

Welcome back for our third part of the tutor organization series!  My friend Sandy of Adventures of a Techy Teacher kindly shared how she does paperless tutoring with me and gave me permission to share here during our series week.  She is a talented teacher and tutor.  Thanks Sandy!

Hello friends! As a techy teacher, I love to try and be paperless. The less paper I have to take to my tutoring sessions, the better it is for my teacher bag, my pocketbook, and my back! Let me tell you how I go about being paperless in my tutoring business and my classroom.

Paperless Planning

You have to keep in mind that when I plan for my tutoring sessions, I'm usually planning for one-on-one sessions that last for one hour. I like to plan down to the 10 minute mark. I also like to keep things moving and to practice facts & applications of reading and math in different ways throughout the session.

I absolutely love using Google Drive to create, share, collaborate, and edit documents, spreadsheets, and forms. I create my lesson plan template using Google Docs. Here is an image of one of my tutor planning sheets.

I have the Google Drive app on my iPad, so I just pull up my plans and access them prior to my tutoring session. 

Paperless Worksheets

Yes, it may sound like an oxymoron, but I use worksheets while being paperless. I like to use whiteboard recording apps like Educreations or ShowMe when working with my students. 

The first example I'd like to share is one that I used in an early elementary classroom. We were working on shapes. I had found a circle worksheet, but didn't have enough time to send them to the printer. I was able to save the worksheet to iBooks. I opened the worksheet on my iPad and took a screenshot. Once I had a screenshot, I was able to insert the picture into Educreations. Then I had each student trace the circles and say their numbers. It was very fun and engaging for each student! You can view the Educreations file (it's quite lengthy) by clicking here.

I also like to have my students show me what they know. I have my students use the ShowMe app in place of paper. This gives me a digital recording of what they know that I can share with parents. It also allows me to keep a digital portfolio of student learning that I use to demonstrate growth over time. Here is an example of a third grade student using ShowMe to demonstrate her understanding of lattice multiplication.

Paperless Record Keeping

Using Google Forms, I have transformed the way that I keep track of what I've completed with students during sessions, as well as how I keep track of payments. Google Forms are extremely easy to set up. You can have as many fields as you want. You can be as specific as you'd like. Here is a screenshot of my 2013 Tutoring Form.

If you have any questions about paperless tutoring, please feel free to contact me! I also use a similar procedure for my classroom lesson planning. Check my blog for more information about my adventures as a techy teacher!

The Tutor Organization Series!

I've got a great team of people writing with me this week.  We wanted to bring you ideas for getting your tutor business organized!  Let me introduce you to the group.

Amy of TutorsNirvana is the head author over at the website's blog.  She is full of great ideas and so helpful!

Victoria of The Tutoress...I just love that name!  She is one of the top tutors in the UK and is the author of Become a Private Tutor:  How to Build a Profitable and Successful Business.

Each day this week, we'll be bringing you different aspects of tutor organization.  Are you following by email, Facebook, or Google Plus?  If not, make sure to get connected so that you don't miss anything.

One question that I frequently get asked is how to get yourself organized for tutoring on-the-go. I posted on Facebook that I was getting ready for tutoring and asked how others were getting ready.  I didn't expect this response from Teresa.  She shared her love of binders with me and told me that she keeps them in her trunk for on-the-go tutoring.  Let's get a closer look of how she managed to fit her tutoring office in her trunk!

Of course, Teresa uses 3 ring binders to keep all her supplies, games, paperwork in order.  To keep things from slipping around, she used old shelves!  This is major creativity here!  One more shot of her trunk...

When Teresa sent me these images, she also offered to share a tutor session log with all of you!  Isn't that sweet?!  This logs has a place for comments and payment notes.  Did you know that she is a teacher author too?  Make sure to head on over and follow her at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Download your freebie here!

Here are some ideas I had for tutoring on-the-go:

I use binders just like Teresa and would organize them in a suitcase to make them portable.  I know it seems like you can't predict what materials you might need, but with a little pondering and planning, you'll see that you will take is what you need with you.  Let me show you how I would get ready for a math tutoring session.

Here's a list of what's inside the suitcase for a sixth grade math student:

1. Samsung Tablet
2. Student binder
3. Daily Math Puzzler Binder
4. Grade level math book
5.  File folder games
6. Game pieces (kept in a pencil case)
7. Dry erase board and markers
8. Deck of playing cards
9. Math Mats
10. Pencils and paper
11. My Square card reader (to process payments using smart phone)
12. Calculator
13. Ruler
14. Any math manipulatives

How do you tutor on-the-go?  Share your ideas in the comments below.  Make sure to tune in tomorrow for Victoria's tips on organizing all your tutoring curriculum.

Lil' Baker Summer Day Camp

It's done!  After many hours of testing each recipe and being on the brink of giving up, I finally hunkered down and finished my Lil' Baker Summer Day Camp.  This camp is awesome.  Each recipe is tried and true.  I wanted recipes that anyone could do!  I went through a lot of recipes and at one point, I thought this project was out to get me...but then I had a break through.

Who is Lil' Summer Day Camp Made For?

Just about anyone!  I started doing my own summer day camps last summer and had a blast.  The best part was being able to do them with my kids.  There is something special about setting a time and place to make magic happen.  Lil' Summer Day Camp could be just that for your family.  I also kept those in mind that want to run their own day camps, but don't want to spend hours of planning to get an amazing and memorable camp experience.  Read more about starting your own day camp here.

What's Inside?

I included 5 days of lesson plans for you to create and explore baking with a science perspective.  Each camp day is allotted about 2 1/2 hours of time.  The recipes all fit with in that time frame, given that the kids don't get too crazy on you!

Here's a sampling of what recipes and science you'll get:

• Style your own apron and hat
• No-Bake Cookies
• The Science Behind Cookies
• Cake From Scratch
• Measurement Games
• Freezer Jam
• Homemade Butter
• How Yeast Works
• 90 Minute Bread

If you want to use the day camp as part of a real day camp setting, I included a super helpful estimation sheet to help you decide the cost of each day camper attending.  You can pick up a copy of Lil' Summer Day Camp for $10!  That's cheaper than taking your kids to the movies and this camp will build lasting memories too.  If you buy this for business, include the price of this into your day camp fee.

Rave Review from Lauren of Literacy Mom of 3, "Oh, my goodness, this packet is incredible!  You have included so many content areas into this plan with such fun activities."

Lil' Baker Summer Day Camp Curriculum

$10.00

A Peek Inside

I will share with you one of the fun activities that you get to do in this summer day camp.  Homemade Butter!  I asked my kids where butter came from and surprisingly, they actually knew cows were involved.  I was expecting them to just tell me, "the store".

The ingredients for butter are simple, heavy whipping cream and a little salt.  We used Ziploc containers that hold about 4 oz of cream.  Fill the container about 2/3 of the way full and drop in a clean marble.  Why a marble?  This helps as they are shaking the container to hear when to stop.

Snap the lid on and tell them to get shaking!  My kids were such wimps, after 5 minutes they were worn out. It takes about 25 minutes to make butter.  Check out the pics to see each little step of the process.  You'll love my technical terms!

Please share on your favorite social media outlet with others that liked this post as much as you!  I appreciate you coming by today.

3 of you  have a chance to win a copy of this summer day camp right now!  Starting today, leave me a comment (with your email address) on this blog post telling me your favorite kitchen memory as a kid.  I will pick a winner at random on Monday, June 10 2013 at 11:00 PM MST.  Winners will be notified by email and given 3 days to reply before another winner is chosen.

Plan Day Sunday: Place Value Work

Cutie Pie 2nd Grade Student:

My students teacher gave me this awesome pack of weekly review sheets to use.  They were so professional and easy to use, I looked on Teachers Pay Teachers and sure enough-there they were!

These are like daily warm ups and they are aligned with the common core standards.  I have really liked using them in tutoring because I get to cover the things they are doing in class again with  my cutie pie student.  Look in her store for this awesome resource.

We worked really hard on place value practice this day.  My cutie pie gets it mixed up in her head. I found this super cute freebie on TpT called, Place Value Picnic.  It incorporated our study that we had previously done on standard, expanded, and word form.  It gave her another way to practice putting that knowledge to work.

We also played lots of math fact type games like Dog Pen (from Laura Candler's Mastering Math Facts) and finger bowling.  We finished up by playing Number Guess.  This freebie you can find on the newsletter subscribers page only.  Sign up for the newsletter, Tutor Notes over in the side bar.

Plan Day Sunday: Spring Bunny Bump

What are you thinking of this new series?  I am enjoying sharing with you all what we do each week.  Valentines and Ground Hog Day came and went.  My students and I were ready for a change.  I dug into my files and remember how awesome Denise from Sunny Days bump game are.

I am a mom of three boys, so tapping into what these girls would like takes a bit of digging for me.  I guess I should consider making a game board that has bunnies or kittens on it, I think they would love it!

Cutie Pie Math Student: 4th Grader

She chose to play Spring Bunny Bump first.  We had a lot of fun giggling and doing multiplication together.  I have the coolest job ever!  I love spending one on one time with kids.  You can download this game for free from Denise.

Next game she chose was Flip the Chip.  We wrote on the board some fraction math and multiplication.  In this game, the student flips a chip onto the game board.  Whatever problem it lands on, the student does.  If it lands on an intersection, then you have to do all of them.

Then we did multiplication war and finished up with two pages of Daily Math Puzzlers.

Cutie Pie Math Student: 2nd grader

We also did Flip the Chip and I chose to write numbers that would require her to regroup.  Then we did Pyramid solitaire.  I printed out another Playing Card Math Mat that had subtraction in it and we played high and low together.

We finished up by playing addition Spring Bunny Bump.  Thanks to Denise for making both.  I printed the addition and multiplication on one sheet and slid it into a sheet protector.  I appreciate it when a teacher shares and makes me look like a pro!

Plan Day Sunday: Super Brothers

Hey there!  It's Plan Day Sunday.  In case you missed the first one, you can read more about how this series started here.

Cutie Pie Math Student:  4th Grader

We worked on partitioning fractions today using my 3-5 Grade Playing Card Math Mats.  In this one you draw two cards, make the fraction, and then draw the fraction using the bar to the side of the page.  By the end of this lesson, she was a whiz!

The we did more of our Daily Math Puzzlers.  I love that this gives me an opportunity to sit back and watch her work.  I don't help her, but just let her work on them at her own pace.  Then we go over her answers and I praise her work that she did on her paper.  For example, if she solved it using pictures or if I saw her add up a bunch of sevens to figure out a multiplication fact.

We finished up that day by playing Super Brothers file folder game.  We did an equivalent fractions game.  I got the cards from another freebie I made called Autumn Equivalent Fractions.

Cutie Pie Math Student: 2nd Grader

We started out with Playing Card Math Mats 1 and 2. (You can download the mats for free)  I wanted to see her one to one correspondence skills.  She has missed a lot of the basics and we need to just fill in those gaps!  We used little frog erasers to represent one and then these fat square erasers to represent 10.

I also have in my office a set of basketball hoops!  We played Even and Odd basketball.  I would call out a number and she would decide if that number was even or odd. Then she would shoot it into the right basket.

We finished up with playing Super Brothers as well and we did basic addition facts.  She loved it!

Plan Day Sunday:A New Series Post

I recently asked my followers on Facebook if they thought it would be helpful to share my lesson plans for my students.  I got a resounding yes!  I didn't have time right in the moment to upload all of my plans, but I have been hanging onto them waiting to upload them.  The best part of having to wait was that I was able to take pictures of us while we were doing those activities.

I have three girl students this year and one boy.  I also do Homework Clinic Wednesdays and I never know for sure who will come to that.  Out of those four students, two of them are Algebra I students and the others are Elementary math students.

I have found it pretty useless to plan much for my Algebra/high school students because they usually just bring their homework and I reteach things then.  It's a fly by the seat of your pants kind of experience and surprisingly, I love it!

Now for my Elementary students, I have to make lots of plans for them.  They rarely bring school work and one of them has some attention issues, so we change activities about every 10-15 minutes.  I make a checklist of what we are going to do and then I let the students choose what we will do first.

With all that being said, let's jump into my lesson plans!!

Cutie Pie Math Student:  4th Grader

I have thoroughly been enjoying my copy of Daily Math Puzzlers from Laura Candler.  Such a time saver!  We did two pages of the puzzlers.  She is on level a.  I determined that by using Laura's free assessment.  You can also find free samples to try with your student on her website.

Then we played Number Guess, which is a game that came from the Family Math book.  This student is missing a lot basics and so I am trying to build up her foundation.

I also recently started using Laura's other math book Mastering Math Facts.  I wasn't too sure how it would work for a tutoring scenario, but I have found it to be helpful too!  I know that a lot of tutors are strapped for cash when it comes to buying supplies, but Laura's materials have saved me a lot of prep time these last few weeks and I am so thankful for her!  We played a game called Dog Pen in which she practiced her multiplication facts.

I usually fill the time if there is any left with DIY Jenga, multiplication war,  pyramid solitaire, or card games.

Cutie Pie Math Student: 2nd Grader

This is a brand new student to me.  She missed a lot of school last year due to some distressing situations in her home.  We spent the beginning of the tutoring session putting her fears to rest.  Her mom spent the entire hour there, which proved to be a total distraction in the long run.  I had her play DIY Jenga with me and I had written getting to know you answers on it.

Then I had her do a math assessment that I found for free on Math Mammoth.  I like their assessments because they are categorized by skills and then they give you a way of grading them so that you can identify the grade level they are on.  We didn't get very far in assessments because of mom being there and she was easily distracted.

I finished up tutoring by showing her how to play pyramid solitaire and I encouraged her to show her brother the game.

I didn't really plan on plugging Laura's products so much, but I am not joking-they are a serious time saver!!