How Many Math? 99Math!

Math really is not for everyone. That is why, as a future high school teacher, I am always looking for new ways to teach math, ways that will help student interest and engagement high. For this blog post, we were tasked to choose an online tech tool that we have never used before. After researching, I have chosen one tech tool that is free and easy to use. Also, I will briefly discuss another free and easy to use online tech tool that math teachers could use.  

The tech tool that I will be mainly focusing on this blog post is called 99math. I think the best way to explain this tool is to say that it is a combination of Kahoot and Google Classroom or Canvas. Firstly, I will briefly explain how these familiar apps work. In Kahoot, you can create these quiz-like games, and students can compete on who can correctly answer the questions the fastest. Google classroom and Canvas, on the other hand, act as a central hub, where students can access information and files they might need for their classes. In addition, a teacher can also set up deadlines for course work, such as homework, projects, and exams, so students can keep track of them. 

These features that I mentioned can also be done using 99math. Like Kahoot, teachers can use 99math to set up quiz-like games to make learning math more fun. Under the Live Mode section, there are seventeen topics to choose from. However, in 99math, there is an extra feature. These Kahoot-like games can be assigned to be three things. The first one is that it could be assigned as a casual and friendly competition that can immediately be played at that moment. The next is that it could be assigned as homework. The last way is that it could be assigned as an in-lesson practice. Both the homework feature and the in-person practice feature are asynchronous, so students can access it anytime they want, even if it is outside of the class. There is also a Home Play section. It is a fifteen-minute practice that is done at home (You can also obtain rewards in Home Play, but since I am not a teacher yet and have no actual students, I cannot check to see what those rewards could be).  

There is one feature that makes 99math different from Kahoot. In 99math, the results of the games, homework, and in-class practices that are done are accumulated to track students’ progress and fluency in the chosen topic. This helps teachers see which topic a particular student struggles with, so they can help that student in learning the topic. Students can join a “class” that their teacher set up in 99math. This is how teachers can track progress and fluency. Like Google Classroom and Canvas, teachers that use 99math can set up deadlines for the homework they give to their students. The only difference is that uploading files is not a feature, which I feel like is the app’s only limitation. If the website does not offer or have the topic, a teacher would not be able to use it for their class.  

I mentioned before that I will also briefly talk about another online tech tool that math teachers can use. This website is called Desmos. It is basically an online graphing calculator. Here, you can add equations, expressions, and more, and if it is written correctly, the graph versions of those equations and expressions will be shown on the main screen of the app. Math deals with graphs, so I think this will be helpful.