Mr. Alwin's innovative approach at Xavier School demonstrates how integrating technology can breathe new life into traditional subjects. By leveraging Rolljak, he has created an interactive and dynamic classroom environment where math is not just a subject but an exciting journey of discovery. Students are now more eager to participate, showing marked improvements in their understanding and problem-solving skills.
Key Wins:
- Beneficial to check student’s participation in real-time.
- Suitable for on-site and online lessons simultaneously.
- Used to excite students and increase engagement.
- The “Sketch It Out” feature is effective for Math class.
About the School
Located in San Juan City, Philippines, Xavier School is a Jesuit basic education institution offering a three-level curriculum: early education, grade school, and high school. It was founded, owned, and managed by the Society of Jesus. Since its establishment, Xavier School has been dedicated to personal discipline, pursuit of academic excellence, and a commitment to service.
Combining the 400-year-old tradition of Jesuit education with innovation, Xavier School carries out various innovations and internationalization and keeps up-to-date with the latest technology.
Mr Alwin, a high school math teacher at Xavier School, San Juan City, is a teacher who wants to make math a fun lesson that his students like. He teaches three classes of grade 7 with students around 12-13 years old and has 30-35 students per class. In his 11th year as a teacher, Mr Alwin continues to do the best for his students by utilizing technology. He chose Rolljak, which uses the “Sketch It Out” feature to increase student participation and engagement.
Unveiling the First Encounter with Rolljak
At that time, Mr Alwin was surfing through social media, Facebook, and saw one of the social media posts about Rolljak. In 2021, Rolljak was still in the trial stage. "I tried to register and explore, even before the official launch," said Mr Alwin while remembering his first encounter with Rolljak.
During the pandemic, he was looking for an app to create a fun learning method for mathematics. It was a challenging subject for students.
When he first used Rolljak’s “Sketch It Out” feature, he was amazed because he believed this feature was perfect for him.
Therefore, he has to make students excited to learn even though the lessons are online.
Since then, he has been using Rolljak until now.
Sparking Joy in the Classroom: Embracing Fun, Participation and Engagement
Mr Alwin continues to bring innovation to his class to make the math lessons fun. He used Kahoot! and Quizizz in the past. However, he mentioned that Rolljak’s sketch feature is more suitable for him.
“When my students hear music from Rolljak, they immediately know I will be using Rolljak, and they are immediately excited about today's lesson.”
The students taught by Mr Alwin are excited when they find out the lesson is gamified. They become very competitive in competing to be at the top of the Rolljak’s leaderboard. The students try to be careful when doing the exercises because their answers will be presented in front of the class. They are excited to play the game while waiting before Mr Alwin moves to the next question/part.
“Using Rolljak, I can maximize the student’s participation and engagement.”
How Rolljak Helps Teachers in Hybrid Learning
Through Rolljak, teaching mathematics online becomes more manageable with the “Sketch It Out” feature. Students can do the assignment that the teacher gives. Apart from that, Mr Alwin also added that the answers from the students were also essential. Through Rolljak, he can find out and analyze student answers more quickly.
“I can pinpoint which of my students do not know the lesson just yet or which students already know, and I can ask them to explain,” said Mr Alwin.
There was a time when 50% of students did the online class while the rest did the on-site class. Mr Alwin can’t imagine if he still uses paper and pen to collect students’. He has to collect and check manually and then submit it to the Learning Management System. That would be very troublesome because some of them are joining online classes. However, everything went smoothly with Rolljak. All the responses from both on-site and online students can be submitted through Rolljak.
“Rolljak helps me focus on the submission and check on the student's answer.”
Mr Alwin admitted that he could also see and analyze students' answers quickly and easily and ask them to explain the answers they gave.
Xavier School is still practising hybrid lessons, where four times a week, they do onsite lessons, and on Wednesdays, they do online classes. Through Rolljak, the hybrid school learning process can be done easily.
Mr Alwin’s Thoughts about Rolljak
“Thanks to Rolljak, students love my class. They can easily participate in the class and increase their engagement.”
The “Sketch It Out” feature on Rolljak is quite effective in teaching mathematics. He also added that the Rolljak team is pleasant and very open to the feedback given by the teachers. Thanks to that, the Rolljak app keeps improving and becoming the application every teacher needs.
There are many good features at Rolljak, like auto-scoring, AI Questions generator, etc. He believes that Rolljak will keep improving its features. So, what do the teachers need? The Rolljak app will be the answer. “So, kudos to Rolljak,” said Mr Alwin, closing the interview.
Tips
- Many templates suit the teachers' needs: Rolljak provides a range of templates suitable for teachers' needs in all subjects, such as “Scale It Up”, AI Question Generator, or Unscramble. Explore and see these options and decide which one is more suitable for you.
- Use the “Sketch It Out” feature for Math: Mr Alwin found that the Rolljak “Sketch It Out” feature was effective for math quizzes in class. He can see how students answer the questions given and can quickly provide an assessment for each answer.
- Used to excite students and increase engagement: Games in the middle before going to the next slide can increase student enthusiasm. Students want to answer each question from the teacher quickly and then be able to play games in the remaining time. This makes students enthusiastic in the classroom.
- Effective for on-site and online lessons: Rolljak is practical for teachers when teaching onsite and online simultaneously. Instead of pen and paper, the Rolljak app helps online students feel the same sensation as those on-site. It will also benefit teachers to pay attention to all students, both onsite and online.