Design Plan for Texas Instrument

So, as a math teacher who uses a lot of technology in my classroom, I often come across times when the technology doesn't work.  I feel that the most frustrating part about integrating technology into your classroom is that it is not always dependable.  I hope that I am not the only one who values technology to feel this way.  So what is the answer?  Well, I don't think I am qualified or experienced enough to have all the answers, but I am recently taking a course that I think may help the problem, at least a little.  The class I am taking is called Instructional Systems Design.  Basically, the class is designed to teach us how to correctly develop instruction so that the as you complete any type of task it correlates with input of the next task.  How does this relate to technology and Texas Instrument you ask? Well, when I was on the phone with technical support at Texas Instrument because my TI-Inspire calculators were having issues connecting to my access point on my computer, they kept asking me the same questions over and over and I felt that their questions had no logical sequence to the trouble-shooting and find the cause of the problem.  So, I thought to myself as I was getting frustrated with technical support, wouldn't their job be easier and calmer clients if they had designed a systematic way to address technical issues that may arise while using the TI-Inspire calculators with the Navigator system (the program used to connect the calculators to my teacher computer)?  Just a thought.

Where does Edmodo fit in a mathematics classroom?

Last year I was introduced to a web resource called Edmodo at the FETC 2011 (Florida Educators Technology Conference) and then again during a graduate course at UCF (University of Central Florida).  According to my experience with Edmodo, I would consider it a social networking site a lot like "Facebook," but meant to be more educational and allows for teachers to have more control than what "Facebook" would offer.  Although Edmodo has a lot to offer teachers for their classroom, I had a hard time thinking of how I could integrate the use of Edmodo into a mathematics classroom.  This is what I have come up with so far:

Last year, when I first started using Edmodo, I created an assignment for my Pre-Algebra students to research the golden ratio and Fibanocci sequence and find out how the two related.  The students were to present their answers in a Prezi, powerpoint presentation, or movie.  Most of the students chose to either do a prezi or a powerpoint presentation.  On Edmodo, the students were able to load their prezi or powerpoint presentation directly onto Edmodo.  This eliminated the students having to bring in a flash drive or burn a CD with their presentation.  It also allowed me the option to grade their presentations online from home on my personal computer or at school with my school computer.

This year I have found a few other ways to integrate Edmodo into my mathematics classroom.  I have created a library within Edmodo of resources and websites for the students to access if they are struggling with a particular topic from class.  I have also posted links to their online textbook that provides many of their own resources to help students understand the concepts presented in class.  Because of limited time to cover material within the classroom, I often post links to websites that go beyond the material covered in class for students that are interested in a challenge or have an interest in a particular topic.  For example, the other day we were talking about cubes and when I was looking for a picture of a cube I came across an interesting website that taught step by step instructions on how to create a foldable cube.  I immediately added a link to this for the kids to access.  Also, in class the other day we were talking about the Order of Operations and how they use the mnemonic device PEMDAS.  The P represents parentheses.  I thought we should change the P to a G to represent grouping symbols.  I then had the students think of a new mnemonic device to remember GEMDAS and post their idea on   Edmodo.  I then took all there ideas and created a poll for all the students to vote on their favorite.  Lastly, I allow the students to post questions directed to class about what the homework is.  

I feel that I have come up with a few good ideas, but I am more than welcome to hear your ideas.  Oh, and by the way, Edmodo has an option for teachers to link to subject matter groups.  It allows for  teachers around the world to share their ideas.  

Curriculum Page EME 5050

Rubric…Activity Reflection #7

This week for my graduate class we were to create a rubric to evaluate our students digital stories projects.  According to Craig Mertler from Bowling Green State University, rubrics are “rating scales as opposed to checklists- that are used with performance assessments. ”  Before I could even start creating my rubric, I had to decide which type of rubric I would like to create between an analytic rubric and a holistic rubric. Mertler stated that holistic rubrics allow teachers to grade a project as a whole whereas an analytic rubric allows teachers to grade individual parts of the project separately.  He also suggested that if there are only a few correct answers to a project he feels that the analytic rubric is more appropriate to assess the students and the opposite is true for holistic rubrics.  I choose to go with an analytic rubric for my students project because there are so many separate components that I feel is important to grade.  I spent a lot of this week contemplating what percentages would be appropriate for the mathematics content and how much of the percentages would be appropriate for the technology that the students use for their project.  At our school we have a separate elective class that teaches our students how to use technology and I do not know how much as a math teacher I should focus on grading them on how well they use the technology in their project when they have the opportunity in their elective to learn about technology.  Understandable, coming from a teacher that is getting my masters in Educational Technology, I feel it is important for all teachers to integrate technology in some way into their classroom, but I am not sure how much emphasis to put on the technology when I am expected to teach math.  But, then I looked at it from the perspective of one subject area to another.  Every teacher at our school is required to integrate reading into the subject matter that they teach.  In my opinion, integrating technology is just as crucial as integrating other core subjects areas into my math curriculum.

The two rubrics that I relied on to put together my own rubric was from University of Wisconsin – Stout and the NCSU Multimedia Mania Project Rubric.  I felt that these two rubrics did an amazing job of defining different descriptors that will help me as a teacher decide what category each student falls into for each criteria in the rubric.

I decided to use iRubric to create my rubric for the Golden Ratio project.  This program was very easy to follow and I felt that the tutorial videos were short and very informative.  I liked that I could preview my rubric and see how a student would get a grade by clicking on the different levels of achievement for each criteria.  I had a little trouble embedding the rubric into the PBworks page I created.  I figured out how to do this, but I still have questions on how I can actually score each student’s project using iRubric.  I think I have to actually set up a class within iRubric.  I feel that before I actually use the rubric I created I need to do a little more research on this program before I turn in my final project for my graduate course.

Here is the links to the rubric I created.

You are also able to view it within my Curriculum page at: Rubric or 
Glogster and click on Step 4 - Evaluation & Rubric


or



Resources:
Mertler, Craig A. (2001). Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom.  Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(25).  Retrieved April 13, 2011 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25.


Rubrics:
University of Wisconsin -Stout http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/pptrubric.html
NCSU Multimedia Mania Project Rubric
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/rub.mm.st.pdf

Prezi-The Golden Ratio - Activity Reflection #6

This week in my Graduate course “Fundamentals of Technology for Educators” we were to create an example of a project we will be asking our students to create.  While I started creating my own example of what I expect my 6^th and 7^th grade mathematics students to create I came across two problems.  The first problem was that I did not provide enough links in my curriculum page from the week before for my students to find the answers to all the questions I provided for them to answer.  I will have to go back and add some of the sites that I used to create my example that I saved in my Diigo account.  My Diigo account is an online place for me to keep track of the different websites I have visited by bookmarking them by title so that I can revisit the sites at a later time. 

The second problem that I came across was that the comments that were connected with some of the amazing and professional YouTube videos were very inappropriate.  In the future, I feel that unless I know how to embed these videos into the curriculum page, it is not worth being called into my administrator’s office because parents and students are reporting all the inappropriate comments that Ms. Garver led them to for an assigned project.

After reading chapter seven from our textbook “Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom” by Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter, I realized how important it is to evaluate the different sites that I am providing for my students, so that they are getting the correct information from reliable sources.  Although the content on the website is the most important in evaluating the site, I feel it is also important to see who is writing the information on the site and what companies, schools (university or school district), and organizations are affiliated with the site you are evaluating. 

I am very excited for you to view my example.  The question that comes to mind that I would love your input on is…Do I allow my students to see my example with all the answers to the questions that I provided? I don’t want them to just view my example and get the answers.  Isn’t it important for them to do the research on their own?

Resources:

Shelly, G. B., Gunter, G. A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Cendage

Well here it is The Golden Ratio Prezi

6 Hours Straight - New Record! - Activity Reflection #5

 

6 hours Straight! New Record – Activity Reflection #5

There are definitely not enough hours in the day for the things that I want to complete.  This week for my graduate course Fundementals of Technology for Educators we were to create a curriculum page of a storytelling activity for our students to complete.  I got very excited about this and felt that it was going to be an easy task.  I have heard of wiki spaces, but have not ever had the opportunity or reason to actually create one before this week. I already had the activity decided so I thought I was just going to be writing up the details of the activity and linking the URL’s I had collected the prior week in my Diigo account into my newly created wiki space.  However, this was not the case.  Over the weekend and on Tuesday night I looked through all of the links that my professor had provided for use to look at to get ideas for setting up our own curriculum page.  I was overwhelmed with the amount of information and ideas.  One project that caught my attention was a webquest created by Jessica Levene on 21^st Century Poets.  After viewing her project I decided that I must present my curriculum page the same way.  This task alone took me 6 hours.  In PBworks wiki spaces I created 3 pages to explain the activity: Introduction, Task, and Process.  All three of these pages have links for my students to research the activity, link to tutorials to teach the students how to present their project, and links to examples of final projects for students to view.  I tried embedding Youtube videos into the wiki spaces, but I was unsuccessful.  With the amount of time I had spent creating these pages and getting all the URL’s, I decided to hold off embedding these videos until I have had more time to practice and research how to correctly.  I feel that if there were more hours in the day or if I had better time management skills this assignment for my graduate course would have been less overwhelming.  It is hard to manage my time when I get so excited about the technology and I do not want to stop an assignment until I have completed it. I need to learn how to walk away from a project and reserve time throughout the week to complete assignment.

 

Well, here it goes…My final rough draft…Please check it out The Golden Ratio

or try The Golden Ratio

 

We are "Golden"! - Reading Reaction #5

The question we were asked this week was “What kind of digital storytelling project do you wish that one of your current or future students would be able to turn in as part of your curriculum?”  When I think about middle school mathematics the last thing that comes to mind is “storytelling.”  I thought this task this week was going to be very difficult until I did a google search on Digital Storytelling of ideas that other teachers have done.  Some of the ideas presented were Geometry walk, math around the town, acting out math problems and the history of mathematics.  The one example that really caught my attention was from a Pythagorean theorem digital story.  After watching this I thought that this would great for when I talk about “The Golden Ratio” to my students.  They will be able to create digital stories about where the golden ratio originated from, what it is, pictures, art, and clip art of examples of the golden ratio.  Also, there is a theory that says that people that’s bodies are closer to the golden ratio are more pleasing to look at.    The students could create a story comparing different images of celebrities that they think are pleasing and some that are not so pleasing to compare and see if the theory holds true. 

If the students in my class were to do this project they would need to have access to a lot of different media.  The students could take digital pictures of examples of “the golden ratio.”   The students could research via the Internet what the golden ratio is and what examples there are for the golden ratio.  The students would need access to different forms of creating their digital stories from as simple as Microsoft Powerpoint and Prezi to more complex presentations including video editing software like Camtasia and iMovie. 

For students to be successful in creating quality digital stories I think it would be helpful to create a curriculum page of resources for the students including the example that I found on the Pythagorean theorem and other digital storytelling examples.  Also on this curriculum page I would include different types of ways that the students could present their projects like Prezi and Camtasia.  Both of these programs, along with others, also have good Internet resources for tutorials on how to use these types of programs.  Lastly, I would make sure that on the curriculum page there are resources of what the golden ratio is, where the golden ratio came from, and who discovered the golden ratio.  An activity that would connect with this project is having the students measure parts of their body and see how closely they are to the golden ratio.

I particularly like this project idea because it allows for students to explore different venues to create a product that may look totally different from the other students in the classroom.  According to Edutopia, these types of activities allow for students to retain more of the information and develop critical thinking and communication skills.  I think this project is something that could easily be integrated into my curriculum and I am excited to actually have my students try.

 

The Dizzy Future - Activity Reflection #4

Our assignment for this week was to create a presentation in Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Docs, Keynote, Open Office or Prezi that explained the benefits of digital storytelling and embed it into our blog.  Before I could even begin to explain the benefits of digital storytelling it is important to explain what it is.  A YouTube video that we had to watch explains it better than I could ever tell you just in words (how ironic)

There are a lot of benefits to digital storytelling but the one that I feel is the most important is that we are presenting material to students in a way that they can relate to in the 21^st century.  Secondly, while reading our textbook Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom I was amazed to read that when students are presented with information that they can see, hear and interact with they retain as much as 80% of the information compared to 50% when they just see and hear the information.  All the other benefits I highlighted in a Prezi that I created.

I decided to create a Prezi instead of a Powerpoint presentation because I had never worked with Prezi before and wanted to become more familiar with the program.  My only experience with Prezi before creating my own was a presentation I attended for one of my other UCF classes.  Unfortunately, the paths were not working the way the presenter wanted and it made for a very dizzy experience for the audience.  I found the Prezi to be very easy to create and edit.  However, I did struggle with creating the paths and frames.  I spent approximately 5 hours on this assignment on Wednesday and finally gave up for the night because there were some Internet errors I kept receiving.  Today I went back to Prezi to complete the assignment and make any necessary changed before I embedded it into my blog.  I had no Internet errors and the paths I created went the way that I wanted them to.  If I am to create another Prezi again, I think I would make sure to have a few days to create so that if I have Internet errors while working on the project, I can walk away from the project and then go back later when I am less frustrated.  I also believe the philosophy “Practice makes Perfect.”  The more presentations that I create in Prezi, the easier they will become to create.  

Resources:

Shelly, G. B., Gunter, G. A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Cendage

New Software!

Camtasia Requirements:	School Computer:	Does it meet the requirements?
Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista	Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 3	Yes
Processor: 1.5 GHz single core but recommended Intel 2.0 GHz dual-core or better	Processor: 2.26 GHz Intel R Core (TM Duo CPU	Yes
Screen Resolution: Display dimensions of 1024x768 or greater	Screen Resolution: Min. 800x600 and Max 1600 x1200	Yes
Memory RAM: 500 MB RAM minimum ~ Recommended: 2.0 GB	Memory RAM: 1.95 GB	Yes
Video Card:	Video Card: Mobel Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family	Yes I think
Removable Media Options: Dedicated Windows-compatible sound card, microphone and speakers	Removable Media Options: 6 USB, internal microphone and speakers the option to have external	Yes
Microsoft DirectX 9 or later version	Not loaded at this time.  Need permission from Technology coordinator to load onto computer	No
500 MB of hard-disk space for program installation	Hard Disk space: 148 GB, available 126 GB	Yes

 

I went to JourneyEd to download Camtasia onto my school laptop.  I did not actually try to download this onto my school computer because I already knew that as a classroom teacher I do not have administrative rights to download any software onto my computer.  If I want something downloaded onto my computer I must electronically file a Management Information Services (MIS) request to have a school based technology coordinator that is at our school 3 times a week to come into my classroom at their convenience to load the software on my computer.  They will ONLY load this software if the software is on an already established list of approved programs created by the school district.  Because it is such a hassle to have software loaded onto classroom computers, I suggest teachers should establish a great rapport with their technology coordinator at their school.  However, I had no trouble loading it onto my personal MAC laptop at home.  This is the computer that I have to use to do all of my homework for my Graduate course “Fundamentals of Technology for Educators.”  Camtasia requires the computer to have a lot of extra removable media like microphones and speakers.  This would require additional hardware to be purchased separately so that I could use Camtasia on my school and/or personal laptop.  Also, I was not familiar with what having Microsoft DirectX 9 was.  But after I went to a Microsoft website for Microsoft DirectX 9 , I left with a limited understanding that it has something to do with the graphics and video card on a computer.  Before getting stuck on doing a search on Microsoft DirectX 9, I felt that I had always had a pretty good understanding of the  “inner works” of any computer.  While reading Chapter 4 of the textbook “Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom” by Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter, I was able to review some of the hardware that is available to computers.  Some of the hardware that was mentioned that I use on a regular basis are input devices such as the keyboards and digital cameras, and output devices such as interactive whiteboards and printers.  Because I am continuously expanding my knowledge of the hardware available for computers, it allows my students to have a more interactive experience in the classroom.  For example, when talking about transformations in class we discussed how sometimes reflections can also look like translations unless you label the different vertices on the polygon.  I represented this by creating a star in an interactive whiteboard program and made instant copies of this star and showed how reflecting it over the y-axis and translating to the left looks the same until I labeled the vertices of the star.

Before installing this program, I have been working on writing a grant to have Camtasia used in my classroom to create vodcasts (a podcast with video included) of examples from the lecture.  This grant will also allow students to create vodcasts of questions from the homework that were particularly difficult for many of the other students.  These vodcasts would then be posted online for students who were absent or even students who just wanted to review a particular topic.  By using Camtasia in the classroom, the students are getting the opportunity to create vodcasts to relay their understanding of the material, which will also benefit other students who are still trying to comprehend the material.  These vodcasts will reach both visual and auditory learners.

Overall, to actually load new software onto my school computer requires me to get permission from many sources including Administrators at the school and the county office for technology.  I feel it is worth it.  My best advice is to talk to your technology coordinators and administrators to get them excited as well to make it a smoother experience.

 

 

 

Digital Reputation AR #3

Digital reputation:

As Daniel Solove stated, “The Internet makes gossip a permanent reputational stain, one that never fades.  It is available around the world, and with Google it can be readily found in less than a second” (Solove, 31).  After reading this I decided to look at many of the different social networks that I have contributed to such as Facebook to look at it from an “outsiders” perspective.  I found some positive pictures and quotes from my mission trip and memorable quotes from the bible and a recent movie I watched Eat,Pray,Love.  However, I also found a few pictures of me celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays that may lead some people to have a more negative viewpoint of my reputation.  “Once information about us finds its way into the minds of others, we can’t control what they think about it.  Our ability to exercise control consists of being able to limit the circulation of information about us.” (Solove, 35)  For this reason, I only allow friends and family to access my Facebook account and have chosen not to link it to my blog.  On the other hand, while I was looking at the information that I found while searching MIT's Personas project there was some information about me that was left out because I had a name change at the age 20. I was published under my previous name and it is not connected with my new name when I did a search. It made me wonder, once a girl gets married and changes her last name is she now starting over with a new digital identity and losing her old?  I am very proud that I am published and it bothers me that people will never know this unless I give them my former name. 

As Solove says, “Hence the conflict: we want information to flow openly, for this is essential to a free society, yet we also want to have some control over the information that circulates about us, for this is essential to our freedom as well.” (Solove,35).  As a teacher and as a role model to my students I feel I need to be more aware of the pictures and comments my friends and I post on the social networks, keeping in mind that the audience that sees this information may not always be what I initially intended.

References:

Solove, Daniel J. (2007) The Futureof Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

 

When was the last time you…?

When was the last time you…? 

This week I found myself asking this question to many of my colleagues and family.  Before this week if you asked me what I felt my comfort level was with productivity software I would have told you I am very comfortable and would refer to myself as somewhat of an expert.   Now my answer would be, it depends on the last time I used the program.

For example, when I first moved to Florida to teach middle school math 6 years ago I decided to integrate Math Jeopardy Microsoft powerpoint presentations as a tool to help my students study for an upcoming exam.  I created this powerpoint with buttons and hyperlinks and sounds to each question which would link back to the original board of categories and amounts.   Once I created the first game all I had to do was change the categories and questions within each category to create a new game for another topic.   If you asked me today to create the buttons and hyperlinks again it may take me awhile to figure out what I did to get all the slides linked, or I might suggest one I found online that has more “bells and whistles.”

Also, as I was working on the excel spreadsheet for our activity for my graduate class “Fundamentals of Technology for Educators,” I kept thinking that this would be so much easier if I was just able to use the online grade book our school uses www.mygradebook.com.  I continually throughout the week was asking colleagues and family to help me remember how to do many of the functions such as sorting the columns by the students test average and making the names appear on four separate worksheets and be able to make changes to one worksheet and it will automatically change the other three.  The online grade book has all the formula’s embedded into the program and all you have to do as a teacher is enter in the grades for the students once you have set up the database of students.  A teacher from the high school told me that the grading program that the high schools are piloting this year link the attendance and the grades so that teachers don’t even have to worry about entering in student information into a database because it is set up by the county.

My strengths with productivity software is that if you ask me how to do a particular function in any type of program I know the basic stuff, and if it isn’t basic I can usually figure it out by playing around in the program.  My biggest weakness is that I don’t use the programs enough to remember the more complicated functions the programs are capable of doing and a lot of times it is easier to look online for already created lessons that were created in the productivity software I use at school.  Just today, I knew I was going to be absent on Friday so I looked on the Promethean Planet website to get already created flipcharts (like powerpoint presentations) by other teachers so that the substitute just has to click through the charts and the students are still getting the notes they need when I am absent.

As a teacher that is planning on getting my master’s in technology, I feel it is necessary for me to start creating more using the productivity software that I have at school like: ActivInspire, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Movie Maker.  I also think it is important to take classes/watch tutorials that will broaden my knowledge of this software.  Lastly, now that I recently purchased a Mac computer I think it will be a good idea for me to also become more familiar with iMovie, iLife, and Garage Band.  The challenge will be to find the time, but it will be worth the effort in the end.

 

Overprotective Parents…Opps! I mean Schools

Overprotective Parents…I mean Schools

“Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools, or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?”

I do have to admit that this was a very hard question to answer for two reasons (1) There is a lot of garbage on the internet and (2) while trying to find which sites are blocked in Volusia County, I realized that the filtering software has been down for the past three days. But, if I have to pick only one side to defend I think it is more unethical to deny students and teachers access to instructionally relevant material.  In the past three days, we have already had a few incidents of students logging onto sites that are normally blocked by our security.  Although these incidents occurred, they have not gone on without discipline to the students that made poor choices, because our media center has a program on the teacher’s computer station that views all the computers in the lab and our media specialist was able to catch these students.  We also have a student code of conduct that specifies what students can and cannot do while they are on the computer.  I find it a little overprotective when we have forms the students are required to sign agreeing to use the internet appropriately before they can go on the internet, we have a program that monitors what they are doing on the internet and filtering software county-wide that does not allow students to access certain sites on the internet.  Having these limitations is not the reality they are going to have as adults.  I feel for these students to be successful in the 21^st century we need to allow them the opportunity to have access to all educational content the internet has to offer.  In Devaney’s article she quotes “TCEA Board President Elect Lacey Gosch said today’s students expect classrooms that use digital tools in every step of the learning process. “Only through the use of technology can we make their expectations a reality,” she said (Devaney, 2011). The same is true for teachers.  If we are to be considered and treated as professionals then there needs to be a level of trust from the county and administrators of their staff.  They trust us with educating these young minds but don’t seem to trust us to monitor the students internet use and facilitate and model moral judgment when it comes to using the internet as a tool in the classroom.  I think it is a good idea for teachers to create curriculum pages.  Curriculum pages are web pages created by teachers with hyperlinks they selected that have been previewed before the students access the sites.  This makes it easier for the students because they are no longer typing in URL’s and not spending too much of their time searching the internet for relevant sites (Shelly, 495).  Overall I feel there has got to be a better way to filter what students have access to without the use of such restricting filtering software. Without this software it will enable teachers to teach and model appropriate etiquette for internet usage.

 

References:

Devaney, Laura (Feb. 9, 2011) eSchoolNews.com TCEA seeks to remove barriers from tech access Retrieved: Feb. 10, 2011

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/02/09/tcea-seeks-to-remove-barriers-from-tech-access/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=url&utm_campaign=slider

Shelly, G. B., Gunter, G. A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Cendage 

 

ABC - Week 3 FETC!

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend FETC (Florida Educators Technology Conference).  What an exciting day.  I was able to attend two sessions that I felt would benefit the work that I have been doing for my Graduate classes.  The first session I attended was about a school that has integrated Ipods/Iphones into every classroom.  Giving a ratio of 1:1.  According to their research, they have found that students are not as connected to the technology unless they have it in their hands.  I was also able to follow discussions and questions addressed in this session via a "social network" called Edmodo.  After the morning sessions I was able to go to the Edmodo booth and ask a lot of questions about how this site works.  I think it is a great idea, but it needs to expand to meet the needs of the students and teachers.  I suggested that they talk with the textbook companies to get interactive homework where students can turn in their work paperless and online.  The second session that I attended was on vodcasts.  I attended this session because I am thinking about writing a grant where I can integrate vodcasts into my classroom for absent students to view via the internet or for students that need a little refresher on the material covered before the test from home.

My favorite booth that I attended at FETC was Promethean’s.  Promethean has created a Interactive whiteboard that uses pens and also touch to use as a teaching tool in the classroom.  They have also teamed up with Cyper Science to create 3D models of things in the different sciences including: Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Biology, Chemistry, Earth, Paleontology and Engineering.  While I was at the booth, I was able to take apart a frog layer by layer and also click on different parts of the frog and a label would show up and identify the part I was clicking on.  To be able to integrate this into a classroom, a teacher would need to have a DLS projector that can show 3D images and also a set of 3D glasses.  Although the projector is about the same expense as a regular projector, the glasses run about $75 each.

Who needs teachers anyway? - Reading Response #2

Reading Response #2 - Who needs teachers anyway?

While watching the video “The Connected Student,” I got the impression that in the 21^st century we as teachers will be quickly moving towards a different kind of educating.  For example, we will no longer be standing in front of the class lecturing on how to graph equations on a coordinate grid.  Instead we will be giving our students the tools they need to research how to graph equations and how these equations relate to the real world.  I was also thinking about how this is a lot like learning a foreign language.  It is one thing for a teacher to stand in front of the room and teach you how to say all the words, but to really learn the language a student should immerse themselves in a country that speaks that language.  This allows the student to take ownership of their learning and make it more memorable to them.  Some may say there is no need for teachers than.  But, I agree with the video when they talked about how the role of the teacher will become to facilitate learning by modeling proper etiquette for contacting and interacting with peers on the web, creating a scavenger hunt like activities to guide them, and giving them search tools to help them have a successful and positive experience when using technology.

I also visited a site called “ FAMS Math Weblog.” I found this website to be a valuable resource because I am a middle school math teacher.  There were a lot of links of movies students created to explain how to do many of the middle school math concepts learned.  I found myself thinking back to Bloom’s Taxonomy, where the highest level of learning is creating.  How awesome was it for these middle school students to create videos showing others step by step how to do different types of math problems.
Lastly, I came across an article at school from the Weekly Reader magazine that talked about a school district in western Ohio that was no longer going to have “snow days.”  Instead, the students would have to sign-on to their computers from home to do learning via the Internet.  I think this is a wonderful idea that could even help school districts that don’t need snow days to save on facility bills if students had research days where they didn’t come to school and had teachers that created activities that promoted the students to research on their own from the comfort of their home.

Week 2 - ABC

This week I was able to integrate a few of the lessons created by Texas Instrument to replace some of the lectures that I taught this week.  For the sixth graders we started a unit on rational and irrational numbers.  The activity begun with having the students view a movie from the web called "Weird Numbers" (http://ciese.org/ciesemath/number_town.html) Although I thought this was a wonderful way to get the students thinking about the different types of numbers, the movie was a Quicktime movie and I did not have the option to view it full screen.  The picture was about 6 in x 6 in on the board.  I was wondering if I downloaded the Quicktime player Pro that you pay for, if I would then be able to make the movie bigger on my screen?

Once the students watched the movie, the calculator guided them through manipulating circles and triangles to learn about irrational numbers.  Often times I feel as a Pre-Algebra teacher we don't get to cover as much Geometry as we should.  So, I really liked how this activity integrated introducing irrational numbers with circles and triangles.

Tech Trouble-

(1) Students are not getting files when they log onto the Navigator.  The only solution that I found was having the students log on again and the file would usually show up.  If not, I was able to force send it again from my computer.

(2) The Quicktime movie could not be shown full screen.

(3) I still have a lot of communication errors from a lot of the calculators.  I think it is kind of funny how these students are supposed to be so advanced with their technology skills, but as soon as these calculators give them any type of error they come directly to me to fix it for them.

Activity Reflection #1 A lot vs. A Little

A lot vs. A Little

Is it better to have a teacher resource site that has a lot of information or one that has a little?  This answer depends on how well the information provided on the site is organized.  It is also important to have a specific idea of what you are looking for on a resource site before you start searching.

In the past week, I have looked at a few of these types of sites. For the sake of making this search specific, I choose to look for homework help on the math topic: two – step equations.  The first, “Emerging Technologies” had an overwhelming number of links that were listed in alphabetical order.  I clicked on Homework Help.  From there was another long list of homework help web links.  They were in alphabetical order again, but there were not many descriptions of the homework help you were going to before clicking on it.  I randomly picked one of the links and ended up on a college level math help site.  Unfortunately, this was not what I was looking for.  I clicked back to the homework help and clicked on another link named “Math Goodies.”  I felt the title would lead me to a more elementary/middle school level site.   I was correct with my assumption.  The second site was “Google for Educators.”  Although, this site did not lead me to any homework help on two- step equations, it was well organized by subject and grade level.  It listed eleven activities that were in the form of a pdf files and/or podcasts.  The last educational resource website I went to “The Gateway to the 21^st Century Skills” had many links to the different subjects and even provided how many lessons/activities were provided for each subject.  Once you clicked on the subject, it listed all the lessons/activities by topic, gave a short description, a list of what tools the teacher would need, and a grade level for each activity.  I was able to type in two-step equations into a search box and it led me to another website www.math.com.  I really liked that this site broke down the math into four parts: Glance, In Depth, Examples, and Workout.  The last part, Workout, allows a student to get tested on the material and the computer would grade it for them.  Great idea, unfortunately, it didn’t work.  While exploring this site, a few of the links were no longer available.  This leads me to believe this site is not updated often.

The other types of educational resource websites that I looked at were the Florida Department of Education, the Minnesota Department of Education, and the Volusia County School District.  Each of these three sites had highlighted stories on their home pages.  Both the Florida and Volusia County sites had an inviting and “positive” story.  While Minnesota’s site had a headliner reading, “The Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) Shows More Than Half of Minnesota’s Fourth-, Eighth-graders are Not Proficient in Science.”  Although, I do feel it is important to inform the public about “negative” issues, I don’t think it should necessarily be their headliner.  I feel the news media focuses enough on the aspects of education that are not working, that we as educators need to promote what is working.  One link that I liked on Minnesota’s site was that it had a quick link to grant opportunities.  It helps educators find a grant based on the subject they teach and the dates they would be requesting the grant.  All three of these sites are well organized and had a lot of information for teachers, parents and students.  One thing that stands out on the Volusia County website is that because it has so much information to choice from, it allows teachers to reorganize the homepage once they log onto the site to fit their personal needs.

Overall, I think there are a lot of resources out there for teachers.  As a teacher, the most important thing I am looking for when I go to a resource is not the quantity of resources but the quality of the links that I am going to.  Also, I would be more apt to go to a site which focuses on positive viewpoints that as an educator I can learn from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABC- Week 1



Are you “Inspired”?

Week 1

This week I created a six question quiz using the TI-Inspire Teacher Software on Multi-Step Inequalities that was sent to the TI-Inspire calculators via the Texas Instrument Navigator system.  I have started a habit of printing copies of the quiz and putting them in each periods “Missing Work Folder” to students that are absent so that I don’t have load Navigator for just one student when they get back.  I had to make at least 10 copies this week.  This time of year is prime time for absences due to flu season. 

On Thursday, I used Quick Poll in Navigator during our Math Jeopardy Review game on Chapter 7 (Inequalities).  The Quick Poll allows the student to answer the questions presented to them in a PowerPoint presentation, and then it stamps a time so I can keep track of when each of the students answered to distribute points for the game. 

TechTrouble this week:

1)  I had to reset by flipping the on/off connection button on the back to about 6 calculators throughout the day that had connection failures.

2)  I had one student that had trouble using the letter keys.  I have found that if I remove the keypad and take out one of the batteries and then put it all back together the keys seem to work better.

 

Airplane Mode = Classroom Mode

Airplane Mode = Classroom Mode

“Are we doing what is best for our students, or are we doing what is most convenient for us?”

Over this past week, the question of  “are we doing what is best for our students, or are we doing what is most convenient for us,” has been a heated discussion with my colleagues at work.  We are offered professional development training for the use of the new technologies in our classrooms, but how do we put aside our personal time to attend these trainings?  It may be inconvenient for us, but it is what is best for our students. Through all this talk, the thought arose about the technology students have access to but are not allowed to use. Students these days are from a technology era. Why should we limit them from using what they know and have access to? For example, the cellphone - do students know when it is appropriate to use, or is there a lack of motivation from teachers to monitor their use adequately? This elicits personal thoughts about technology and how I look for it to make my life easier. For example, during our math textbook adoption, several teachers - including myself - were focusing more on the technology the textbook companies had to offer us rather than the content that was presented in the books. People are naturally going to want to do what is easier for them, but when it comes to teaching our students, we have to find some balance. 

 

I have been teaching mathematics at OBMS for over 5 years now and last year half of the staff, including myself, moved into the newly constructed building equipped with Promethean Boards and the latest technology from Texas Instrument for the math teachers.  Although the Texas Instrument calculators were not a new technology for me, the Promethean Board was.  These boards are a lot like the Smart Boards that I have heard other teachers are using in their classrooms.  The Promethean Board has been an excellent tool for me in many ways.  However, I often found myself using a lot of my personal time to learn how to use this board instead of trying to attend the scheduled district training that was offered. The program ActivInspire, which goes along with the board, allows me to type the problems or equations on a “flipchart” (like a page for a PowerPoint presentation).  I am then able to walk the students through each problem step by step and/or highlight the key vocabulary that will guide them to the answer, with a pen that writes on the board and saves onto my teacher computer simultaneously.  It also allows me to press an “undo” button if one of the students in my class missed part of the notes.  Because it is also saved onto my computer, I can print copies of the notes to students who are absent or for instance, last week I had a student who broke his finger and was struggling to write.  This board is also a motivating tool for the students I teach.  I feel that the students are participating more because they like to use the board.  Additionally, the scientific calculators that I use in the classroom along with the Navigator system are convenient tools that I am blessed to have.  I can create daily quizzes and tests that are instantly graded for me.  I can also see what the students are doing on the calculator at any given time.  The students like this technology because it gives them instantaneous feedback on how they are doing on assessments.  We are also able to review the questions from a quiz or test by viewing a bar graph compiled by the program that presents how each student answered each question.  This allows the opportunity for the class to discuss how students came up with the correct answer and what mistakes the students that got the wrong answer made - without revealing which students got what answer.

With all the technology that I already have in my classroom, it is often hard to imagine what additional technology exists to offer my students.  But, after reading an article about allowing students to use the technology on their cellphones, I started to think about how I could integrate the use of cellphones into my classroom and how I would deal with the proper etiquette for using these cellphones.  I am a firm believer that often times teachers are not only the ones that prepare our students academically, but socially prepare them for their adult lives.   With this said, I think as teachers, if we are teaching them not only how to use the technology that they have but also when it is appropriate, we are teaching them habits that will prepare them to be positive and successful adults.  The cellphones already have the capability to turn off all calling and texting options with the airplane mode, but will still give them the capability to use all other functions on the phone.  

 

Last year,  I also served on a committee to decide which textbooks our school district was going to adopt.  I now reflect on a lot of the conversations and presentations that I sat through and realize how much I was focusing on which textbook had the most to offer the teachers for convenience and accessibility rather than the content each of the textbooks provided.   Thanks to our wonderful county math department, they often reminded us to focus on the content rather than the bells and whistles some of the other textbook companies had to offer.

 

So, to answer the question, Yes, I think it is important for the new technology to be convenient for the teacher, but once you find something that you consider is a great tool, I think you need to also evaluate how these tools will benefit the students as well.