Reflections on Things #15 - 21

The Final Entry...

Reflections on Things #15 – 21

                Wow.  That’s about all I can say!  What a ride.  I have enjoyed playing and learning about all that is out there in the big internet world for educators and beyond.  I have about 14 more years on the job and I can’t even begin to imagine how the educational process is going to be different then.  I know our job as classroom educators is evolving and I can only hope that I have a head start on what’s going to be expected from us.  Our students continue to come into our classrooms with more technology knowledge than us, the teachers. 

                Things 15 – 21 are great!  I absolutely love the Google calendar.  I am excited to create one for my two classes and I know that it will help keep me ahead of schedule with my planning.  Right now, I plan for a week ahead and I’m thinking I’ll have to re-think that and plan for a whole chapter at a time.  I know as a parent, I love the teacher’s calendars and I have mine linked to theirs so that I can keep up with my 14 year-olds homework.   I figure that I will have no choice in the matter, but I am excited to start using some screen-casting software to create recordings for students to access from home.  I know how much work it will be up front, but in the long run, it will pay off.  My students will have access to what the missed in FST today as soon as I upload the recording, and I know how excited they will be to work on their homework even though they missed class. (Just kidding).

                The strategies that I see these things effecting include summarizing and note-taking which I will be addressing in all of my screencasts.  I am still trying to figure out the logistics of recording what’s on the board, but hopefully my little tablet that is attached to my computer will do the trick!  I hope to record the lesson as I teach it in class, with some modifications due to time and space on-line.  I am planning on checking with our technology gurus to see if we have Camtasia Studio in our building…maybe I should ask for a web-camera for Christmas?  I have the one on the laptop, but that’s not going to work.  I also think that the strategy for incorporating more cooperative learning is enabled specifically in thing #19.  I plan on having small group discussions on nights before quizzes or tests.  I think it would be great for  the kids to use Skype as a learning tool.  I’m sure most of them don’t see the educational value.  Lastly, generating and testing hypothses will be taught daily.  I will be providing models/examples for how to solve a type of problem in a recording while I will also be providing guidance by using a virtual classroom site.

                I think I am most looking forward to recording a daily lesson and seeing how it gets used.  My students do not know that I have a web-site yet, but I’m hoping over the next couple of weeks that I can get it up and running.  It would be great to put a day of notes and examples out there for students to use.  This will allow my students the ability to not try and “keep” up with the notes during class as they will know that I will have them available for them later in the day.  I’m confident that students would be able to pay attention better to discussions in class if they were not always worried about writing everything from the board down.  I also hope that parents would use these recordings to “learn” what their child is doing.  I can’t believe how many parents just say, “Well I was never and good at math so I’m no help.”  If the parent would sit down with the student and watch the recording, they both might learn something.  I would hope that the student could “teach” the parent about the lesson.  We all know that teaching is a great way to learn.

                I am so very pleased to have been exposed to all the great things out there!  Thanks to all who help make this class possible and I will keep my eyes open for “new things”.

Works Cited

Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. "Putting the Pieces Together." Gloucester County Public Schools. 24 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. <http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/index.htm>.

Reflections on Things #8 - 14

Reflections on Things #8 – 14

           

            So, in thing #10 we got to create a Voicethread to share with our students.  I had to laugh because when I went to get my account and my laptop had already been associated with a different account.  My daughter had created an account last year at school while she was in 3^rd grade.  Man did I ever feel out of it!  I am planning on recording helpful tutorials for my students to access at home while doing their homework.  I know how frustrating it is when you are working on something and you want help right then.  This hasn’t been an option for years, but with the internet this is possible.  I also think that I will find a way to use Quizlet in my classes.  Unfortunately, most of what we do is not rote memorization, but I know I could find a way to make it work.  I like the games the web-site provides.  I got to use them while helping my son study for a vocabulary test just last week and he found the games very helpful and fun!

            I swear I can make a case for hitting four of the strategies with Quizlet alone!  The identifying similarities and differences is going to be affected by adding notecards in Quizlet.  Students benefit from the repetition, which also is mentioned in the increasing value and practice strategy.  My book for FST is one of the old UCSMP books and there is NO repetition.  I am sure that by increasing the number of times students see types of problems the better they will do and the more they will remember.   This goes right along with the suggestions that we increase reinforcing effort and providing practice regularly.  Quizlet also helps with setting objectives and providing feedback.     It doesn’t get any faster than flipping a notecard over to see if you got the definition or problem right.  The strategy for increasing questioning, cues and advanced organizers can be addressed using both Voicethread and Prezi to re-teach any given lesson.  I will be able to reinforce the main point of any given lesson and post that for the students to review.

            I would like to great a set of Quizlet cards that we can do in class.  It’s not anything different then writing questions on the board or on the overhead, but I would like to show the students how to use the web-site and all that it can help them study. Using Quizlet I would like to make a game for the students to do practice problems in the form of a race.  I would like to divide the classroom into a few teams and have each team use a laptop to access the web-site and go through the provided list of cards in a race.  Students love races!  I can use this with almost any lesson as a fun review.  I also like the Google forms to create a Jepordy game for review.  I have looked at the template and I know other teachers that are using it regularly.  Now that I have my data projector I will be able to make it work!   I will also assign, most likely for extra credit, a set of Quizlet cards from the students.  I would like them to create a set of cards based on what they have in their notes.   I will be addressing the technology standard set by the state of Michigan by having students work on-line for an assignment.  I hope to and will have to increase the number of on-line assignments as the years pass.

            Using Voicethread, I’m thinking that I will create little soundbites of helpful suggestions.  Maybe have a link to a soundbite for the problems that I anticipate will be difficult for kids listed on my web-site.  Another thought for what I can do with Voicethread is a simple, “These are the three things you should have learned today, did you?”   This will be a quick daily check for kids.

There are endless options for what a teacher can share with their students, but in this set of things it was also pointed out that there is an awful lot of information out there on the internet which is false.  I have another idea for an extra credit assignment for my students that involves number and looking for false data on-line.  I’m going to have to do some work preparing and finding sources with false data, but I think it would be very good for the kids to understand fully that anyone can put anything out there!

Works Cited

Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. "Putting the Pieces Together." Gloucester County Public Schools. 24 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. <http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/index.htm>.

Reflections of Things #1 - 7

Reflections on Things 1 – 7

            I can’t believe this is just the beginning of what’s out there.  I have learned so much in the first  third of the class. I plan to implement changes in my classroom a little but at a time.  I know it will take time getting things set up, but once in place, the changes should be helpful for my students and me.  I am using the shortcuts daily so that I can engrain them into my head.  These are great time savers that I will share with fellow staff members.  My students will benefit from the varying types of instruction that technology makes available to us in the classroom.  I am sure that I will set up some type of Skype plan for helping students with questions in the evening.  The Weebly web-page will force me to be more organized and will certainly provide students and their parents a great tool for keeping up with what’s going on in my classroom.

            With very little effort, several of the strategies suggested by Marzano can be addressed in my classroom. I would like to work on the strategy for improving summarizing and note-taking by  using Google Docs.  I have an idea to post vocabulary and problem types with space for students to put in their own words for meanings and how to do the problems.  I know that kids learn better from other kids and this may be a great way for this to happen outside of my classroom.  I also will be posting on my web-site notes from lessons that we cover in class.  This will, of course, be great for those students that miss class for one reason or another.

            I will also be trying to increase meaning of homework and practicing.  One of the very first things I tell my students at the beginning of the year is, that math is not a spectator sport.  They must do the problems not just watch me do them.  I like the statistic that shows research suggests that one must practice something 24 times for and 80% competency.  Not enough students know this or believe this!  I like to give little non-graded quizzes at the start of class to see  if students learned what they were suppose to the day before.  I am thinking that it would be great to put a little review quiz on-line nightly for them to check their learning.  Obviously, this would take work on my part, but once on-line they would always be there.  Along the same lines with on-line review, the objectives and feedback strategy will be addressed.  I need to check with my technology people and see if we have any copies of ExamView that are for district use…I also will provide links to web-sites that I think students may find helpful.  Thinkfinity and the Kahn Academy are both sites that I will have on my web page.  I have sat and watched a video from the Kahn Academy for re-teaching purposes with a student that I am tutoring in AP Stats.  It was great to sit there at my kitchen table and stop the recording and go back when we didn’t get something!

            I think that using Google Docs with my students to create a classroom set of notes is going to be a great learning tool.  I will set up an outline with vocab from a single lesson or maybe a whole chapter.  I plan on having the students access the document and put in their own words their description of the vocab.  I will have taught the lesson already, so they all will have had access to the correct information, but this way they get to rephrase in their own words for others to see.  It can be a situation where they leave their name and get credit for participating or don’t leave their name if they aren’t comfortable with sharing what they know.  I will also try and put sample problems for the students to work on in addition to their homework.  Sometimes, the homework from the book is not really repetitive enough so this way I could ensure that they know exactly what they should have learned in the lesson that day.  I’m thinking I would have to put these problems on both Google docs and on my web-site.  On my web-site, I would put my answers with the work required for finding the solution.  I would hope that on the Google docs students would share their way of doing a problem.  This would be a great way for students to improve the strategy of generating hypothesis.

            I am very excited about trying to implement this idea by the start of the second semester!  I am loving these 7 things and can’t wait to learn more.

Works Cited

Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. "Putting the Pieces Together." Gloucester County Public Schools. 24 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/index.htm.

Thing #21

http://screencast.com/t/1EccwOKMNc

I think the first attempt didn't turn out too bad.  I had an Algebra student look over it in class today and their only realy comment was that it moved fast. I had to run through it a few times to get the timing down and I felt rushed to fit this all in within the 5 minutes of given time.  I think I will look at purchasing the Pro-Jing so that I don't have only 5 minutes to record a lesson.  The student did really like the NLVM web-site and said that they would use it to do other problems.  I did post a link on my web-site on the Algebra page, but I didn't embed it which would have been nice.  I'll do that with the rest of the tutorials that I create.

I plan on putting one lesson every chapter on-line for students to view for the rest of this school year.  This summer, who knows?  I may get time to go back and create more, but as I go through the next year, I'll continue to put one lesson every chapter on-line so eventually I'll get a nice set of lessons for all chapters.  I am very excited to continue to play around with all these new toys that I have been introduced to.

I have already shared a variety of web-sites and tools with other teachers in my building and have been asked by our assistant principal if I would be willing to share goodies with the whole staff.  I'm excited about some of the connections and links that I have established so that I will not fall behind in the world of technology again!  I just got my data projector up and running in my room and have used an Illuminations site on several occasions in class.  I also just got a tablet to write on so that it will show up on the computer!  It is not a smart board, but just a notebook sized tablet that I can carry around the room and write so all the kids can see.  I can't believe how far I've come in just the past few weeks.  This class has been a blast, but certainly was a lot of work!  I would recommend this class to fellow teachers that have plenty of spare time... or just suggest that the class should be spread out a bit more.  Even two more weeks would create a more realistic time frame for completion.

Thanks for all the great information and I look forward to trying to keep up with new technology as it comes around now that I'm caught up...  Although, I'm not sure anyone can really ever be caught up, can they?

Thing #20

I used Bubbl.us to creat a overview of Chapter 5 for my FST students.  I'm thinking I may use this as an intro to the chapter instead of looking at the same stuff in an outline form.
http://screencast.com/t/fHuOVTt5H

I think there are many students would like to see how this all is connected visually.  I think I would also create another Bubbl.us graphic to show the assignments and the quiz and test for the chapter.

In keeping with the Chapter 5- Trigonometry theme, I created a graphis in Tagxedo with vocab from the chapter.  http://screencast.com/t/YQjTTKBJa I'm not real sure that I will have much use for this site in my math class, but for an English class or science class this would be a riot.  I do think I can assign something like this for an extra credit assignment.  I would like to introduce my students to both Wordle and Tagxedo.  I am going to go back and play with the same list of words in Wordle and see which one I like better.
Tagxedo offers a ton of varietry in their shapes, but Wordle does seem to  be a bit easier to use for the novice.  The problem for me is that I didn't have a large enough word bank.  I think I'll have to try a word document that is longer just to see what it does with it.

Opps, I tried to embed the Wordle art just for the fun of it, but it didn't go where I wanted???   One thing I noticed in both of these is that do not incorporate numbers...unfortunately, an awful lot of what I do does involve numbers.  You could spell the numbers out, but it's not going to look the same.  The Wordle did type 2x, so when the number is next to a letter it will show up.

I can not say that I will use these fun tools very much in my class, but I will for sure be using them for fun and I will be sharing these sites with my kids at home as well as fellow staff members at school.

Thing 17

I tried to find the most relevant set of databases for my students and my subject area.  Honestly, we don't do much in the way of research in my math class. There are too many required topics!  I did search in SIRS Discover Deluxe and then a search in SIRS Renaissance.  I thought I would see how the two databases showed information about Pathagoras.  The Discover version is much for kid friendly, but there is much more detailed information in the articles listed in the Renaissance.  I like the feel of the Discover version. http://screencast.com/t/Rwp3O7uui, though, I know I would not be happy if my high school students used only the information found here.  The way the Renaissance database was presented, it seems to be geared more toward the arts.  So, is there going to be a lot of information on the sciences?  I am very glad to have be introduced to the several databases offered through MEL.  My own kids will be glad to know about them too.

Continuing on with the search for Pythagoras, I tried both the Academic One and Article First databases.  Wow, the Academic One is great since it gives you the ability to see the whole text of the article.  http://screencast.com/t/0fRueXnOoO  I can't imagine working on my masters thesis now-a-days.  Trips to the library would not happen too often.  The Academic One database has all the bells and whistles that one could want when doing research.  It had several options for what to do with the text.  The idea of creating an MP3 recording of the text is great.  This would be a wonderful way to do some work while traveling in the car listening to various articles being read to you.  What a time saver!  I also love the fact that the site will create the citation for you to copy into Word.  Again, what a time saver.  I remember going to the library with my stack of notecards and writing the notes on one side and then source on the other so that I could compile all the research once I got home.  I will be sure to continue checking back at MEL for new databases as I'm sure they update regularly.  The fact is, before this class, I would have gone straight to google to research a topic.  These databases provide articles and information worthy of reading!

This idea of having the citations made for you in the format you ask is unbelievable!  I remember having to do all citations in APA, not that I remember what the heck that is now.  So, I stuck with my Pythgoras research and created a citation from the Academic One database through the GALE group. http://screencast.com/t/pZXBPrbm3M   I'm trusting that this is indeed APA format: http://screencast.com/t/ktyAbUfOzUvY
For the work cited #2 assignment, I am going to look for a more complicated work to cite...maybe an on-line article?  Well, no luck.  Just found a Trig for Dummies book which sounds like somthing I should purchase for my classroom!  I used BibMe: http://screencast.com/t/74O24KCF34D
I played around with the KinghtCite, but it looked like I actually had to type info into the cite and the BibMe allowed me to search right there and then it took the info and put it in the bibliography.

Works Cited

Sterling, Mary Jane. Trigonometry for dummies  . Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2005. Print.

MLA formatting by BibMe.org.

Having all these tools almost makes me want to go back to school and be a student doing research again... ALMOST!

Thing #19

I believe there are two teachers who are doing a blended course this year at our high school.  Neither are math courses.  I know there have been math courses taught via television for some time.  Students were able to take AP classes that were not offered in their own building by watching a televised course from a different school.  The kids would have to call with questions.  Those were the days... Now we can do much more with video conferencing.  I would love to eventually be able to teach an upper level math course as a blended class.  I know it will be required soon enough for kids to take core classes that have an on-line piece so I'll try and get ahead of the game.  I would enjoy the freedom that teaching for two less hours would give, but I think the students would benifit the most from having the freedom to learn at their own desk/home.  I would hope that students would devote the hour that they are not meeting with me to my class.  Sometimes kids these days are so busy during the evening hours, that they do not have the time to devote to their homework.  By doing a blended class, they would have time built in to their day to work on my class.  Now, the real question is would they?  I know from personel experience in college how difficult it is to self-pace and set resonable deadlines.  This would be a great way for students to learn about deadlines and the "real world" work skills.

I am very interested to see how far the e-textbooks progress.  We have most of our courses that are textbook based, but include an on-line support site, but we still have a few courses that do not have the web support.  Unfortunately, my class if one of them without any web support.  I will be looking for a new textbook during this upcoming summer to implement during the 2012 - 2013 school year.  I am interested to see if it is even necessary for districts to buy textbooks in as large of quantities as they have or will we need only a classroom set of books with students having their own on-line book to access at home.  What about in the classroom, do we even need a set of books?  Or will we all have some sort of screen for each student? Should be interesting...

Navigating the Land of Online Learning from the student perspective:  As a student I first need to have access to the internet.  I would need to find out if I am required to have my own computer and own internet service or if the school will provide me with any of this.  I like the idea of taking a blended course so that I can work on my school work when it's convienent for me.  I work late and sometimes I need to sleep-in.  Having the option to work on the class later in the day is great.  I also like that I am able to take Chinese even though my school didn't offer it.  My teachers don't always know how much of a visual learner I am and by using the internet, I can search out extra resources from the list my teacher provides.  I am excited to work at my own pace and yet be responsible for meeting the deadlines that my teacher provides.  I know this is how the "real world" works.  I am a bit concerned about how I will be able to get help while I'm taking this class.  Is there a set time that I can meet on-line with my teacher or am I suppose to meet with them face-to-face?  I'm also very concerned about tech support.  If my computer isn't working, will someone be able to help me?  I think overall this class will be a great experience and I am excited to try it.

As a student taking an on-line course, I am getting to experience a lot of these same emotions.  Luckily, I haven't had too many problems and so I've been able to progress through the class fairly well.  It is tough when the unexpected happens though.  Sometimes the time you thought you had gets eaten up with "life!".