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!".

Thing #14

I'm just overwhelmed by what all is available out there on-line for all to use!  The abundance of videos is amazing.  I'm planning on using the videos to re-teach lessons to kids that missed class or kids that didn't understand it the first time.  We are in the middle of a unit on Trigonometry in my FST class and I had 2 kids miss a whole week due to family vacations.  Needless to say, they are extrememly behind!  I work part time and so they must meet with me in the morning if they want help.  The on-line videos that I have looked at would be a great way for them to do some at home learning on the material they missed.  I always ask them to get notes from someone that was in class before they come and work with me, but this would be WAY better.  There are so many great math videos that I had a hard time picking one to include.  I am including a trigonometry lesson from the Khanacademy.  http://screencast.com/t/xxItiqaWma7z   I am not sure exactly how I will use the video instruction in my classes.  I am thinking about having them watch a topic relavant video before I teach a lesson... what a great way to have some prior knowledge!  Of course, the other option is to have them watch the video if they are struggling with the material after I taught the lesson.  Seeing it a second time and maybe just being in their own environment will help them.  My son always complains about his teacher having too much going on and he doesn't know what to write down.  I think if there was a video about the subject that he could watch later, he would be more relaxed in class and better learn the material.  This will definitely be a great way for us as educators to see how self-driven our student can be.  I've got to say that the best feature of the videos out there is simply the ability to watch it where and when you want!

I do believe that if a teacher has the ability to use a video resource compared to an audio resource, that's the way to go.  I am a very visual learner and if I have lesson to follow and listen to, I will be able to learn much better than just having an audio file to listen to.  I do like to listen to books in the car and if you can focus on listening, it is very entertaining and can be very educational.  Certain students may do well, listening and thus taking their own notes.  I also do enjoy following along in a book while listening to an audio file.

Thing #12

The google form survey is going to be a great way to get baseline data at the begining of a chapter or unit.  I should have no problems getting the kids to go on-line and take the survey.  I have created a sample one for the chapter I will be starting after Christmas break.  I am excited to try thiswith my students.  http://screencast.com/t/u5dWurLAmWv
I plan on making the survey longer and asking more questions.  I think the best way to get a general idea of my students prior knowledge will be with multiple choice questions.  That way I can get a statistical look at where the majority of the students are needing instruction quickly.  The "short answer" questions would be too time consuming to read all the varying responses.

I also think I will use this at the begining of the year to gather data about my new students and what their grade was in the previous math class.  I'm thinking with the results spreadsheet, I should be able to get a good idea of which students will be needing more assistance right away!

I am planning on using my rubric that I created to grade my students extra credit presentations.  I am going to give them the option of using any software that they would like.  I will share ideas and suggest that the kids use google, that way they can work on the project in any location.  I really do not like to grade student projects that is why I am a math teacher.  Most of the time their answers are either right or wrong, so I don't have to be subjective.  The rubric will make it very easy for me to get through the presentations and grade them fairly and quickly. Although I am looking forward to these! http://screencast.com/t/LVnVVUAXz

 Grandville is working on getting the staff to use the data warehouse that the ISD has.  We had inservice on this information in the fall and I wish I paid better attention.  I do know that we are working on getting more data input throughout the year.  I do think it will be helpful if we can see the trends of students from different tracks.  We have many kids that come in to our high school and are taking Algebra for the 2nd time as freshmen.  It will be interesting to see how they perform later in our math sequence.  Grandville has its own data warehouse that we will be using more due to regulations.  I look forward to begin able to compare my students with those of another math teacher...call it friendly competition.

The FERPA and HIPPA are important to protect our students from unfair exposure.  Because of the internet, everything is out there for all to see and we need to be sure to protect our students.  FERPA protects our student educational records while HIPPA protects our students health records.  I have a feeling that these two acts will have to be adjusted consistently with all that the internet makes available.  I only hope that the programmers of the world can stay one step ahead of the hackers of the world.

Thing #11

Prezi is a neat site.  I have been having a difficult time getting some of the text boxes moved around to where I would like them.  I think it's OK now.  As usual, I couldn't find a way to do fractions in a text box so I chose a different topic to cover.  I did not try and paste in a document from word...maybe that would work?  It didn't work well in Voicethread.

My presentation is on solving systems of equations using substitution. http://screencast.com/t/qToMLaHf
The link: http://prezi.com/hgqcmder3-ne/edit/#0_4049461

I like how visual the prezi program is, but I know I am more comfortable with PowerPoint just because I've used it longer.  I like the transitions and music capabilites offered in PowerPoint also.  I do, however, think the idea of kids being able to make these presentations without owning Office is important.  I will be using this presentation in my Algebra class later this year as in introduction to section 7.2 in our book.  I am thinking about the many different programs I can offer up to my students to make their own presentation for extra credit.  This is most definitely on the list!

My 14 year-old son likes playing with the ZoomIt program...I can only imagine how a room full of kids will react when I can play like the FBI and zoom in on where two lines interesect or on a negative sign that often gets lost.  I am sure I will use the ZoomIt program almost daily.  My classroom is a long room and I put up answers on the front screen which is difficult for the kids in the back to see.
An example of my answer sheet, zoomed in: http://screencast.com/t/bYa9F6JSx6lo

I also like the ZoomIt timer!  I like to give my students a set time to work on warm-up questions and very often, I loose track of time and I know it ends up costing them precious homework time.
http://screencast.com/t/UvPYvMsH

Thing 18

I had never heard of the RSS sites.  I am always going to the local news web-sites to keep up on things.  I have created an I-Google page that will be a great place to have all my stuff visible always!

In Google Reader I have 4 subscriptions right now and I'm sure that the more I look around, the more I will be adding to the list.  http://screencast.com/t/eYMNjL7eK .  I have a subscrition to the Red Sox news that I am most thrilled about!  I'm a huge Red Sox fan, and when MLB.com doesn't have any new info on the Sox I'm bummed.  I've got a feed from the Boston Globe that will keep me up to date!

Educationally, I have three blogs that I am following.  Two of them are math related and the other is technology related.  If nothing else, these feeds will keep me up with the math and technology that I should be using in my classes.  I am excited about being up to date in the 21st century world of education.

I

Thing 10

I am very much an amature with this Voicethread thing...

I created a powerpoint http://screencast.com/t/22LCae0T6 to import into Voicethread, and it really didn't work the way I thought it would.  I had music and animation in the powerpoint, but it is all lost in Voicethread.  Also, one of the fractions did not copy well and the graphs are really wacky!  I have to play around more to get this figured out... but I have a start. http://voicethread.com/share/1569353/ 

I think in my math classroom I would most likely be using this type of digital story telling to teach a lesson that I am not able to do in person.  I also know that it would be very helpful for those kids that are absent on any given day. 

I'm also thinking it would be fun, but time consuming for the kids to take a lesson and creat a digital story of their own to teach the class.  I have done this without the digital piece before and it's great for the kids, but takes at least twice as long to get through.

After talking with my son, a high school sophomore about this idea, he suggested it would be a great extra credit assignment!  I think I may just offer that for the end of this coming marking period.  I will have to look through the suggested rubrics for something I can follow to base a score on.  As a math teacher, most things are pretty black and white.  The more "stories" that I can collect the better!  I will certainly be saving all that get turned in to me and will use and or post the ones that I think would be helpful for other students and teachers.  I look forward to the great works my student will hand in!

Thing #8

I have to admit that I, like most teachers, use material more "freely" than I should.  For the most part, the teachers that I "quizzed" knew the laws, but not all the intricate details... the how many copies they could make and all the numbers involving length of time of video clips and music clips.  I found this link while digging around on the web.  http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
I think I've seen it at school in printed form.  I know the librarian at school needs to be right on top of this!  I'm sure teachers do not break copyright laws because they want to break the law, rather the need is there and the publication fits.  I certainly will try and be more aware of all the legalities.  With the internet, this is going to continue to grow as a problem!

I have created a Creative Commons license for my Web-page.  It's starting to look pretty fancy...
http://screencast.com/t/JQ59dEzo

Thing #3

Finally got my son to help me out with the Skype assignment.  Ann LaRoche and I have tried to hook up a coupld of different times with no success.  My user name is Jennifer.Salasky.  My son and I had lots of fun playing around with the Dell Webcam Central tools to make funny faces and sounds... http://screencast.com/t/gw3ptH0m I had set up my Skype accoutn before reading the tips in the lesson, so I will try to go back and see if I can edit my username and profile info.

I am very excited to be part of skype now and plan to use it next starting next semester with my students at school.  I always tell them that I check my school e-mail quite regularly during the evening hours and that if they have questions they can send them to me.  Using Skype would make this helping process much easier.  I have a feeling that I could tell my students when I'd be on-line to help them study for a quiz/test and that several would use Skype to get help.

I also think that the idea of having a working professional use Skype to talk with my students about how they use math in their job will be a great addition to my curriculum. I should have my digital prjector by the 2nd half of the school year, so I've got to start to plan who and when to do a classroom dicussion with someone from the "real" world.  I'm thinking I may need to get a doc camera since right now I only have the one on my computer and I'm sure it would be better for all involved if I could show a classroom of kids and/or paper that I am writing on while helping kids.

Thing #6

Finally had some time to sit down and walk through the long list of bogus sites.  WOW, is the first thing that comes to mind.  I can't believe that so many people have time to make these fake sites so elaborate.  The concepts are histerical on some, and yet on others, they seem to be something one could believe in.  I spent time looking at the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie site 1st.  http://screencast.com/t/dFPsfDlw

The site design is very cluttered.  It does seem to be quite easy to navigate through.  I'd say the first thing that would tip me off about the site, is the fact that it is unbelievable.   You will have to use some common sense when looking at sites.  There are several clues that make it very clear that the site is a spoof.  I especially like at the very bottom of the home page where under Recognition it says, " As seen in a magazine". So, what magazine???  http://screencast.com/t/CQGLjT89yMr  Another thing on this same page is the fact that it was last updated in December of 2008.  I'm thinking that no web-site is going to be legit if it hasn't been updated in two years.

On the left-hand column of the home-page you can check out the link about the government banning the AFDBs... this takes you to the "Weekly World Inquisitor".  Just the name alone puts it right up there with the National Enquirer at your local grocery stores.  On the bottom of the article is the clincher. http://screencast.com/t/wdhVcJrZBVg  This site is intended for entertainment purposes only!

Clicking through all the links it amazes me how much time was spent making this site.  The calculator on the Building teh AFDB is a crack up! http://screencast.com/t/e5nVfVP7OPx  I also love the drawings on the page! 

The second web-site I reviewed is the article about "Hacker Barbie" http://screencast.com/t/fuICn1XlX
I never liked dolls so I thought it would be fun to look at.  I have to say, it was sparse!  There was no way this was a real release.  There were not links, no images, no advertising...  Following the Valeza evaluation was not even necessary in this case.

I have book marked the Valenza sites for my kids at home to use while they are doing research!  I found the strategies for determining the credibility very useful.

My plans for engaging my students in learning about Netiquette include visiting several sites found in this lesson.  I liked the Wiredsafety site.  The Shiawassee site was how I found this, but I did notice Shiawassee was "old".  I know one thing that I will adress with my high school students is the "free" on-line music.  I have to admit I was guilty of using limewire at one time... I will be sure to have my students find the law about "free" music!  I also think I will spend time on e-mail etiquette.  This is the major form of communication for students along with texting and it is important that they learn the do's and don'ts of these when they are not in their own social network.  I hope all of my students will go on to be professionals in some field and they need to know how to communicate professionally.  The Netiquette site had a nice list of "rules" that we will spend time talking about in class.  I know the importance of electronic communication is only going to grow, so anything I can do to help my students learn the best way to do this, I will!

Thing 13 Quizlet

I fooled around with Quizlet quite a bit, looking for help for my own kids!  I created a set of cards for helping with basic statistics vocab.  I have included a screenshot. http://screencast.com/t/eaubhhD9XzFY

This is a neat way for kids to be on the computer and yet be studying their material.  I know from personnel experience at my own home, the kids enjoy being on the computer more than sitting at a table with paper and pencil in hand.

I plan to continue my quizlet account and start to build-up a library of cards for my different classes to use year after year.

Thing 15

I have another teacher that I work with who has been doing this conversion from a word document to pdf for over a year now.  I'm not sure what convertor he uses, but ZamZar was very easy to use.  It did take a while for the e-mail to get to me... Here is the e-mail with the link.  http://screencast.com/t/j7GXgDP52ra

I will use this conversion to post my notesheets and worksheets on-line for my kids to access and print at home.  I will also use this to create copies of worksheets to display on my new digital projector!  It will be so nice to not have to run down and create an overhead...

I used Media-Convertor to convert a you-tube video that my son had made.  I converted it to a wmv file that I can now e-mail to his grandma, she doesn't know how to find him on you-tube... Well, it's just a lot easier to send via e-mail.  There were many options for the conversion, but I have no idea what they are all used for.  I won't paste the whole video: http://screencast.com/t/fAafPgxpbzK6  Which one would I use to put the video to my i-pod?  The new version is not very good quality, but it still get's the point across.  I'm not quite ready to record my lessons to publish to the web, but obviously, this is coming... and this is a way I can make the video available for all my students.


I have been working on Google calendar for quite some time.  I have created a calendar for my FST class and have embeded it into my weebly website.  Unfortunately it is not showing up correctly.  I will continue to play around with it... Weebly has a set size for the text box and it is not letting the whole calendar show up.  Also, the assignments have changed dates on their own.  The assignments moved back one day.

Here is the link to the web-site page: http://mathfordawgs.weebly.com/fst.html

I use Google Calendar from my son's school to keep up with his homework so I am very excited to share this with my students and their parents.  I will keep working on the fitting, but I may have to set up a different web-site if the weebly won't let me format it better.

Thing 16

Learnport is going to be a great tool.  It is unfortunate that more teachers do not know about all that is out there for them to use.  There is not a lot that was listed in the courses that was specific for mathematics teachers, but I know where to keep checking for courses.  I did find a course specific for learning ways to use technology in the math classroom.  http://screencast.com/t/5BjEJOoJJG  I hope to have time to go back and go through the class later.  I did find a couple to ideas about pod-casts, but I have a hard time thinking a kid will learn much just by listening to me talk through a lesson.

I have been on Facebook for about a year and have enjoyed the social aspects very much.  It has been a great way to reconnect with former friends and catch up on what's going on in their lives.  I have "friended" former students, but I'm not confortable with the idea of being friends with current students.  I think a blog is a better place for kids to connect with me as their teacher.  I don't want to see all that they want to share and I know I have things I don't want to share with them on Facebook.  I did just sign-up with Twitter and will continue to play around trying to find other math teachers to follow.  I have one that I am following right now.  It is easy to see that twitter is a more professional networking site than that of Facebook.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is an association that I joined back when I was in college.  As a student, the rate was cheaper.  The rate now is $78 for an on-line membership, and $105 for a full year regular membership.  One of the best things that I liked about the membership was the subscription to Mathematics Teacher.  I have found many useful ideas over the years in this journal.  I now get to browse the journal monthly, but we share it among our department at school.  There was  time when I felt like I would be able to contribute as a presentor as the regional conference, but I've gotten too far behind the times.  This is why I am taking this course in hopes of getting information that a "young" teacher would know from being in college and growing up in this age of technology.  Right now, I am just hoping to share my newfound knowledge within my department!