Thursday, December 2, 2010
Glogster
I do like Glogster. It's a pretty neat/new way for students to present their work. Some really great ideas that I saw for Math assessments was to have students create a Glog to show the steps needed to complete a Math problem or the rules for solving certain types of equations. I think that is how I would use it in my classroom because if a student understands the method of doing a problem, they are more likely to be able to complete a problem correctly.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Elluminate
Elluminate would be a good program to use both in the local classroom and for uses abroad. The book my group is reviewing is about global education and how to bring the world into your classroom. The book encourages teachers to link up with other classrooms around the world so that students have a chance to learn about different cultures. Elluminate would be a great way to connect two (or more) classrooms on opposite sides of the world! It would be a good way to collaborate and have internationl, interactive classrooms!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Poll Everywhere -- Free text polling!
Replace your audience response systems with Poll Everywhere
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
I know I didn't need to post it here, but I did anyway
I thought I'd share my Photostory here too. I had fun, even if it's a little boring!
Seond Life again
I wanted to share this video with everyone because I thought it was very interesting...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieO-LjaLWy8&feature=related
I believe it's another part to the video we were assigned to watch. The psychological aspect of Second Life is very intriguing. It is true that we find comfort "hiding behind" a virtual identity. Look at how much more people are willing to say via email, text message, even over the phone as compared to face-to-face interaction. But bringing these walls down can be used as positive advantage - students are able to talk about things they wouldn't normally be willing to talk about in a typical classroom setting such as body image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieO-LjaLWy8&feature=related
I believe it's another part to the video we were assigned to watch. The psychological aspect of Second Life is very intriguing. It is true that we find comfort "hiding behind" a virtual identity. Look at how much more people are willing to say via email, text message, even over the phone as compared to face-to-face interaction. But bringing these walls down can be used as positive advantage - students are able to talk about things they wouldn't normally be willing to talk about in a typical classroom setting such as body image.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Memo: Second Life
Dear Parents and Gaurdians,
As many of you may be aware, the district has supported the implementation of Second Life into your childrens' classrooms. You may have received memos from other teachers thus far informing you of the implementation into their classrooms. While we fully support the use of Second Life in the classroom, unfortunately we will not be bringing it into our Integrated Algebra classroom this quarter. The math department feels that Second Life has not be developed quite enough for our uses. While there is a dedicated math and science area called Exploratorium, it is a bit basic for our needs. We would like to see a richer environment before we bring your children into it. However, over the course of winter break, a team of teachers will be researching more ways to integrate Second Life into our algebra classrooms and possibly developing our own area to illustrate the application of mathematics in the real world. We feel that Second Life has its merits and could be very useful to us in the future. We will work our hardest to find a suitable virtual math environment to aid the education of your children.
Thank you for your support and understand,
Ms. Kiernan,
on behalf of the High School Math Department
As many of you may be aware, the district has supported the implementation of Second Life into your childrens' classrooms. You may have received memos from other teachers thus far informing you of the implementation into their classrooms. While we fully support the use of Second Life in the classroom, unfortunately we will not be bringing it into our Integrated Algebra classroom this quarter. The math department feels that Second Life has not be developed quite enough for our uses. While there is a dedicated math and science area called Exploratorium, it is a bit basic for our needs. We would like to see a richer environment before we bring your children into it. However, over the course of winter break, a team of teachers will be researching more ways to integrate Second Life into our algebra classrooms and possibly developing our own area to illustrate the application of mathematics in the real world. We feel that Second Life has its merits and could be very useful to us in the future. We will work our hardest to find a suitable virtual math environment to aid the education of your children.
Thank you for your support and understand,
Ms. Kiernan,
on behalf of the High School Math Department
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Secondary Math LiveBinder
Secondary Math Activities
I liked this binder because it has a lot of relevant Math websites all linked up in one area. All too often when I'm searching for Math websites I come across these really great site...FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION. I like this one because it focuses on secondary ed. It has some really cool sites and the thing I like about LiveBinders is that you are able to utilize the site within the binder, so you still have access to all the other sites without having to hit the back button a million times or re-entering the web address. There are some really great tools for the students to use that will reinforce what they are learning in the classroom!
I liked this binder because it has a lot of relevant Math websites all linked up in one area. All too often when I'm searching for Math websites I come across these really great site...FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION. I like this one because it focuses on secondary ed. It has some really cool sites and the thing I like about LiveBinders is that you are able to utilize the site within the binder, so you still have access to all the other sites without having to hit the back button a million times or re-entering the web address. There are some really great tools for the students to use that will reinforce what they are learning in the classroom!
Class Thus Far
Even with the amount of homework given by all my classmates, I have really enjoyed this class so far. Being as technologically inclined as I am, you would think that I am constantly researching the latest trend, but that couldn't be farther from the truth! (Sad to admit though!) I find it overwhelming to research new technologies because there are just so many out there! But enjoy that this class brings some of the better ones to me. So far my favorites have been the SmartResponse system, Prezi, and of course Diigo (I really do love it, I'm not just plugging the software that I presented)! SmartResponse allows for a more interactive way for students to answer questions in class rather than pencil and paper. Prezi is cool because it stirs things up rather than the linear and often boring PowerPoint. Diigo is cool because you can not only bookmark websites, but save things that you've highlighted for future reference. I also really liked the SAS Pathways Curriculum site because I finally saw good lesson ideas for Math classrooms.
As a couple of my classmates have mentioned, I would like to see MS Office a little more, especially Excel since it is probably the most useful program for the Math classroom. I know some of the basics like adding and multiplying cells/rows/columns, but it's been years since I've touched the graph feature and I'm sure the technology has been updated a bit since!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
SAS Curriculum Pathways
I chose launch number 514. This was a web lesson on Congruency in Transformations. This was a pretty cool lesson. It launches in its own window and gives students a chance to practice translating various line segments and figures. Then there is also a quiz portion. I really like this feature because the students can use this to assess how well they have learned the content.
My favorite part however is the answer page. The student can open it and check their progress and fix their answers, but the original is still saved as well as the updated version. Additionally I like the fact that the student can save or EMAIL (!!) the answer page. This is really convenient that the program marks what is correct/incorrect and then can be emailed to the teacher - great time saver!
I would use this to help the students learn/review Transformations one day and then give them a quiz on what they have learned the next day. I saw some really great other tools on this site and I am very excited with how I can integrate this into my classroom! (http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Homework
Things that I like about Zoho Writer that makes it unique:
- 1. I like the tabbing feature because a million windows don't open up like google docs
- 2. I really like that you can export to PDF because it's convenient when you need to convert something to PDF.
- 3. I like that the features that are very similar to Word that way it's easy to interchange the between the two.
Things that I think Zoho Writer lacks in comparison to other word processors:
- 1. I don' t like that you have to be online to use Zoho Writer because our students might not have internet access at home.
- 2. I don't like that some features don't import and export seemlessly because sometimes I spend a lot a time formatting a document and I really hate losing that formatting.
- 3. There isn't a third that I don't like, yet.
I could integrate this program into my classroom by...
I could assign my students to write an extra credit paper about the history of mathematics.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Book Review
Oh grading, how I loathe thee.
I definitely think that grading the book review needs to be based both on group collaboration and individual input, broken down 35% group grade, 65% individual grade.
For the group grade you could examine what/how much of the objectives of the review were met: timeline was met by most members, connection to the outside world was made, and insightful discussions were had.
As for the individual grade, the grade could be scaled for how much each individual contributed to: timeline; individual roles/responsibilities within the group; connecting the book, 21st century skills and the classroom together; thoughtful input into discussions.
I think perhaps there should be a short (one page max) write-up about the project written by each person. In this write-up everyone could touch on their contributions to the project, how well they think their group worked together, as well as a peer evaluation. The idea behind this write-up is that each individual can vouch for their contribution, but won't get credit for over embellishing and exaggerating the truth since their group members would be a checks-and-balances of sorts.
I definitely think that grading the book review needs to be based both on group collaboration and individual input, broken down 35% group grade, 65% individual grade.
For the group grade you could examine what/how much of the objectives of the review were met: timeline was met by most members, connection to the outside world was made, and insightful discussions were had.
As for the individual grade, the grade could be scaled for how much each individual contributed to: timeline; individual roles/responsibilities within the group; connecting the book, 21st century skills and the classroom together; thoughtful input into discussions.
I think perhaps there should be a short (one page max) write-up about the project written by each person. In this write-up everyone could touch on their contributions to the project, how well they think their group worked together, as well as a peer evaluation. The idea behind this write-up is that each individual can vouch for their contribution, but won't get credit for over embellishing and exaggerating the truth since their group members would be a checks-and-balances of sorts.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Higher Thinking Skills
Both the Intel and Thinkfinity are great tools to use in the classroom today. They are good ways to mix up the monotony of straight lecture and note taking. These two tools get students to start thinking outside the stereotypical box.
While I see a lot of potential for the Intel tools in English and Social Studies, and even Science classrooms, I am still struggling with how to use them in the Math classroom. I was only really able to come up with one idea to use with the Intel tools and that is Geometric proofs. I took a peek at my fellow Math comrades ideas, and I see that they have come up with a couple of other good ideas (good job Math people!!). One of the things I love about Math is that it is so structured, but one thing I hate about Math is that it is so structured. Wait a minute you say? That's right, I love the structure, but I hate how rigid that it seems sometimes. I'll admit, I'm not that creative until I'm given a well defined avenue, then I'm off to the races So coming up with ideas is sometimes a struggle for me. Maybe this is a way to get students to reach high levels of thinking skills - brainstorm ideas for us to use these tools in the classroom! Only thing is, I find it scary to not have sketched outline of where I'd like my students to end up at the end of our Intel brainstorm...
However, the Thinkfinity tools, namely http://illuminations.nctm.org/ could be very useful in the classroom. Not only are there activities that I can use with my students in the classroom, but even lessons for me to draw ideas from. Some of the activities can be used in class to help students have good visual support for what is being discussed in the lecture portion of class. One activity I was playing with is called Shape Cutter. Shape Cutter could be used for various different topics. It could be used to explore different characteristics of geometric shapes, or even help students understand how to find the area of a non-perfect shape, by cutting the shapes into smaller, known shapes. I think Shape Cutter could really get students to investigate the qualities of given shapes and use the tool to help them solve problems such as the ones I mentioned above.
While I see a lot of potential for the Intel tools in English and Social Studies, and even Science classrooms, I am still struggling with how to use them in the Math classroom. I was only really able to come up with one idea to use with the Intel tools and that is Geometric proofs. I took a peek at my fellow Math comrades ideas, and I see that they have come up with a couple of other good ideas (good job Math people!!). One of the things I love about Math is that it is so structured, but one thing I hate about Math is that it is so structured. Wait a minute you say? That's right, I love the structure, but I hate how rigid that it seems sometimes. I'll admit, I'm not that creative until I'm given a well defined avenue, then I'm off to the races So coming up with ideas is sometimes a struggle for me. Maybe this is a way to get students to reach high levels of thinking skills - brainstorm ideas for us to use these tools in the classroom! Only thing is, I find it scary to not have sketched outline of where I'd like my students to end up at the end of our Intel brainstorm...
However, the Thinkfinity tools, namely http://illuminations.nctm.org/ could be very useful in the classroom. Not only are there activities that I can use with my students in the classroom, but even lessons for me to draw ideas from. Some of the activities can be used in class to help students have good visual support for what is being discussed in the lecture portion of class. One activity I was playing with is called Shape Cutter. Shape Cutter could be used for various different topics. It could be used to explore different characteristics of geometric shapes, or even help students understand how to find the area of a non-perfect shape, by cutting the shapes into smaller, known shapes. I think Shape Cutter could really get students to investigate the qualities of given shapes and use the tool to help them solve problems such as the ones I mentioned above.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Podcasts in the Classroom
Podcasts can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom and honestly, I am unaware of many of these uses! However, I have come up with a few uses. While researching podcasts I came upon The Math Dude's Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier (which I posted for the discussion section because I liked it!) which could be a really great resource to send students to. Sometimes when students get home and start their homework, they forget what a teacher said, the steps they said to use, or maybe the students just don't understand what the teacher said. Podcasts made by a third party could be beneficial because they may explain a topic in a different way which the student can relate to better, as well as review the steps needed in order to solve certain Math problems.
I could create my own podcasts to use in and out of the classroom. I could record myself walking the students through the steps to complete problems, but more entertaining, create songs from the methods needed. For my Differentiating Instruction class, my group and I created a YouTube video from a song we recorded (my groupmate actually wrote the song - she's very creative!). The song was based on a learning strategy to help students solve word problems -- check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEIlwVkFGck (yes those are my hands, but no, not my voice). Using this idea, the podcasts wouldn't need to just be audio, they could be video too. This could be very helpful for those moments mentioned above when students don't remember how a problem was solved, they could log onto their computer and search through my vodcasts and find the one that is relevant to the current subject.
As for my students creating their own podcasts, I'm a little stumped. It seems like it should be a no brainer - students could create their own podcasts about math, similar to the ones that I created. Or maybe instead of testing/quizzing students with paper and pencil, I have them create a podcast, through audio and/or video describing the steps involved in solving problems. Perhaps this could turn into an interview process where students quiz each other or help each other through the steps involved. This idea needs a little work...
Some times I struggle with ways to make Math more creative. However, I feel like with the help of this class, I have been brainstorming more and more ideas on how to Math more technologically interactive! Score!
I could create my own podcasts to use in and out of the classroom. I could record myself walking the students through the steps to complete problems, but more entertaining, create songs from the methods needed. For my Differentiating Instruction class, my group and I created a YouTube video from a song we recorded (my groupmate actually wrote the song - she's very creative!). The song was based on a learning strategy to help students solve word problems -- check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEIlwVkFGck (yes those are my hands, but no, not my voice). Using this idea, the podcasts wouldn't need to just be audio, they could be video too. This could be very helpful for those moments mentioned above when students don't remember how a problem was solved, they could log onto their computer and search through my vodcasts and find the one that is relevant to the current subject.
As for my students creating their own podcasts, I'm a little stumped. It seems like it should be a no brainer - students could create their own podcasts about math, similar to the ones that I created. Or maybe instead of testing/quizzing students with paper and pencil, I have them create a podcast, through audio and/or video describing the steps involved in solving problems. Perhaps this could turn into an interview process where students quiz each other or help each other through the steps involved. This idea needs a little work...
Some times I struggle with ways to make Math more creative. However, I feel like with the help of this class, I have been brainstorming more and more ideas on how to Math more technologically interactive! Score!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Digital Nation
I actually watched all three videos because the curiosity of the others was killing me!
I thought 21st Century Schools was interesting because the students were more engaged by the use of technology in the classroom. Even though at different points, students were not on task, the teachers were able to monitor them and get them back on task by letting them know they were being watched. Fascinating!
The Attention and Multitasking video kind of infuriated me. There was an arrogance that the interviewed students had about their ability to multitask. It seemed as though these students felt that their need to work on other things in class was more important than having to completely pay attention in class. Granted these are college students and they are paying for their time in class. I just felt it was disrespectful to the professors that the students thought they 'were wasting an hour in lecture class.'
The irony came in while I was watching the Virtual Worlds video. I myself was multitasking while that video was playing. I began to think about how the editing style (or lack there of) was quite boring compared to the other two. This video was literally just a talking head, whereas the others were edited with B-roll cut into it (insert this is what I studied in my first degree - video production). I found it harder to pay attention to this video because there was no 'flare' to it. However, I did pick up that the social groups in online gaming could be beneficial to students' futures as it requires them to work in groups with a specialty area.
I think in this day and again, technology is required in the classroom. We have become a technological world and if we don't embrace using technology in the classroom, we as a nation, will get left behind. Building upon students prior technological knowledge and teaching them how to use technology for more than just chatting, gaming, and social networking is vital.
I thought 21st Century Schools was interesting because the students were more engaged by the use of technology in the classroom. Even though at different points, students were not on task, the teachers were able to monitor them and get them back on task by letting them know they were being watched. Fascinating!
The Attention and Multitasking video kind of infuriated me. There was an arrogance that the interviewed students had about their ability to multitask. It seemed as though these students felt that their need to work on other things in class was more important than having to completely pay attention in class. Granted these are college students and they are paying for their time in class. I just felt it was disrespectful to the professors that the students thought they 'were wasting an hour in lecture class.'
The irony came in while I was watching the Virtual Worlds video. I myself was multitasking while that video was playing. I began to think about how the editing style (or lack there of) was quite boring compared to the other two. This video was literally just a talking head, whereas the others were edited with B-roll cut into it (insert this is what I studied in my first degree - video production). I found it harder to pay attention to this video because there was no 'flare' to it. However, I did pick up that the social groups in online gaming could be beneficial to students' futures as it requires them to work in groups with a specialty area.
I think in this day and again, technology is required in the classroom. We have become a technological world and if we don't embrace using technology in the classroom, we as a nation, will get left behind. Building upon students prior technological knowledge and teaching them how to use technology for more than just chatting, gaming, and social networking is vital.
Instructions to Post a link on Blog via Diigo
So it seems that some people have had trouble posting a link onto their blog via Diigo. Here are some step by step instructions that help, I hope!
Thanks all!
- Navigate to any website you want.
- Then in your Diigo tool bar, click Send -to blog.
- There will be a spot where you have to put your blog URL in (mine is http://kcic.blogspot.com/ if that helps).
- Enter username and password of your blog
- Click submit.
- You should be able to checkmark your blog to select it and at the bottom under the text editing box - where you can type stuff about your link - click send and it should post to your blog.
- It gives you a confirmation link to your blog so you can double check if you did it right.
Thanks all!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Here we go
I'm very excited for this class. My first degree was from RPI, a very, very technical school. So technical in fact that I got a BS in art and communications - oh the irony! I have/had a decent amount of experience with technology - my 'career' job was as a "Technology Project Specialist." However, for the last 2 years as I am going back to school, I've gotten out of the loop more or less. That's the thing with technology, if you don't stay up on it, you could loose your edge pretty quickly.
I'm looking forward to learning many programs, softwares, and the latest cool thing to bring into the classroom. This class should be a nice conglomeration of my old degree and my new degree, thus I'm very excited!
I'm looking forward to learning many programs, softwares, and the latest cool thing to bring into the classroom. This class should be a nice conglomeration of my old degree and my new degree, thus I'm very excited!
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