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)

My Prezi Homework!

Prezi is Fun! on Prezi

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.

 

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.

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.