Technology Project

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I am planning on doing a high school geometry project. The learning standards that apply are 2)Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics; social, physical, and life sciences; civics and history, including different cultures and participation in representative government; geography; arts; and health and fitness; 3) Think analytically, logically, and creatively, and to integrate technology literacy and fluency as well as different experiences and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems; and

Flipped Classroom

I think this flipped classroom is a really interesting concept, but if feels like it would take a lot of work on the teacher's part. I do like the idea of sending some content videos home so students can take them home and watch them as many times as they need to. I don't know how I would feel about completely flipping my classroom because I think that direct instruction is helpful in a math class so students can get their questions answered right away. But for some indivudual lessons it could be beneficial. I'm not completely sold on this idea, but knowing that this is available as a tool for my students is a good thing to keep in mind.

Week #9

After reading “Caught on Video”, it gave me few really great ideas about how I could use video in my classroom to help my students. There were three ideas I think would be most helpful to a secondary math classroom.
1. Film important lesson highlights so absent students can review what they missed.- Many students struggle with keeping up with the pace of math classrooms and fall behind after missing even one day of instruction. Having important concepts on video would help because they could see the process and re-watch it as many times as needed.
2. Ask a student to demonstrate how to solve a math problem and capture his exact process (rather than just the answer).- Personally, I find that math is about finding a correct process that makes sense to you, even if it is slightly different than the way your teacher does it. This would help students to understand and explain their process and then they would have a video of it to refer to later if they need to.
3. Never write another long note for a substitute teacher.- Substitutes don’t know where we are in our unit, and they might not even be math teachers. This would help me as well as my students. I could make a short recap video of the previous day for the substitute to show my students what we’ve done and where we’re headed on days that I’m not even there.

Flipsnack

Week #8

I was on Twitter earlier today and I saw quite a few posts from teachers asking if there were other classrooms that would be willing to do various projects with them on things like Skype Classroom. Twitter could be used as a professional development tool as a teacher because there are so many opportunities for teachers to collaborate with other educators across the world and develop connections with them. Also, there are so many resources and creative ideas being posted by educators that it is a great way to broaden your creativity within your own classroom and help your development. Due to the nature of Twitter, most educators that post on it are also successfully integrating technology in their classroom, and are good resources for ideas on that as well.

Reflection #6

Today as I was driving to school I was listening to a commercial on the radio that was advertising a new smartphone or nook or something. The selling point was that you can sit back and enjoy a latte instead of chasing your toddler around because you can instantly stream his favorite movie and just give it to him to watch. Technology is becoming a band-aid solution to parenting, and if you dont know what to do with them, just stick them in front of a tv and they will take care of themselves. This is only going to perpetuate kids' dependance and need for technology in and out of the classroom. Anyway, it just got me thinking about where we're headed with technology...

Reflection #5

This weekend I was volunteering at a dance event in Seattle. As a volunteer I was mainly working with registration and making sure the instructors had everything they needed and knew where they were teaching. Yesterday, I was helping set up the studio for the day and the staff members in charge of the sound systems were coming late, so me and my friend had to set up all the speakers and figure out the sound stystems in 3 different rooms ourselves. Though neither of us are particularly adept at technology, thankfully we were able to figure out how to run everything after only a brief moment of panic and had it ready before the instructors arrived. This made me realize I might not be quite as technology challenged as I previously thought and I have no reason to be afraid to use it in my classroom.

Reflection #4

I was just going through trying to finish all my comments before this weekend. I don’t have any internet at my apartment, so I have to use the mobile hotspot on my smartphone to get internet on my laptop. Not ideal, but functional. I was just remembering before I got my new phone how I would have to go down the street to Starbucks and steal their free wifi. It was frustrating and inconvenient to have to go there almost every day to get work done. It made me realize that not every student I have is going to have a smartphone, laptop, or even internet outside of school, and that some technology projects could add some stress to their lives, as it did to mine.

Blog Comments

1. http://www.sitzleralyssa.blogspot.com/2012/10/reflection-1.html#comment-form
2. http://www.sarahstoker.blogspot.com/2012/09/reflection-3.html#comment-form
3. http://www.heatherkristinsadventures.blogspot.com/2012/09/week-4-smart-boards.html#comment-form
4. http://www.amdowns8.blogspot.com/2012/10/reflection-4.html#comment-form
5. http://angiegarza12.blogspot.com/2012/10/reflection-6.html#comment-form
6. http://tootsievasquez06.blogspot.com/2012/10/reflection-5.html#comment-form
7. http://sigridthoreson.blogspot.com/2012/10/week-7.html#comment-form
8. http://wright2whitney.blogspot.com/2012/10/week-7-blogs-for-educators.html#comment-form
9. http://www.bethanylowesblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/week-5.html#comment-form

Week #7

I spent some time looking at the Guerrilla Season Book Blog. The students had to post different mock interviews and make book covers for the book they were reading in class. While it wasn’t about math it did give me some ideas about how to use a blog for a math class. I could easily do a similar blog for a topic such as “math in the real world”. Students could create blog posts about things in nature that use math concepts (sunflowers or seashells), interview people who use math as part of their job, or investigate geometry concepts that are used in architecture (like the aesteometry used in the Golden Gate Bridge). That would easily integrate technology into a math classroom while also applying math to outside the classroom.

Reflection #3

I was just thinking back to a camping trip that I took with my friend and her family this summer. One night we were all sitting around the campfire talking, when her teenage brother comes out of his tent with his iPad. We spent the next half hour or so playing Sporcle before we realized that we were in the middle of a forest and yet we were still all glued to technology. After we realized what we were doing, we talked about how dependent on technology society has become.

Animoto Video

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Week 6

Generation IM article

The information at the beginning of this article was mainly prior knowledge. However, one interesting thing I took away from it was that in today’s technology driven world, there has been a shift in learning from being a rote learner to a critical thinker. One thing I really enjoyed about this article is that it actually offered several practical ways to use different types of social media in the classroom, ones that I would have never thought of on my own. One way you could use this in a science classroom is have them create blogs and have them post something every couple days while they are doing a project in biology, and have them record observations from their project in a class blog.

Reflection #2

I’ve been taking a swing dance performance class over the past month. The instructors created a performance class Dropbox so we would all have the same version of the song we would be performing. They have also used it to uploaded demos of routines that we are working on. As our group works, we can also add small sections of choreography that we finish so everyone in the group can look at it and give feedback during the next class. It has been extremely useful to have that shared resource. Dropbox could also be a useful tool in the classroom, maybe for homework assignments or to upload short video demonstrations to show how to solve equations or graph data…just got me thinking about how I could try to integrate that into my future classroom.