EK math

There were times when I wasn’t sure I would make it to this point!  This has been a very challenging experience for me for several reasons, BUT I am very glad that I took this journey.  It took me places I had never heard of – I came into this course rather ignorant about most aspects of Web 2.0.  When I mention this class to others who have not taken it, I am secretly pleased when they say “what is THAT?” – mostly because when I heard of it first, I was right there with them – I asked the same question, and I didn’t feel so badly when I discovered that not everyone has a handle on all these tools.  So, I am grateful to my principal for giving me the opportunity to take this class and bring on all this stress, because I learned so much.

Now I have completed the lessons.  When I go to conferences or workshops, I feel that it has been a good experience if I can take at least 1 thing back and use it in my classroom.  In this course, I have several “things” that I can take back not only to my classroom, but to my personal life as well.  I don’t think I have really mastered anything, but I will work with some of them.  The RSS feeds are helping me keep in touch with many topics of interest, though I am sure there are many more out there.  I could go on and on about the merits of many of the tools/resources. The biggest problem I have, like many others, is finding the time to do these things!  As I worked through the lessons, I just wanted to investigate everything – time went by and I wondered where it went.

So my next steps will be to actually work some more of these things into my professional and personal life, but they will be baby steps.  I have learned that I need to take on small steps – and learn them well.  Then they will stay with me.

My thanks for a great journey!!

I have made podcasts in other workshops prior to this lesson, and I think this is probably more straightforward and more easily accomplished than some of the others I have made.  Nevertheless, it was not without its difficulties for me – and it’s probably just me.  I ran into one difficulty with which the help option in Zamzar was able to help me. They were prompt in their response to my question, and even though they were not sure how I managed to have that difficulty, they were able to give me a solution (an easy one, I might add).

I think podcasts definitely have their place in the classroom, though I find it difficult to find podcasts that I believe will engage the students and provide them with the content that is required.  The podcast I did was not content driven (i.e., was not mathematics but rather was a help podcast for math students in general) and did not require demonstration.  Most of the mathematics I teach requires demonstration, so I believe it would be important to have the visual component within the podcast, not just audio.

I did an informal, unscientific survey with some of my students.  I posed the question “how do think a podcast might be used in the classroom?” but it translated to them the value of a podcast in the classroom.  The first response was a shaking of their heads.  Then I narrowed it down:  what are the advantages to using podcasts?  The familiar reasons were given:  you could listen to it any time you wanted, you could listen to it as many times as you wanted, you can listen to it from any computer.  Finally, I asked them what they saw as disadvantages.  Their responses were immediate:  you can’t ask a teacher a question, you can’t ask the teacher to go back over the steps or expand on the steps, it’s hard to stay focused, there are no kinesthetic activities to keep the students engaged, students need to see mathematics demonstrated.  This is not to say that there is not a place in the mathematics classroom for podcasts, but like everything else, its use should be beneficial and contribute to student learning.  I still think podcasts have their place.  This was not my favorite “thing” to do, but I am glad I learned more about it and appreciated the software that made making a podcast easier than my previous attempts!

Social networking has never been of much interest to me for a variety of reasons, some named within the information provided in this lesson:  data theft, viruses, online predators, dishonest individuals, etc.  While I understand one should treat it as he/she would real life (act smart, think smart), I think it is also true that “once bit, twice shy”.  Having had my identity compromised   once probably makes me a bit more suspicious (though I hope not cynical) than others might be.

However, I did enjoy this visit into Classroom 2.0 and NING.  In Classroom 2.0, I certainly found a variety of resources, individuals, videos, etc.  I found an interesting discussion on interactive whiteboards vs wireless slates and another with advice on using Moodle for assessment, responding to another’s question about its use.  I was impressed by a reply from a teacher who currently uses Moodle in her science classes.  Her discussion provided good sound benefits as well as some of the difficulties, but still highly in favor of Moodle.  I was able to visit some websites I had not visited before and will be helpful in the instruction within my own classroom.  Suddenly the benefits of the educational networking systems became more clear – it’s like one big meeting of educators!!  In my fear of what negative things might happen on a social network, I failed to see what benefits there could be!  One thing I was surprised (and somewhat concerned) to find was the wide variety of places you could buy prescription drugs without a prescription!

Recently, our high school staff was required to complete the child abuse training required by the state which included bullying and cyberbullying.  While browsing on Classroom 2.0, I discovered two anti-bullying videos that drove home the effects of bullying and cyberbullying.

With NING, I found a network “Called to Teach” which encourages Christian teachers.  It included resources and encouragement to aid the teacher who chooses to live a Christian life.

I often say “never say never”, and while I can’t say that I will rush out to become a member of a social networking site, I can say that I can see the potential for its use in the classroom.  There are people out there willing to collaborate, share their best practices, and encourage you along the way.

An intresting visit to YouTube and TeacherTube!  A wide variety of videos (and other media, as well) at your fingertips.  I investigated several from each site.  On YouTube, I viewed a clip by Arthur Benjamin (which I will embed within this blog) in which he gave his formula for changing math education.  Quite interesting – to a math teacher, at least.  He suggested that our goal in teaching mathematics is not to reach calculus – but by making an analogy of analog to digital in our world, mathematics should change its direction to include probability and statistics for all!

I also viewed a video on Mathematics and Art for a content area video – but obviously cross-curricular.  For how to, I viewed a video called “Tree Trigonometry” which showed two methods for measuring the height of a tree – one using trigonometry, while the other used a stick!

I viewed two that are just fun:  “Mathmaticious” ( viewed this one simply because it is a favorite of my students) and also a comedy routine by Gerald Kelly whose routine was all about helping his child with his “new math” homework.

On TeacherTube, I saw several mathematics lessons, but viewed one on scatterplots (which contained some spelling errors!), one on the History of mathematics which even though brief, was good, and finally one showing an egg drop experiment.

Most of the videos I viewed were good, and I would consider using some of them.  When I think of video clips, I believe they should be just that:  clips!  Some of the ways I use video clips are:  an introduction to a new lesson, to launch a special activity, to reinforce content presented in class, and closure to a lesson.

The Arthur Benjamin clip follows:

This thing may be my favorite tool so far – saving the best for last, or almost last???  PageFlakes seems to have it all (almost) and is very versatile as to its applications.  I enjoyed checking out all the flakes, though as mentioned in the lesson, it is not the best search engine.  Lots of decisions to make, as some have said, but on the other hand, I view it as choices!  I also enjoyed checking out other pages.

I see it as a useful tool for my classes with a wide variety of possibilities – assignments, upcoming projects/labs due, resources/websites useful to my students, reminders, information about the class for parents, etc.  As math department chair, I can think of applications within the department as well as communicating our information to parents.

I think I will be investigating this tool more in future days – and sharing it with the math department.

Google Docs is cetainly a versatile tool, and I know there will be many ways I can incorporate this tool into by professional and personal life.  I found it to be relatively user friendly, though I didn’t always find the things I wanted to do and was accustomed to doing in Word. Perhaps those things were there, but I just didn’t locate them.  However,  knowing Word and how a spreadsheet works were helpful in maneuvering around the document and spreadsheet.  In both part 1 and part 2, I created documents that could be used in one of the classes I teach.  The mathematician biography form is one of the notebook items students complete as part of the history of mathematics that is an integral part of the course and runs the length of the course.  They will never have to use paper again – nor will I have to run off all those forms!  This will make the form more readily available for my students, as well.  At this time, the three ideas for using Google Docs are related to this same class.  The form for the mathematician biographies, the spreadsheet for students to complete as they complete the various biographies and which will allow me to easily monitor their progress, and the presentation option for student presentations on various topics we discuss in class, such as historical numeration systems, various counting tools, etc.  I’m sure I can find many ways to use this tool!

For this posting I started at Deb’s Blog which led me to an article in Educational Leadership concerning negative attitudes toward mathematics and the necessity of trying to do some major attitude adjustment.  Anybody who teaches math is familiar with the many ways negative attitudes can present themselves.  From students:  “I just don’t get it”, “I can’t do it”, “I had a teacher who ruined it for me, and now I hate math”, “math is so hard”, etc.; from parents: “I was always bad in math, so I suppose that’s why Johnny is poor in math”; from people in general when they discover you are a math teacher:  “I was never good at math – it was my worst subject – I hated math”.  In addition, the students subsequently avoid taking any more math than is necessary to meet requirements.

Like the authors in the article, I also believe the teacher does have a responsibilitiy to provide students with opportunities to positively experience mathematics in such a way that they can regard more rigorous math courses as a distinct possibility in their lives.  In addition, express to the students that they CAN do it – if students believe that others have confidence that they can be successful, doesn’t it make sense that they begin to believe it themselves?  It’s also important that parents express that same confidence to their students (they don’t need to share that they didn’t like math or did poorly in it!).

In addition, if teachers are going to carry this responsibility, it would be prudent to provide our preservice teachers (especially on the elementary level) with the tools that enables them to understand mathematics – not just memorize formulas and algorithms without knowing why they work.

I agree with the article that a change in attitude is required to raise math achievement.  Part of that may be handled by letting students see that not only is math everywhere in their world and therefore necessary to know, but it can also be fun.  I don’t think that this is an easy task, but I do think the effort to change these attitudes is worthwhile.

Podcasting is one of the tools that I struggle with.  I have been in workshops for podcasting, and the experience almost always has the same outcome – frustration.  It isn’t that I am frustrated with the concept of podcasting – I think it’s great.  The ability to listen/view the podcast whenever, wherever and however many times you wish is fantastic and certainly does not exist in most classrooms.  I have difficulty finding podcasts in my content area that accomplish the objectives that I need them to address.  One would assume that is where designing your own might enter the picture.  I do believe that audio only podcasts are not enough for math instruction (my opinion), as I believe students need to see the mathematics demonstrated, otherwise the visual learner is left out.  I have viewed many podcasts, not only in this class but also in others.  I viewed podcasts from different areas, not just mathematics, and discovered some that were enjoyable, informative and useful.  I appreciatd Tony Vincent’s website on podcasting – good information delivered in a concise, understandable style.  In mathematics, I viewed dansmathcast.

At this time, after having a brief discussion with my principal/coach, I believe my use for podcasts would not be for instructional purposes, but perhaps in managerial/informative areas, whether for my students or for my position as senior class advisor.

LibraryThing is terrific!  I love the concept(s) behind it and found it to be so comprehensive concerning things that a book lover might find interesting or intriguing or informative.  I love to read and any trip to any bookstore can prove to be devastating to my budget.  Having a stack of books which I have not yet read, I always have one available when I have some time to sit down and read.  LibraryThing would be a great tool to organize my personal and professional libraries.  The social aspect would enlist help for keeping on top of the latest books and activities by favorite authors. The fact that it is on the web makes it all the more valuable.

As for the cataloguing of my personal and professional libraries, I may be too far gone!

When using the Suggester, I found that I had indeed read many of the titles suggested for the particular book I submitted.  Very interesting!!

Like many of the tools we have learned about in this experience, delicious helps open doors and allows one to benefit from others.  Many of these tools are very social, yet one still has the opportunity to disallow sharing if so desired.  It provides a wide network of individuals who share the same interests.  What I really appreciate about delicious (and this holds true for other tools as well) is that it is accessible from any computer with internet access.  I work mainly from two different computers, one is a Mac and the other a Windows machine.  I don’t have to worry about compatibility, and I have access to all of my bookmarks regardless of the machine I happen to be using.

There are many websites I use in the teaching of my classes, and this will certainly streamline those.  Our math department is planning to construct a wiki with links to resources for our students and have a link on our district website – how helpful this will be in this process.

http://delicious.com/bsivits