PBL Reflection

I was the project leader for my group's PBL proposal.  This project took a lot more time and collaboration than the other assignments, however, I feel that my group worked together very well and our project was very cohesive.  I really like the activity we came up with and plan to implement it into my Math 1 Support classes.  One negative of this project, was that some of the team members are elementary school teachers and therefore had a more difficult time coming up with an activity for a high school class.  Also, they will be unable to implement this project into their class.

Blog Entry 11: Online Assessments

Many state mandated assessments are offerred online, including EOCT's.  When I worked at Woodstock High School, the EOCT's were administered online.  I really enjoyed this method, because it was much easier to administer and the results were returned much more quickly.  At Dawson County the EOCT's are aministered using the paper method.  This is because our network can not handle that amount of usuage. 

My question is, do students do better on the online assessment or the paper version?  I have noticed that when students complete math problems on a computer program, they are much less likely to write it down and work it out.  They usually try to do it in their heads, even if it is impossible to do that.  Therefore, many of them end up guessing for many of the problems.  However, I do not know if they would do the same thing on a test that is 15% of their grade.

Blog Entry 10: Emerging Technology that Supports eLearning

eLearning is becoming more and more popular in colleges, technical schools, companies, and even K-12 schools.  The text describes the benefits and negatives to elearning.  eLearning is a great tool to promote time management and a deeper level of communication between students.  However, eLearning requires students to stay ontop of their own work and for many, specifically young students, this can be very difficult. 

I really enjoy eLearning, seeing as I am completing my Master's online.  I enjoy it because it gives me the freedom to work at the best times for me and not have to schedule travel and class time.  I am a very organized person so it works very well for me.  I also feel that I can express my opinions and ideas more easily with virtual learning.  When in a classroom it can sometimes be intimidating to fully express yourself, or in some cases there just isn't enough time.

Blog Entry 9: Online Gradebooks

Almost every school system currently uses an online gradebook software that allows parents to view their childs grades at any time.  This is a great tool if used properly. 

One benefit to the virtual gradebook is that parents now have continuous access to their childs grades.  When this was not available it was easier for students to do poorly without their parents knowing until the end of the term, which of course is too late to do anything about.

Another beneift is that teachers can access the gradebook from any computer that has internet access.  It also automatically calcualates grades, instead of teachers having to do it by hand or using excel.

However, there are some negatives to virtual gradebooks.  One of these is the fact that many teachers are not trained on how to properly use the software.  I have become one of the goto people that other teachers come to when they have questions about the gradebook.  I have noticed how little many of the teachers really know about the software, and many times the teachers have incorrectly set up the grade setup.  Causing grades to be completely off.

Another negative is the fact that parents are not propertly trained in how to read the gradebook and end up not using it or freaking out about every single grade that goes into the gradebook even if the grade is exempt or missing, etc.  This ends up causing parents to email or call teachers regularly about why their child has a certain grade.  Instead of asking their child.  Sometimes it gets frustrating as a teacher to continuously have to answer these questions.

I try my best to leave feedback on each assignment and comments on each students grade if it is missing or they have time to make it up etc.  But again many parents are not aware of how to find this information.

Digital Storytelling Article

This article discuses a rural middle school where a lead literature teachers uses various Web 2.0 tools associated with Digital Storytelling to enhance their classroom.  The article discusses the benefits to using YouTube, Blogs and Digital Storytelling in education.

Mullen, R., & Wedwick, L. (2008). Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs. Clearing House, 82(2), 66-69. http://search.ebscohost.com

Article

Digital Storytelling Reflection

I have used iMovie and many other digital storytelling applications in the past.  However, I have usually used them for personal use.  I do enjoy using these applications and believe they are great tools for students to use, however, I do not see them as a great resource for a math class.  I would actually prefer to use Power Point.  I think that using these applications would be a good resource to create tutorials with, however, I do not see myself having students use digital storytelling in my classroom.  I have had them use Power Point and create movies, but it is very difficult to take pictures of math problems and it make sense.  I feel that students would be spending more time trying to figure out were they could find pictures and what music to use, rather than spending time learning the concept itself.

Blog Entry 8: Emerging Technology that Supports Creativity and Production

Technology is a great way to promote creativity and production.  All of our students are creative or have the capability to be creative.  Technology allows students to be creative in so many ways.  Some activities that would promote creativity would be creating a blog, creating a VoiceThread, creating a ComicLife, creating surveys or polls, etc.  There is an endless array of technology resources and applications that promote creativity.  Most of our students are familiar with technology and many times are more comfortable to express themselves through the internet or other technology device.  Teachers should take advantage of this and incorporate technology on a regular basis so that their students can work on their creativity and show off their ideas and thoughts.  Students also seem to be much more productive when using technology.  They do not see working on a computer, cell phone, mp3 player, etc to be work.  Rather they see it as a fun activity and are willing to do much more work than they would do in a regular paper and pencil classroom.

Blog Entry 7: OPEN

Cognitive Tutor.  The other Math 1 teachers and myself use an online math support program in our classes.  This is a mastery-level program that is a great tool if it works properly.  However, our network is so incredibly slow, that our students spend more time waiting for each problem to load than they actually do working on the problems.  Hence, we have more behavior issues and feel that we are wasting a lot of time that we could use more efficiently.  Therefore, the other Math 1 teachers and I have decided to stop using this program and use this time to work on reviewing and targeting problem areas.  I do still encourage my students to use Cognitive Tutor at home.  I am hoping that our school will address the network issues so that we can take advantage of this program. 

Blog Entry 6: Emerging Technology that Supports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

The main purpose for educating our students is to prepare them with the tools to suceed in the real world.  These tools include critical thinking skills, problem sovling skills, communication skills, etc.  It is important that teachers do not get too caught up with specific curriculum, but use the curriculum to help students build these skills.  Technology is a great tool that can promote critical thinking skills.  However, if technology is not used properly, students will not gain anything from using it.  Educators must take time to create activities that promote higher level thinking skills, instead of activities that just call on memorization.  Asking students to simply type up a paper is no different then asking them to write it and would not be considered supporting critical thinking.  However, there are many internet tools that can be used to support these skills.  For instance, blogs are great tools, if used correctly, for promoting communication skills and critical thinking skills.  As teachers, we must be sure to not give the students too many guidelines, but rather given them an activity and see where their minds take them.  Our students are much more capable and creative than we give them credit for.  When we give them too many guidelines, we hold them back from reaching their full potential.

Blog Entry 5: ProProfs

ProProfs is a great site for creating practice tests, surveys, polls, etc.  I use this site mainly to create practice tests for my students.  It has proven to be very beneficial.  This site keeps a report of each student who took the test and an overall anaylsis including average, and percentage of correct answers for each question.  I think this is a great site and very user friendly.  I have attached the link below.

ProProfs

Factoring Graphic Organizer - Comic Life

My students in Math 1 are just beginning the unit that covers polynomials and factoring.  Factoring is a tough concept for many of my students to grasp.  I used the Comic Life software to create a graphic organizer that is easy to follow and appealing to the eye.  You can see this graphic organizer at the right.

Comic Life Reflection

I found using Comic Life to be fun.  It was almost like drawing or painting.  I use graphic organizers on a regular basis in my class, but have always used Word to create these.  There are many things you can do with Word, however, Comic Life is much more appealing to the eye, which is exactly what I want out of a graphic organizer.  This software is also very easy to use and navigate.  It did not take much to figure out how it worked.  Overall, I have found Comic Life to be a great tool for creating graphic organizers and worksheets for my students.  I would also think that Comic Life would be a great tool that students could use to summarize their learning.

Blog Entry 4: Emerging Technology that Supports Communication and Collaboration

Technology is a great way to communicate and collaborate.  I use technology on a daily basis to email other teachers, administrators, parents, etc.  I send out weekly emails to my parents to keep them up to date on what is going on in class.  I also use email to communicate with parents if their child is struggling or I have concerns.  It is a very convienient and quick way to keep in touch.  Schoolnotes is also a great tool for communicating with parents and students.  I post important class information, lesson plans, practice tests, surveys and other useful resources for my parents and students.
At my school we have a private wiki which the administrators make posts to on a daily basis so that they do not have to use the intercom or mass emails.  They have also created seperate wikis for each department, sports, etc.  I use the Math 1 Wiki to post notes, worksheets, tests, etc, so that all of the Math 1 teachers have direct and easy access.  It has proven to be a great communication and collaborative tool. 
I have also created a blog for my Math 1 Support students to use at home.  I have created it so that my students can communicate with each other from home if they have questions about that days content or homework.  Unfortunately, the students nor I can access it from the school since anything with the word blog is blocked.  So far, the Math 1 Support blog has not been a success. 
There are so many different technology tools and resources available that are great for communicating and collaborating.  However, many of these resources are unknown to most teachers.  It is imperative that teachers are made aware of these tools.  Once more teachers are more aware of these, these tools will become even more effective and begin to serve their original purpose.

School Notes - Blog 3

At my school, teachers are required to post their weekly lesson plans on schoolnotes.com.  I used this site for lesson plans only last year.  However, now that there is a new version, new.schoolnotes.com, I have been using this site for lesson plans, surveys, practice quizzes, linking helpful sites and attaching documents.  This site has really worked well so far this year.  I have embedded a survey for my parents to fill out that goes directly into a spreadsheet at googledocs.  This way I have current contact information and I do not have to worry about entering all of it myself.  I have also embedded a student inventory survey, monthly polls, and practice tests.  Last year I was unable to add links and attach documents, however, with the new updates on the site this feature has been great for my students and parents to find helpful resources and documents that they may have been out for.  I feel that I have much more contact with my parents and the parents feel more comfortable with what is going on in class.  Using the internet is a great tool for keeping parents involved and informed.

Here is the link to this page:  Mrs. Rhinehart's School Notes Page

Unit 1 Practice Test

I created a Practice Test for my students to take if they like.  I attached it to my Schoolnotes page and Math 1 Support Blog so that my students can access it from home and use it as a resource to help them prepare for their Unit Test this coming Friday.

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=unit-1-practice-test

Voice Thread - Parent Functions

Parent Functions Voicethread

In my Math 1 class, my students have been learning about six types of functions.  Linear, Absolute Value, Quadratic, Square Root, Cubic and Rational.  The students need to know the parent function for each family, the name of the function and the shape the function makes when graphed.  This Voice Thread provides a picture of each type and a student comments on the shape and the function for each picture.

Voice Thread Reflection

I found Voice Thread to be a very useful tool.  I had never even heard of Voice Thread until a few weeks ago.  At first I was not so sure about it because I felt it would only be useful in elementary school or maybe middle school.  However, when I had my students help me create this Voice Thread I saw how much they really enjoyed it and I have found that Voice Thread's are great for introducing or reviewing material.  I like it because I can post it to my Schoolnotes page and my students are more likely to watch this and hopefully learn something than they would be to read their notes.  I hope to use Voice Thread again in the future or even have each of my students create their own Voice Thread as a project.

Voice Thread Article

Anonymous, . Voice Thread. (2009, March). Principal Leadership, 9(7), 8.  Retrieved September 10, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1662489961).

http://wf2dnvr9.webfeat.org/

This article breifly describes what a Voice Thread is and discusses the benefits to using this resource.  Some of these include the fact that Voice Thread does not require any special tools.  It allows students to make comments on images or information, draw pictures or even type in information or comments they have on a given topic.

Emerging Technology that Supports Content Learning - Blog 2

Chapter two discusses the use of technology to support teaching content.  It states that technology is a great resource for student learning, however, just as with any other teaching/learning activity, when using technology, the teacher needs to make sure there is a plan and that the students understand the purpose and focus for the activity.  It is also important that the teacher feels comfortable with the technology and the students know that their teacher is confident when using the technology.

Web Tools: The Second Generation

Pascopella, A. (2008, May). Web Tools: The Second Generation. District Administration, 44(6), 54-58. Retrieved September 6, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

This article discusses the uses of Web 2.0 tools (blogs, podcasts, videostreaming, etc) in classrooms today.  Different schools that are going above and beyond what most schools are doing are referenced in this article.  Collaboration between teachers to incorporate technology is the key to the success of these schools.  Steps to this collaboration are detailed.

Article

Math 1 PreTest

I have embedded the Math 1 Pretest that I use with my students.  I try to use online assessments as much as possible in my class, but am not able to as much as I like because of the network issues at my school.

Math 1 Test

Math 1 Support Blog Link

Here are is the link to my Math 1 Support Blog.

http://math1support.blogspot.com/

Using a Blog in Math - Blog 1

I created a blog for my Math 1 students.  This blog is set up so that my students can ask each other questions about what is going on in class, what certian assignments are, etc.  I am hoping that if a student has questions when they are at home, they can use this resource to get the answer from another student before returning to school the next day.  I just created this a few days ago and let my students know about yesterday.  So far, I have had no posts, but I am hoping that some of my students will take advantage of this resource.  I will post later about how it is working.

Technology Integration

Technology Integration is the use of technology resources in instruction to motivate, inspire and challenge students in their pursuit of knowledge for a given lesson. It allows a teacher/instructor to differentiate instruction and encourage higher-level thinking. It allows students to use creativity and demonstrate their knowledge in various ways. Technology integration can be as simple as having students complete problems on an Interactive Whiteboard to as complicated as asking students to create and maintain a website or wiki on a given topic.

Initial Posting: Introduction

This blog is set up to demonstrate the integration of technology in a high school mathematics classroom. There are great links to mathematics sites that I use in my classroom. I will eventually post pictures and other information that demonstrates the technology I am using in my classroom.