Week VII, Post III: More Excel (and candy!)

Here's my final "required" post for this course. It's another website with fabulous Excel activities:

http://www.teacherlink.org/content/math/activities/excel.html

I particularly like the one involving M&Ms:
http://www.teacherlink.org/content/math/activities/ex-mmnumerical/home.html

The M&M activity is one I've seen before, only without technology. Students get individual bags, count up the frequency of each color, and perform calculations. They discuss mean, median, and mode, along with other mathematical topics. In the lesson I have, students can also make bar graphs and pie charts, adding in discussions about types of graphs and percentages. It is normally a lesson done as an introduction to these ideas. I would use this Excel lesson after students have learned about such topics. Instead, it would be a way to help them become familiar with the computing capabilities of Excel. Perhaps the two could be combined to be a lesson that spans two or three days...first learning about measures of central tendency, then using the "shortcut" of Excel to find them.

The best part is, though: everyone gets to eat M&Ms when the activities are completed!!

Week VII, Post II: Excel

Here's a great article about using Excel in the classroom:

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech079.shtml

This teacher uses Excel with her 7th and 8th graders to not only teach them math, but to show its applications in the "real world." She says, "To teach percentages is one thing, but to give an application and be able to forecast change is a powerful lesson."

The article gives some great ideas, has student examples, and gives links to related websites.

I found this interesting because I almost did a screen capture for last week's project involving Excel. I couldn't come up with a good activity, however, that seemed relevant and exciting, and thus didn't end up using Excel. Now, however, I've got tons of great ideas. The good thing is, too, that Excel is a program most people have on their computers. Even Mac users tend to have Microsoft Office these days. This makes it a little easier to give computer assignments to students. They can go to the library or work on computers at home on Excel projects without having to download new software (for example, Geometer's Sketchpad.)

I'd love to use some of the ideas listed in the article following a lesson on tables and graphs. My students do well with that material, but don't usually see "the point." Having them apply what they've learned by using Excel is a great way to help them see connections between the math we learn and the world around us.

Week VII, Post I: Numeracy Software

I found some really neat calculator activities:

http://www.numeracysoftware.com/Ten%20Calculator%20Activities.pdf

This is actually a PDF file with several activities. The first few pages are the answers...scroll through those to get to the activities.

All of these are activities I could use for remediation. There is one that requires converting between fractions and decimals - something my students have a very hard time with. There are volume activities, "missing key" activities, and many more. Just some fun stuff to do with kids on a slow day or when they're done with their other work and need something to fill the time. And they always love using calculators (it's a treat to them, because I don't normally allow them.)

Week VI, Post III: Screen Captures.

I decided to write about screen captures since we just completed an assignment on them.

I found an article comparing two different programs for creating screen captures, Camtasia and Captivate.

http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9393&page=1

Camtasia is great because you can create movies formatted as MP3s, iPod movies, Flash, WMV, and others. Apparently Captivate is a bit easier to use but only produces Flash products. Captivate has other plusses, however, like facilitating the process of creating a quiz.

I really liked working with Camtasia. I thought it was pretty easy to learn to use. The tutorials offered on their site (which would also pop up if you clicked "Show me" or "Help" while working within the program!) were super helpful. I don't think I could have completed the assignment without those!

I could certainly use this program to create tutorials for things like Geometer's Sketchpad and WebQuests. Or perhaps students could learn to use it and create videos relating to mathematical topics. The movie was relatively easy to make, once I figured out the program, and kids are super quick at learning new softwares.

Week VI, Post II: The Media Equation

I've just finished reading chapter 1 of "The Media Equation." It's interesting to me to learn that despite our best efforts, and despite what we think to be reasonable and rational, humans (for the most part) equate media with real life.

I printed out the article to read (reading too much on a computer gives me a headache) and took notes in the margins as I read. Something that struck me: "Motion in pictures, especially motion that appears directed at the viewer, stimulates physical activation in the brain as if the moving objects were actually present. Pictures, too, are natural experience" (p. 5). I found myself writing The "visual" part of the brain is not thinking "That's TV. That's a movie." It isn't thinking at all. It simply sees movement and reacts to it. That's why we get scared at movies. The part of our brain that sees the monster actually registers a monster. I'd bet a different part of the brain keeps us calm and in our seats while the part of our brain registering the monster wants to flee.

Just a few pages later, "The automatic response is to accept what seems to be real as in fact real." (p. 8). As an anthro minor, I found myself wondering what would cause our brains to be confused by media. Why do we accept such falsehoods as reality? I wrote in the margin on that page It's a biology, a part of our creation. I came up with a theory that perhaps, because humans evolved in a time with no computers, no pictures, no media whatsoever, whatever we saw that seemed real was in fact real. Threats and movement and sounds that appeared to be present actually were, and they triggered automatic responses in our minds and bodies. Now, because of media, those automatic parts of us, those instincts are triggered by seemingly real things. We can't help it. We can sometimes override our instincts through reason (most likely using a seperate part of the brain for this) but it takes focus and energy.

Then I come to page 12: "People are not evolved to twentieth-century technology. The human brain evolved in a world in which only humans exhibited rich social behaviors, and a world in which all perceived objects were real physical objects. Anything that seemed to be a real person or place was real...Modern media now engage old brains."

I laughed out loud to myself. This was precisely the theory I had come up with on my own. (I guess it's good to know that my anthropology training has clearly taught me something.)

Even so, the media equation is a strange concept to me. I suppose this follows along with the authors' commenty that "People respond socially and naturally to media even though they believe it is not reasonable to do so, and even when they don't think that these responses characterize themselves" (p. 7). I know I'm going to be closely monitoring myself the next few days and taking note of how I respond to media, as I certainly don't think those responses characterize me. We'll see.

Dr. F. asked how the media equation impacts my work. I suppose it all has to do with creating lessons and activities that students can relate to. Obviously, students will repond better to something they relate to and find an emotional connection with that something they don't relate to. This provides indication that technology would be great to use on a regular basis in the classroom. Reading a textbook is often emotionless and dull. However, if that content can be written into the storyline of a movie or book (see The Number Devil then students will, because of the media equation, make connections with the story and the character. These connections will certainly help them retain information and be more motivated to learn the material. The media equation is a grand incentive to use media in the classroom!

Week VI, Post I: FCAT Prep Online

Here's a great site for reviewing FCAT skills.

http://www.testprepreview.com/fcat_practice.htm

I know, everyone hates the FCAT (and many of the people in this class aren't even in Florida.) But most of you know about standardized testing and how awful it is. I hate it. I really do. My poor students get so frustrated that they have to take a test containing all the math required in high school when they haven't even finished those courses yet.

But! That's beside the point. I am required to do FCAT prep. Perhaps letting the students get onto a site like this one where they can work out questions and then check their answers will make them a little more exited about it.

This is also a great resource for those that want extra practice. (I had several this year, especially my ESOL students, who wanted more work.) Just give the kid the website and they can practice as much or as little as they want.

The good news is, Texas (the founder of these standardized tests) has apparently gotten rid of their version of FCAT!!!! Oh, that gives me hope...

Week V, Post III: Math Tools

I found a really great site that serves as a software resource for mathematics teachers:

http://mathforum.org/mathtools/index.html

Check out http://mathforum.org/mathtools/docs/about.html to learn a little more about what the site offers.

This site is hosted by the same people who do "Ask Dr. Math" (see previous posts), so I know it is a reliable source. Teachers can share activities, comments, needs and ideas, all based around technology in the math classroom. There are PoW's (Probles of the Week) for use with interactive math tools, lesson plans, a newsletter and tools "for many different technology types: graphing calculator, handhelds, and computers, including Cabri, Fathom, Flash, Shockwave, Java applets, Java script, Sketchpad, with more to come." Browsing, selecting a "math topic" or searching are all ways to find information on the site.

This is a great resource for teachers to come to when they want to use technology in the classroom. I especially like the fact that teachers themselves can contribute. I get frustrated with programs supposedly for education that are not created by educators. I am defintely going to take more time to poke around this site tonight to discover all the things it has to offer:)

Week V, Post II: More GS

Here's another article on Geometer's Sketchpad.

http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/general_resources/user_groups/nctm_2006/pages/dynamic_algebra.php

This article is the byproduct of a presentation on GS done at a 2006 NCTM Conference. It has several different concepts and activities that can be taught with GS. This is great because I am not very familiar with the program (yet) and was curious about what else could be done other than that lesson on slopes. I love it because it even gets into precalculus material (unit circles, etc!). Often it is difficult to model the more complex situations that we have at that level mathematics, so this is a good starting place for me.

Week V, Post I: Geometer's Sketchpad Lesson

I have a lesson plan instead of an article today:

http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/lessons/BP_T97/SlopeSketchpad.html
and
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/lessons/BP_T97/mr97.html

This is a lesson for using Geometer's Sketchpad to help students visualize and determine slopes of lines. For this particular lesson, it's assumed students know what slope is and how to find it. The sketchpad is used to draw lines and calculate slopes, and students get to "discover" what happens with the slope of parallel and perpendicular lines. It is really neat that this program does the computation for the students, so they're not focused on the arithmetic. Instead, they get to focus on the properties.

Now, I've written before about a similar lesson in my post on "wireless laptops in education." However, this lesson doesn't need to use wireless computers. Instead, it can be done in the lab or even on home computers. I've never used Geometer's Sketchpad before, and so I'm interested in what else this program has to offer...that's why I'm posting about this lesson. I'll try to find out more about the program for my next post.

Week IV, Post III: Ask Dr. Math

I should have written about this site weeks ago:

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ask/

This is a super resource for students, and follows along the lines of the math dictionary. It is a site, called Ask Dr. Math, that allows viewers to ask anything and everything about math. There are FAQs and "Common answers" (categorized by mathematical topic) to various types of questions. There is even a resource for teachers, http://mathforum.org/t2t/

It's a great place for students having trouble with understanding a concept, as well as a place where the faster learners can further expand their knowledge. Answers come relatively quickly and the information is very accurate. It's not something I would necessarily use as a lesson plan, but rather a place to send students for reference.

Week IV, Post II: Math Dictionary

This is an online math dictionary:

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

It is FANTASTIC. I listed this as one of the "good" sites for our project this week.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a total bookworm and very into philosophy. I, on the other hand, love my math. We had a two-day discussion about infinity. I was taking calculus at that point, and held firm the notion that infinity can be positive or negative. He, on the other hand, insisted that infinity is merely a concept in our imaginations and can't be positive or negative. Turns out, we were both right. I realized that he was correct in the common notion of the word infinity. However, I asked my calc teacher, "Do mathematicians have their own dictionaries?" Turns out, they do. My definition of infinity was correct mathematically. Relatively speaking, then, we were both right. Things like this happen all the time in math. Absolute, prime, factor and infinity mean different things in everyday life (and in the English dictionary) than they do to mathematicians. Hence the need for a math dictionary.

I like this online site in lieu of a book because it is interactive. It is colourful, easy to get around, and has pictures. Click on "abacus Chinese" and you can learn about what it is in addition to actually playing with an online abacus. You can't do that with a book! You'd have to go find an abacus in someone's attic to learn how to work it.

This is a great resource for students to use all the time, be they in the classroom or at home.

Week IV, Post I: Countdown

Well, we're nearly half-way through the course so far! Being my first experience with an online class, I was a little worried. But it's been pretty painless up to this point. I've been learning a lot and am actually enjoying things so far (didn't think I would...)

This week's first entry comes from Loyola University, Chicago:

http://countdown.luc.edu/

Countdown is a public television show about math, where viewers call in and learn new concepts or refresh their skills. The site offers Quicktime clips of the show, all neatly organized into categories like Numbers & Operations, Data Analysis, Algebra, Connections, etc. (Sounds like NCTM Principals and Standars, which is a biiiig plus. See http://nctm.org/standards/default.aspx?id=58)

Users can watch the clips to learn something new or brush up on something they struggle with. This is a GREAT remediation website. Clips are short (five or so minutes, from what I've seen so far) so it'd be easy to send several students to the computer in one period to work.

I'm excited...The two most recent clips come from The Number Devil, a math book I've been dying to buy. It's great to see other people using that book as well.

Week III, Post III: Funding

Today I chose to write about something that isn't exactly a type of educational technology to use in the classroom. I've been curious since this class started about funding. Technology is expensive! I wanted to know where schools get money for things like laptops for all their students, graphing calculators, etc. The first site I came across is from last summer:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6442

It hints that the government might be cutting the funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program. This is the main source of ed tech monies for schools. Given that it's an old article, I then did a search for "EETT program cuts." Here's what I found:

http://www.edtechactionnetwork.org/pdf/eett_link.pdf

The government didn't just cut the funding for technology, they completely got rid of it! DOE asked for over $272 billion, and the House decided they deserve NONE of that money. I couldn't believe it.

"This move is particularly interesting because the Administration has continued to justify its EETT cuts by stating that schools could make use of Title IIA funding, which the House bill would now cut. " (from the website.)

The EETT program has been a great source of funding in the past. How are we teachers supposed to increase the use of technology in our classes (as the government recognizes is important and should be done) when we have no funding?!

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by all this, however. It is pretty typical for the system to ask us to do certain things without providing the means for us. Guess that's just part of being a teacher.

So now the question is, what next? Where are teachers to turn for their funding now that their greatest source is gone? Have any of you, group members, had experience with this yet?

Week III, Post II: Applets

Today, I'm learning a little more about applets. I'm not sure of the definition of these, but from what I can tell, they're kind of like online manipulatives (at least when it comes to mathematical applets.) Each one is focused on one topic, say, perimeter, and students use the applet to explore the topic, ponder questions, and check if their answer is correct. My first exposure to these was in a math methods course, where we actually had to select a few applets as part of a larger lesson plan. This site has an extensive list of differing applets, mostly focused on geometry.

http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/m2t2/appletslist.html

Applets don't seem like the world's most exciting thing when it comes to technology. However, they are easy to use ("Johnny, go visit such-and-such site, then write in your math journal about what you learned.") They might be fun for those few students who always finish early and need additional activities. It would be especially useful to have two or three computers in class so you can monitor the students' progress while others complete their assignment a little more slowly. Or, they could be used with the entire class as an introduction to a lesson.

As with Webquests, however, I don't think they should be used too often. Students would tire of them quickly. Using them every once in a while, as a treat (again, students LOVE being on the computer) would probably be the most beneficial use for applets.

Week III, Post I: Follow-up on robotics

The next site I've found is related, again, to robotics.

http://www.trecc.org/newslink/0407robotssummer.php

I'm actually not a huge fan of advanced robotics. I've seen one too many versions of I, Robot and get a little scared of human-like robots. However, it's a reality that can't be escaped. Besides, the kids LOVE robots and remote-controlled toys.

This site is from the University of Illinois. Every summer, they host summer school for students who have fallen behind in their math and science classes. All the math the students learn is through hands-on activities. Not all of it is related to technology, either, but much of it is. For example, students can program robots using Euclidean Geometry algorithms. What a great way to get students to better understand (and appreciate) geometry. They also use graphing calculators hooked up to distance sensors to learn about the relationship between time and distance.

The neat thing about this program is it is geared for students who are already struggling in mathematics. Normally, gifted students are the ones that get to do fun experiments with expensive technologies (I know...I was one of them.) Those students do need a sense of motivation, but in a different way. They need to be challenged beyond the normal scope. Struggling students, however, need to excitement. They need to knwo "Where this is useful." They need to see what a beautiful, fun thing mathematics can be.

I'd like to get ahold of their lesson plans. The site mentions another site for the Office of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE). This is the organization that runs the program. Apparently their website has great resources for teachers....topic for my next post.

Week II, Post III: Robots!!

This is one of the most interesting ideas I’ve seen thus far for integrating technology into education: robots! See the article available at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06222/712431-298.stm.

Apparently, LEGO, along with The Robotics Academy (part of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute) has created simple robots out of LEGOs, which students assemble themselves in class. The robots can be programmed to move and retrieve items, talk, measure rooms, and even take on a personality! They don’t cost much – a mere $200. I’m not sure how much these robots can actually teach the students (perhaps an interesting topic for me to pursue more next week) but the article gives the impression that they are more for motivating students. The biggest challenge I face as an educator is motivating students and showing them how math can be useful to them. This is something that not only accomplishes that but is interesting, as well! Telling a student, “Trigonometry is used heavily in engineering,” often falls on deaf ears. Showing them a robot, however, that they can program and put together and interact with, and telling them that none of it would be possible without mathematics, well that’s another story! I think technology is definitely useful as a means of increasing learning, but we must first make the student willing to participate. Without the participation, there is no learning. These robots will certainly get students hooked, making the educational processes that much easier.

Ideas, anyone?

Is there a way to subscribe to only my group members' blogs? I know Dr. F. has an aggregator, but I found it a little (okay, a lot) cumbersome to pick through everyone in the class to find my group members. I'm new to aggregators and don't really know how set something similar up. Perhaps blogger.com has one of their own (like livejournal does)?? Thanks.

Week 2, Post 2: Wireless laptops in education

My next source for this week comes from
http://etc.usf.edu/plans/lessons/lp/lp0099.htm.

This is a very simple site containing a lesson plan for integrating wireless laptops into the classroom. It is hosted by the Educational Technology Clearinghouse at USF. See http://etc.usf.edu/ and http://etc.usf.edu/plans/default.htm for more ideas and subjects.

This lesson is designed for a class where all students have access to laptops and wireless internet. The basic idea here is to use the graphing program on iBook to help students visualize how slope changes a line, and how slopes of parallel lines and perpendicular lines are related. Students make a guess about the rules, graph a few lines, and then see if they are correct. Of course, this sounds like an activity that could be done with graphing calculators, which is true. There are a few reasons, however, that the computer is better. First of all, students can save all of their work! They can take notes and store them for later, as well as save equations. Also, students can take the laptops home, do their homework, and submit it online! It greatly reduces paperwork and probably makes it easier for the teacher to grade. Additionally, the screens on computers are much nicer than those on graphing calculators – they are much larger and several lines can be graphed at a time and in different colors. Another reason I like this assignment is because computers make it very quick to graph. When one is doing a discovery lesson about slope, you don’t want the kids to spend half their time simply graphing the line. The assumption here is that they already know how to do that. Time is saved by having the computer do the graph instead, and students can focus on how slope effects the lines rather than whether or not they graphed it correctly.

I chose this lesson because it is a great way to use computers in a math class. It’s not an activity that will take all period (or several) as some of the Webquests I posted about earlier do. It’s simple, easy, and students can see results right away. The graphing program helps them to visualize the line, which is something so high school students struggle with. I wonder, however: what kind of school has funding to provide every single student with laptops?! At my school, we hardly have funding for books. I had to fight this year for whiteboards, much less laptops! Aside from that, however, it is a great way to get students motivated and familiar with working on the computer. It increases understanding of math concepts as well as builds computer literacy – both very important skills for tomorrow’s leaders.

It was fun to read about one way to introduce the concept of slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines. I just covered this topic a few weeks ago, and the students struggled to remember which rule goes with which types of lines. This may really have helped them to remember. Now if only I could get my hands on 55 laptops...

The main link for this website came from http://etc.usf.edu/plans/lessons/math4.htm, where there are plenty of other math-related laptop activities. I would like to write about several of these, as they are all fantastic ideas, but I’m not sure it would be fair to count lesson plans linked off the same site as separate sources. It’d make me feel like I was cheating. However, take a look at this site in addition to the specific one about graphing – there are several fantastic ideas.

Week II, Post I: Webquests

Being new to the world of instructional technology, I was a little unsure of where to begin my quest for something related to mathematics. Obviously, there is material available, but I’ve had a bit of a hard time narrowing down my searches enough to find anything useful.

However, Jimmy must have “known” I was having a hard time and sent me a link about webquests – lucky me. He seemed really excited about them and so I was eager to research them. I had no idea what a webquest was, but now I understand why Jimmy loves them!

First of all, the link for the math Webquests is:

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix/9-12-Mat.htm

This page contains links to about 30 computer-based activities, all related to math. At first I thought I might pick a few and use them as separate sources, but as I combed through them, I realized all the webquests, while about different topics, are essentially the same. Each contains a brief introduction. The introduction not only offers a summary, but also tries to get the student excited in the topic. They are written directly to the student (e.g. “You will be doing research on the internet about cars.”) Next the overall task is described, followed by the process and resources needed (web links, et cetera.) A general rubric is provided in the “evaluations” section, and finally, a conclusion, which summarizes the activities and things learned from the webquest. Many require students to present what they’ve learned to their classmates as well. All the teacher has to do is provide the link, the time (some require several class periods,) any materials listed and a little supervision! These webquests will certainly give the teacher a well-deserved break :)

I really like webquests for several reasons. First of all, they relate math skills to real life. There is one quest about learning to buy a car and what to expect. It would be a super activity following a lesson on percents and interest rates. It applies what the kids have learned, answering the age-old question of, “Why is this useful?!?!” Secondly, they are engaging. Students love computers and being online. Many of the webquests require extensive research to be done online, which will keep them interested and busy. Not only that, they will also have to learn to use search modules and narrow their search criteria to find something useful. Thirdly, every webquest I saw contained interdisciplinary aspects. For example, there was one about Egyptian pyramids. What a great history lesson, in addition to math! They also all require reading. As a math teacher, I have a hard time incorporating reading practice into my curriculum, and this is a great way to do it! My principal would certainly be excited to hear about students reading in my class.

Overall, I really hope I get the opportunity to use webquests. The most difficult part would be getting access to not only computers, but the Internet as well. I teach several remedial math classes, and they’d love this, but they have a lot of behavior issues. It’s hard to fit all my students in the computer lab and keep an eye on them at the same time. Instead of having the whole class working at once, this might be something fun to use as a reward for hard work. I could send a few students to the lab once or twice a week, and rotates who goes. That way, everyone has access but we don’t have the mayhem that is bound to occur from trying to move my entire class clear across campus to the computer lab.

Thanks for the tip, Jimmy. I love it :)

An introduction

Welcome to my blog!

I am not new to the world of blogging. I have had five over the last few years: two that my friends read frequently (on Myspace and Livejournal), one that serves as a diary for all teaching related things (cute anecdotes, frustrations from being a first year teacher, etc.), one that no one knows is me (on diaryland.com) and one that I started in high school that is now defunct. Diaryland is my favourite place for blogging. It's easy to use, especially for those who don't know computers well, but there is also a lot of freedom to explore things on your own as well. I've learned very useful HTML coding and the like from keeping that blog. However, I've never used blogger so I'm excited to see what this site has to offer.

As mentioned in my introduction to the class, I am a high school math teacher. I'm finishing up my M.Ed. in mathematics education. With all the ed courses I've taken, however, I've never had a real ed tech course. I did take one a few years ago that was supposed to be an introduction to educational technology, but the class was at a community college and most of the students were clueless when it came to computers. We literally had to go through things like how to turn the computer on and what a mouse is. It was an "easy 'A'" but completely useless to me. It seems like this course is going to be much, much better, given that we'll actually get to specialize in something.

Speaking of which, I suppose I should mention my topic of specialization. While I am very comfortable on computers and know how to do things like make PowerPoint presentations, edit simple photos and write basic HTML code, I do not how to integrate these things into the classroom. I also have no idea about the other options out there for teachers when it comes to technology. As such, I'm starting this "specialization" very broadly, just researching what types of things are available to high school math teachers. Once I get a good idea of those things, I will narrow my search a little more and pick something specific to focus on for the last few weeks (and for my paper.) Thanks to Dr. F. for letting me start broad so I get a chance to learn about all sorts of neat activities!

I also wanted to mention (though some may have already noticed) I never use names on my blogs. Too many strange people have access to the internet, and I don't want them tracking me (or anyone I write about) through one of my posts. Plus there's the fact that I have students who are very computer savvy. I won't post anything purposely inappropriate, but people misunderstand many things.. I don't want a student coming across anything I've written, only to use it against me. Hopefully those of you in my class will be able to figure out who I am based on my initials. If not, leave a comment and we'll go from there.


Hope you enjoy reading about this journey I'm about to take. Have a great semester!