So far, I have really enjoyed MD400. To say the least, I am a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I find that everything that we have done so far is extremely interesting and helpful. I highly recommend the course to any teacher because it forces you to try new things in technology.
In particular, I love photoshop. It is quite complicated (a whole course on it would be helpful), but it's really fun and useful. I have already shown my photoshop image to my Algebra class. They definitely got a kick out of it. I also have enjoyed making the digital story. It was fun to be creative. The hardest part was to stop editing. Film editors must spend so much time on trying to make their movies perfect. My website is a little bit lacking, but I feel confident that I will get there eventually - one step at a time.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Response to Educational Blogs
I was happy to look again at Deb's Math Blog today. It was great timing because there were some quick little quizzes on finding the line of symmetry in a quadratic function. There were also some great PDF worksheets on solving quadratic functions by factoring, completing the square, and using the quadratic formula. The timing was great because I am beginning the chapter on all of these topics this week with my Honors Algebra 1 class. Our Prentice Hall textbook is a little bit on the easy side, so I am always looking for some challenging problems for my honors class.
There was also an interesting post about the relationship between exercise and math. Apparently a new study came out saying that people are better able to solve mathematical problems if they exercise. This makes sense to me. I guess this is motivation to exercise more!
Lastly, I saw a cool post on Maria Andersen's Blog. She teaches math at a community college. She posted a video to show how she completely changed the atmosphere of her classroom. She got rid of all of the forward facing desks, and replace them with large tables. Her students spend a good percentage of their time together at the white boards working out problems in groups or pairs. This is great because it makes the class more fun, and the students are learning more.
There was also an interesting post about the relationship between exercise and math. Apparently a new study came out saying that people are better able to solve mathematical problems if they exercise. This makes sense to me. I guess this is motivation to exercise more!
Lastly, I saw a cool post on Maria Andersen's Blog. She teaches math at a community college. She posted a video to show how she completely changed the atmosphere of her classroom. She got rid of all of the forward facing desks, and replace them with large tables. Her students spend a good percentage of their time together at the white boards working out problems in groups or pairs. This is great because it makes the class more fun, and the students are learning more.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Inquiry-based Learning
It seems to me that the only appropriate way to teach math is through inquiry-based learning. I've definitely heard of the term, but never really knew what it meant. I did assume that it had something to do with asking questions. As a math teacher, I use inquiry-based learning. For example, I might model how to solve a math problem to my class. I might start out the problem, but I always have my students help to solve the problem. Sometimes one student will solve the whole problem, and other times I might have a few different students involved in performing the steps. The first problem that I model is typically easier. I always make sure to give my students different types of problems that will provoke different questions. Typically, each problem will have a new level of difficulty.
When students ask me a question about how to solve a problem, I often respond, "I don't know, you tell me". When the student is forced to try this on his own (maybe with some helpful hints), he is more likely to retain the information. Obviously, most students will not remember all of the specifics in Mathematics, but it is my job as a math teacher to help my students to become good problem solvers in their personal and professional lives.
Also, a quick word about historical thinking. As a high school student, I never liked history. I remember social studies as just being a series of dates, treaties, wars, etc. that I had to memorize. As an adult, I think that studying history is extremely interesting. Recently, my daughter told me that she loves her high school history class. Her teacher makes history seem so interesting and exciting. She tells her students to just think of history as one big soap opera - people (or nations) fall in love, they fight, then they break up. This is the way to learn about history. It brings all of the people and events to life!
When students ask me a question about how to solve a problem, I often respond, "I don't know, you tell me". When the student is forced to try this on his own (maybe with some helpful hints), he is more likely to retain the information. Obviously, most students will not remember all of the specifics in Mathematics, but it is my job as a math teacher to help my students to become good problem solvers in their personal and professional lives.
Also, a quick word about historical thinking. As a high school student, I never liked history. I remember social studies as just being a series of dates, treaties, wars, etc. that I had to memorize. As an adult, I think that studying history is extremely interesting. Recently, my daughter told me that she loves her high school history class. Her teacher makes history seem so interesting and exciting. She tells her students to just think of history as one big soap opera - people (or nations) fall in love, they fight, then they break up. This is the way to learn about history. It brings all of the people and events to life!
Monday, February 7, 2011
UDL Concept Map
UDL is important because it offers students more options for learning. In particular, UDL is geared to benefit students with different learning styles, different backgrounds or cultures, different abilities, or disabilities. The three basic principles of UDL are to support strategic, recognition and affective learning by providing students with more learning options. UDL allows for more access to learning as opposed to access to information. This gives the student more resistance and challenge and therefore helps the student to learn how to learn. UDL allows us to rethink how we teach. By setting clear goals, providing instruction to obtain these goals, and continuing to assess progress, we, as educators, can provide a better education for our students.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Graphing parabolas image
I created this image because it will be useful for my Algebra 1 class. I will show this image to my students at the beginning of the chapter on graphing quadratic functions. I think that my students will enjoy this because the boy in the image is one of their freshman classmates (he's also my son).
I will ask the boys to focus on the actual parabola. I will ask first what they notice about it. What is the shape of it - is it opening upward or downward? Where does it intercept the y-axis? How many times does it intercept the y-axis? Where does it intercept the x-axis? How many times does it intercept the x-axis? Does it have a highest or lowest point, and if so, what is it? Is it symmetric? What does the equation for this parabola look like?
Toward the end of the chapter, when the students have learned how to graph quadratics, I will show the image again. Hopefully, this time they will be able to give more information about the quadratic equation.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Connecticut Standards for Mathematics
The common core state standards for high school mathematics in Connecticut are separated into conceptual categories. I chose to focus on the Algebra conceptual category. The obvious reason that I chose Algebra is that I teach Algebra. In particular, I would like to focus on the section "creating equations".
For example, one standard talks about graphing linear and quadratic functions. I can use the tactile learning style by having my students set up a table with a given domain and evaluate a function by inputting numbers to find the range. Students would then plot points on a graph on the coordinate plane. Here, the visual learning style would be employed because students would see, for example, the difference in the graph of a linear function vs. a quadratic function. I would use the audio learning style by explaining step by step what we are accomplishing.
For example, one standard talks about graphing linear and quadratic functions. I can use the tactile learning style by having my students set up a table with a given domain and evaluate a function by inputting numbers to find the range. Students would then plot points on a graph on the coordinate plane. Here, the visual learning style would be employed because students would see, for example, the difference in the graph of a linear function vs. a quadratic function. I would use the audio learning style by explaining step by step what we are accomplishing.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Teddy Bears Go Blogging
The Teddy Bears Go Blogging article was very interesting. I am familiar with the Teddy Bear Project because my children participated in a similar project at school in second grade. I thought that it was very creative and innovative for the author, Brenda Sherry to use a blog instead of email. She mentioned that the Teddy Bear Project was designed to incorporate the use of the internet, global participation and collaboration. The article was written in 2006. This was a time when blogs were a relatively new thing on the internet, so this was probably very exciting for the students, the teachers and the parents to learn how to blog.
As mentioned, an important aspect of the project was global participation. It is extremely important for students to become familiar with different cultures. This project is an excellent way for students to learn about a different part of the world on a first hand basis. Brenda Sherry explained that blogging had the advantage of reaching out to a wider audience. She mentioned that parents and relatives began to read and comment on the blogs. This was exciting to me because this meant that even more people were able to learn about different cultures.
Deb’s Mathematics Blog
When looking at the list of recommended blogs, I decided that it would be most helpful to look at some math blogs. Therefore I went to the link, movingforward – Education Blogs by Discipline. I looked at several of the math logs. Many were for younger students. I thought a few were very interesting, especially Dan Meyer’s, Jason Dyer’s and Deb’s Mathematics Blog. In the end, after printing out some very useful Algebra worksheets, I decided to focus on Deb’s Mathematics Blog.
It is very exciting for me to look at these math blogs. It feels like a whole new world of math, although it is a bit overwhelming. I like Deb’s blog because it focuses a lot on teaching math. There were several posts with great links for free math worksheets. One post talked about the benefits of students writing math journals in class. Math journals are helpful because the students are better able to remember how to solve problems by writing down the steps. Also, by writing a journal, students are forced to really think about how each math problem is solved.
Another post that I found to be useful was about SAT problems. My classes always begin with a warm up problem. This SAT post had many links to some excellent SAT questions. I will definitely use some of them as warm up problems. Lastly, a teacher wrote a post saying that she loved to use math quotes in class. Periodically, she will write a quote on the board and have a short discussion with the students about the quote. I thought that this was an excellent idea for my classes. Of course, math can be a bit of a dry subject. It is always nice to be able to mix things up a little.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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