Sunday, October 31, 2010
Interested in Interactive Whiteboards
Check out the presentation about the different Interactive Whiteboards. https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dgw3m23g_1dvkqw8cz
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Learning Styles
I have taken many tests and questionares about my learning styles, leadership styles, and personality type, but I feel like I am always all over the place on things. I have learned that I learn best in math when I see an example and then try things on my own. When receiving directions, I need to draw a picture and also move my hands in the directions I will be turning. If someone gives me verbal directions, they might as well have said, "blah, blah, blah, blah" because I just can not remember them. In math and science, I am a visual learner. I can read through the book or examples on my own and then do problems to practice. I know that I need to do examples and check them to make sure I understand. Additionally, notecards are also helpful and I learn best from them when I write down the answers. I have to write them down, just as I would for a test; it is not enough to look at the cards and say the answers aloud. When we would review for tests in my science class, I always could be the first to write down answers, but the last to get them out of my mouth. For math and science, I am a visual learner, but my attention span often gets the best of me and I need to begin doing something with the knowledge.
For anything other than math and science, I usuallly learn best when someone verbally explains things and lets me write down my own notes to refer back to. If it is not math and science, I do not prefer to read on my own as I would for math or science. Additionally, I do not need extensive directions because I enjoy exploring and doing things on my own. Currently, I struggle to read through all the directions tutorials in the assignments for my online class, but I am lucky to be taking the classes with someone who I can briefly discuss things with. The videos "In Plain English" have been the best for me because they are short, sweet, and to the point, and then I am able to look through things on my own.
My personal feeling about learning styles, is that I have just found a way to adapt to my teachers and learn. I have always felt that regardless of my teacher and what he or she does, I will take it upon myself to learn. Unfortunately, an online course provides you with that opportunity, but I have struggled to enjoy the freedom. What I am learning is that I prefer to have someone there as a reference for my questions because I get overwhelmed with too much reading or listening. Sometimes, I feel that there is so much in the sessions that I don't know where to focus my attention and I lose my desire to keep looking through the next clip and the next clip. I know that I am the kind of person who can't handle too many choices and I feel that this class gives us so many choices to pick from. I would rather pick one things and learn it well. If after a while, it doesn't provide me with what I need then I will search some where else or find a way to manipulate things.
I have been sitting infront of this one post for over an hour trying to determine my learning style and I don't feel like I have decided any more than I had an hour ago. Depending on what I am doing, I find that my learning style fluctuates. What is important to me is a focused content with the opportunity to explore within that area. But now I flip to the other side and feel that the most amazing thing about math is the ability to solve a problem in so many ways. However, my ability to solve an algebra problem from so many ways is that I had a focused and thorough understanding of the basics and as things become more complex, I am able to see the simplicities in a variety of ways. As a math teacher, I feel that many curriculums are a mile wide and an inch thick, and it makes it more difficult for students to see the beauty in solving problems in a variety of ways later. Now, I am on another topic and all over the place. . . but still haven't decided on my learning style. My final comment: Regardless of how my teacher teaches, I need time to process, and when I don't have that time, there isn't a learning style that can help me!
For anything other than math and science, I usuallly learn best when someone verbally explains things and lets me write down my own notes to refer back to. If it is not math and science, I do not prefer to read on my own as I would for math or science. Additionally, I do not need extensive directions because I enjoy exploring and doing things on my own. Currently, I struggle to read through all the directions tutorials in the assignments for my online class, but I am lucky to be taking the classes with someone who I can briefly discuss things with. The videos "In Plain English" have been the best for me because they are short, sweet, and to the point, and then I am able to look through things on my own.
My personal feeling about learning styles, is that I have just found a way to adapt to my teachers and learn. I have always felt that regardless of my teacher and what he or she does, I will take it upon myself to learn. Unfortunately, an online course provides you with that opportunity, but I have struggled to enjoy the freedom. What I am learning is that I prefer to have someone there as a reference for my questions because I get overwhelmed with too much reading or listening. Sometimes, I feel that there is so much in the sessions that I don't know where to focus my attention and I lose my desire to keep looking through the next clip and the next clip. I know that I am the kind of person who can't handle too many choices and I feel that this class gives us so many choices to pick from. I would rather pick one things and learn it well. If after a while, it doesn't provide me with what I need then I will search some where else or find a way to manipulate things.
I have been sitting infront of this one post for over an hour trying to determine my learning style and I don't feel like I have decided any more than I had an hour ago. Depending on what I am doing, I find that my learning style fluctuates. What is important to me is a focused content with the opportunity to explore within that area. But now I flip to the other side and feel that the most amazing thing about math is the ability to solve a problem in so many ways. However, my ability to solve an algebra problem from so many ways is that I had a focused and thorough understanding of the basics and as things become more complex, I am able to see the simplicities in a variety of ways. As a math teacher, I feel that many curriculums are a mile wide and an inch thick, and it makes it more difficult for students to see the beauty in solving problems in a variety of ways later. Now, I am on another topic and all over the place. . . but still haven't decided on my learning style. My final comment: Regardless of how my teacher teaches, I need time to process, and when I don't have that time, there isn't a learning style that can help me!
Creative Commons
Below is a link to a picture shared on Creative Commons. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55097688@N07/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55097688@N07/
Creative Commons Lab
In Algebra 1, we are currently learning about slope intercept form. I often tell my students it is like rate and base. Slope is the rate. The variable represents how many at the rate. The y-intercept is a base price or one time fee. I am always looking for application problems that relate to the students' lives. I often compare solving equations in slope intercept form to ordering a pizza with toppings. In the lesson, the pizza alone with crust, tomato sauce and cheese would cost $5, and each piece of pepperoni costs and additional $0.10. The lesson begins by showing the cost for 1, 2, 3, and 4 additional pieces of pepperoni. But a majority of the students agree, that 4 pieces is not enough. One idea would be to continue to add $0.10 to the $5 for each piece of pepperoni; however, if you wanted a pizza like the one in the picture, it would take a while to continue adding the same number repeatedly. From here you show students that you can multiply the "slope/rate" by the number of pieces of pepperoni and then add the "y-intercept/base." We continue to go further by asking how many pepperoni's they could get with $6 and if that would be enough for good pizza. The final part would be to ask the students how many pieces they could get for $7.25. How would the $0.05 affect the number of pepperoni pieces. Many times students often round up even though the case is to round down because you wouldn't have enough money. I often look for personal pictures that the students can relate to and make the math come alive to them. Throughout Algebra, I am often embedding pictures into flipcharts or worksheets. Our Promethean Board comes with a bank of pictures for everything and I am always able to find a visual for things that we are learning. For some lessons, I begin by solving application problems where the students know what "makes sense" and then I show them that they are already doing Algebra in their reasoning. I don't think students even realize how often they use Algebra without even thinking about it: going to the movies and paying for childrens' and adults' tickets, going to a fair and being able to buy tickets for rides, and going to the grocery store and deciding how much you can buy with a given amount of money. I have also found that adding pictures to any document makes it not seem as "boring" to students. It catches their attention and gives them a visual for each word problem rather than just words. 
Photo Attribution:
Original Image: "Homemade Pizza"
By: spablab's photostream
Released under an Attribution License
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Looking for Information about Interactive Whiteboards?
I am working with a Special Interest Group to bring you information about using Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom. You can check out my proposal by clicking on the link. Check back later for all the information! https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1s3hvZEiQqsDgOKEmH5OOp7D0GkXmOdN7XP0VqtJs_nM
Sunday, October 10, 2010
RSS
Wow! The last three weeks have been filled with so much great information. Let me share with you what I am also reading. Below is a screen dump of my RSS Reader page. You can also follow it anytime on my blog in the top right hand corner.
Currently, I am following a blog written by a principal. One of his posts was about burnt out teachers. He discussed how some teachers are burnt out yet they still keep coming back and they are protected by tenure. I commented that all teachers who are "burnt out" aren't still passionate about teaching. Thinking about my own experience, I was a bit "burnt out" for a while. However, I made a change to a new school and I am loving the change and my faith in teaching is renewed. My feeling is that when teachers are becoming burnt out, they need change. If change doesn't help, then I think it is time for them to go. Of the 11 comments posted, he replied back that he agreed with me. I'm so excited to be acknowledged and experience the dialogue (although extremely short).
NPR was extremely overwhelming for me. Given the amount of information that was broadcast over the three days, I couldn't keep track of it. Since I wasn't able to keep track of it, the subscription does not seem effective. Most days, I was so absorbed by NPR, that I often overlooked the one or two postings by other Reader Feeds. I can just look in the area where all unread articles are, I have to go through each subscription and see which ones actually posted something. On the other hand, I subscribed to The Educated Reporter and found that it posts about twice a day with things that I am interested in. I believe that I would continue to follow this beyond the class.
Through my news feeds, I have learned a little about a lot. Sometimes, I have found that one article leads me to another article and I can spend more time than I initially committed. I have enjoyed the articles on the Educated Reporter, and it often makes me think about education from special education to the movie Waiting for Superman. Additionally, I just read some stuff from NCTM that will be useful for me in the classroom. I wish that it updated the feed more often. As I have gone back through older feeds I have found interesting things. Given the constant criticism about math and where it is going in the US, I would have thought there would me more instructional advice/ideas on there. Some of the information on there is about promoting their conference or promoting the selling of products rather than instruction; however, maybe I am just subscribing to the wrong feed.
I am still searching for good things from my subscriptions to use in the classroom. NCTM, didn't quite have what I was looking for. I am following a math blog, but most of the things I have seen are far beyong my middle school students. There are many great things on math forum, but it has turned off the track changes in Reader and many times I am searching all over the place for things that fit my students. Sometimes I wonder if they are really trying to "help" or "sell" their product. It is a little discouraging that the top names in math education aren't open to sharing. Now, everything wants you to log in and share your personal information. Currently, I am still in search for a great website that has a reader that I can subscribe to and use in the classroom.
NPR was extremely overwhelming for me. Given the amount of information that was broadcast over the three days, I couldn't keep track of it. Since I wasn't able to keep track of it, the subscription does not seem effective. Most days, I was so absorbed by NPR, that I often overlooked the one or two postings by other Reader Feeds. I can just look in the area where all unread articles are, I have to go through each subscription and see which ones actually posted something. On the other hand, I subscribed to The Educated Reporter and found that it posts about twice a day with things that I am interested in. I believe that I would continue to follow this beyond the class.
Through my news feeds, I have learned a little about a lot. Sometimes, I have found that one article leads me to another article and I can spend more time than I initially committed. I have enjoyed the articles on the Educated Reporter, and it often makes me think about education from special education to the movie Waiting for Superman. Additionally, I just read some stuff from NCTM that will be useful for me in the classroom. I wish that it updated the feed more often. As I have gone back through older feeds I have found interesting things. Given the constant criticism about math and where it is going in the US, I would have thought there would me more instructional advice/ideas on there. Some of the information on there is about promoting their conference or promoting the selling of products rather than instruction; however, maybe I am just subscribing to the wrong feed.
I am still searching for good things from my subscriptions to use in the classroom. NCTM, didn't quite have what I was looking for. I am following a math blog, but most of the things I have seen are far beyong my middle school students. There are many great things on math forum, but it has turned off the track changes in Reader and many times I am searching all over the place for things that fit my students. Sometimes I wonder if they are really trying to "help" or "sell" their product. It is a little discouraging that the top names in math education aren't open to sharing. Now, everything wants you to log in and share your personal information. Currently, I am still in search for a great website that has a reader that I can subscribe to and use in the classroom.
PC Maintenance and Security
1.Blocking Spam in Yahoo! Email
I started with a Yahoo email address and I now receive so much spam in that email account. After a while, I decided to open another email address under Hotmail. In the video I learned how to clean up some of the spam I receive in that email account. However, I wish that I would have known the differences between hotmail and yahoo when I first opened with email addresses. Hotmail offers an option that lets you only receive emails from people in your contact list. I wish that I would have just started with one email address and set that preference. Then I wouldn't have had to open a new email to send back and forth with my family. I was surprised that yahoo did not offer that same option. Currently, I have an email address that I use when I have to give an email address and one that I use for "secure" things and it is sometime annoying to have to go back and forth.
2. Mozilla Firefox
Currently, I use Internet Explorer, but I have used Firefox in the past. A while back, it was advised to use Firefox because of a virus on Internet Explorer. Through the tutorials, I learned that it is a bit safer to use because of the settings. However, I am surprised at how fast I went back to IE after "things were better." I am willing to subject my internet safety for convience and what I know better. I wish that I would have just made the conversion and not gone back. Eventually, I would have become accustomed to the change, but I just didn't have the patience to out-last the learning curve. I am always amazed at how we let our comfort zone get the best of us when it comes to internet security. I think I will try to make the conversion again.
3. msconfig/windows clearnup!
Through a few different tutorials, I learned a lot about cleaning up my computer to make it faster. There were some things that I already knew but don't do often enough. Currently, we have a desktop and two laptops. The desktop is so unbelievably slow that I hate gettting on it, but I work better in the separate room at the desk. It the best working environment, but the WORST computer. I had never hear of windows cleanup! but I am excited to use it and all the other FREE STUFF that I didn't know about on the internet. I was surprised at the number of free things for clean up and security (firewall and malware).
I started with a Yahoo email address and I now receive so much spam in that email account. After a while, I decided to open another email address under Hotmail. In the video I learned how to clean up some of the spam I receive in that email account. However, I wish that I would have known the differences between hotmail and yahoo when I first opened with email addresses. Hotmail offers an option that lets you only receive emails from people in your contact list. I wish that I would have just started with one email address and set that preference. Then I wouldn't have had to open a new email to send back and forth with my family. I was surprised that yahoo did not offer that same option. Currently, I have an email address that I use when I have to give an email address and one that I use for "secure" things and it is sometime annoying to have to go back and forth.
2. Mozilla Firefox
Currently, I use Internet Explorer, but I have used Firefox in the past. A while back, it was advised to use Firefox because of a virus on Internet Explorer. Through the tutorials, I learned that it is a bit safer to use because of the settings. However, I am surprised at how fast I went back to IE after "things were better." I am willing to subject my internet safety for convience and what I know better. I wish that I would have just made the conversion and not gone back. Eventually, I would have become accustomed to the change, but I just didn't have the patience to out-last the learning curve. I am always amazed at how we let our comfort zone get the best of us when it comes to internet security. I think I will try to make the conversion again.
3. msconfig/windows clearnup!
Through a few different tutorials, I learned a lot about cleaning up my computer to make it faster. There were some things that I already knew but don't do often enough. Currently, we have a desktop and two laptops. The desktop is so unbelievably slow that I hate gettting on it, but I work better in the separate room at the desk. It the best working environment, but the WORST computer. I had never hear of windows cleanup! but I am excited to use it and all the other FREE STUFF that I didn't know about on the internet. I was surprised at the number of free things for clean up and security (firewall and malware).
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Getting Things Done
Before using this process, I used to prioritze things, but it often left me with so many things left undone. I would start by doing a big project that took forever, and in the end, I had no energy to do all the little tasks. However, this week, I did all the little two minute tasks (big or small) and then tackled the more time consuming projects. I probably spent the same amount of time, but got many more things accomplished.
I started by writing everything down on paper with a pencil because this allowed me to take my tasks with me throughout the day. This week, I needed to grade BCR/ECR's, turn in tests to be scanned, grade quizzes, enter grades, call parents, create lessons, do school work, meet with colleagues and students, email principals, translate a speech, set up for an opening ceremony for my second job, and do laundry. And, most things had a deadline of Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
This week, I gave 15 minutes to either respond, send, or mark emails. Unlike most weeks, I didn't have an endless list of emails that needed further action. If they needed something small, I responded and deleted the email rather than read and mark for further action. I couldn't believe how short the list was in my inbox.
For all the things that needed to be done for the opening ceremony, I was able to defer until after school on Friday because it didn't need to be done until Saturday morning. Although it was not difficult, I needed the time to focus on the things that were due by Thursday and Friday.
For my technology class, I went through the information and labs, and set up the twitter account, but I deferred some/most of the tasks until Sunday when I could give it my attention.
On Thursday, I gave tests and quizzes in all my classes, and I was able to grade them all by Friday mid-morning. While the later periods took their quizzes, I graded and filled in scantrons for the tests from the morning classes. Since I only had two problems to grade per quiz, I knew that it could all be done within two class period, sharing my time between grading and walking around the classroom. I did it without hesitation, while I usually just defer grading them because I just don't enjoy it. This time, I set my personal feelings aside and accomplished something; giving me a much better feeling in the end.
I found that when I am mindful of choosing a process to accomplish things, they get done. Too often I defer things that could easily be done and I find myself with a mountain of little things to do that has turned into a "big" thing. I will continue to use this process in all aspects of my life because regardless of the task it is still taking from the same pot of time.
I started by writing everything down on paper with a pencil because this allowed me to take my tasks with me throughout the day. This week, I needed to grade BCR/ECR's, turn in tests to be scanned, grade quizzes, enter grades, call parents, create lessons, do school work, meet with colleagues and students, email principals, translate a speech, set up for an opening ceremony for my second job, and do laundry. And, most things had a deadline of Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
This week, I gave 15 minutes to either respond, send, or mark emails. Unlike most weeks, I didn't have an endless list of emails that needed further action. If they needed something small, I responded and deleted the email rather than read and mark for further action. I couldn't believe how short the list was in my inbox.
For all the things that needed to be done for the opening ceremony, I was able to defer until after school on Friday because it didn't need to be done until Saturday morning. Although it was not difficult, I needed the time to focus on the things that were due by Thursday and Friday.
For my technology class, I went through the information and labs, and set up the twitter account, but I deferred some/most of the tasks until Sunday when I could give it my attention.
On Thursday, I gave tests and quizzes in all my classes, and I was able to grade them all by Friday mid-morning. While the later periods took their quizzes, I graded and filled in scantrons for the tests from the morning classes. Since I only had two problems to grade per quiz, I knew that it could all be done within two class period, sharing my time between grading and walking around the classroom. I did it without hesitation, while I usually just defer grading them because I just don't enjoy it. This time, I set my personal feelings aside and accomplished something; giving me a much better feeling in the end.
I found that when I am mindful of choosing a process to accomplish things, they get done. Too often I defer things that could easily be done and I find myself with a mountain of little things to do that has turned into a "big" thing. I will continue to use this process in all aspects of my life because regardless of the task it is still taking from the same pot of time.
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