websites to help with math.

just found http://www.webmath.com/ which allows students to input a problem in and the website shows how to solve the problem step by step. This site, although in the UK has some nice little instructional sections for tutorial work. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/site/maths.shtml Doing research for my next class. I'll keep posting things here.

Teaching physics in the fal

found three websites with links for physics that i plan to investigate and use in class.
http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/School_Time/Science/Physics/ is a website with links for places that have virtual things which I can use for the classes.
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/physics.htm is another list of links for physics.
http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~phy-demo/resources/phys_applets.html

The next few sites have free info for thngs like using an amusement park to teach physics
http://www.docnmail.com/learnmore/physics.htm

http://www.ddart.net/science/physics/physics_tutorial/default.htm offers tutorials for a variety of topics and looks like I can use it while taking physics this summer.

This is enough. Over the next year I will be taking 14 credits of physics so i'll be highly qualified to teach it during the 2009-2010 year.

While looking for information on using Comic Life to teach mathematics, I stumbled across this website which talks about using newspapers in science, math, social studies and other core classes. This is really awesome. I think i can get some newspapers sent out for free from Anchorage and then I could integrate it into my math classes. That would be awesome. The kids need to see the more practical applications of mathematics.

http://www.tdn.com/nie/curriculum.php

Hippocampus

I've decided to continue with my blog even though the class is finished. This way I can record websites so I have a record of things I find and its accessible to all. I found Hippocampus which has some core topics. For Mathematics, this site has a lovely interactive video that contains the lecture while having an interactive activity during the lecture. It covers algebra I A, B and elementary algebra. This will be awesome to integrate into my classes because it will help reinforce student learning next year. The lecture has audio, visual and kinesthetic activities.
The URL is www.hippocampus.org

iPods as educational tools

While researching various issues for my final, I discovered that you can use an iPod for studying with. The only things I’ve ever seen it used for is music and games. I’m also sharing the information with our credit recovery teacher because her kids love using the iPods. Ken Fuson, in an interview with professors at duke university, noted “They become study aids for students, allowing them to fast-forward to a part of a lecture they may not have understood the first time or review complicated themes before exams (Fuson, 2006). Furthermore, “Students across the USA can download everything from instructions on how to perform an emergency medical procedure to a virtual architectural tour of campus. They also can be assigned to produce a "podcast" — audio and visual programming downloaded from the Internet — instead of writing a research paper” (Fuson, 2006). These are ways of using the iPod I never knew about. In addition, “other professors say using iPods and MP3 players actually increases class attendance, because students are excited to discuss what they have been listening to or watching”. Although this is antidotal information, perhaps iPods could be incorporated into the classroom in an educational manner so we increase student learning. John Parrot agrees with this in his article when he states “Not only is using iPods in education an opportunity to look cool, it fuels the learning process by catering to some students' passion for electronics and gadgets. Beyond cool and fun, they are interactive”(Parrot, 2007).
Duke University even did a study to see how well iPods work as educational tools which can be found at cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf. The report is an evaluation which lists the pros and cons of using iPods and is quite through.
This website lists 100 places to go for educational material that can be downloaded to the iPod. http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better

Fuson, K (2006, March 14). iPods now double as study aids. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from USATODAY.com Web site: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2006-03-14-ipod-university_x.htm.

Parrot, J. (2007, May 7). Using iPods in the classroom promotes interactive learning and more effective studying. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from Associated Content: The People's Media Web site: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/230656/using_ipods_in_the_classroom_promotes.html.

Math journaling

Since I hope to incorporate the use of journaling into my math classes, I needed to do a bit of research into using journals. In an article by Deb Russell, she states “Journal writing can be a valuable technique to further develop and enhance your mathematical thinking and communication skills in mathematics. Journal entries in mathematics provide opportunities for individuals to self-assess what they've learned” (Russell, 2005). It provides the part of education where students learn how to discuss what they did, how they did it and perhaps it helps them learn the material better. In addition, she says “The individual has to think about what he/she did in order to communicate it in writing; in so doing, one gains some valuable insight and feedback about the mathematical problem solving process. The math no longer becomes a task where by the individual simply follows the steps or rules of thumb. When a math journal entry is required as a follow up to the specific learning goal, one actually has to think about what was done and what was required to solve the specific math activity or problem”(Russell, 2005). I’ve tried journaling a bit but its not been really successful because I haven’t known the type of questions to ask Deb Russell lists some suggestions at the end. In the process of researching mathematical journaling, I found this site which has examples of several different types of mathematical journals. http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/sjournal.htm
This is quite a help. Finally Deb Russell states “Math journals should not be done daily, it's more important to do math journals with new concepts in areas specifically related to growth in mathematical problem solving” (Russell, 2005).
Furthermore, the article from the What’s it all about web site helps teacher introduce writing into mathematics. It states “Writing about thinking is challenging. For this reason, it's best not to start out having students write about unfamiliar mathematical ideas. First get them used to writing in a math class” (Editor, 2004). It suggests “Begin with affective, open-ended questions about students' feelings (Editor, 2004). This may be why my previous attempts didn’t work well. I tried to get them to write about Mathmatics without getting them comfortable with the concept of journaling. I like this website because it has lots of information on journaling and I’m going to follow many of these suggestions. Perhaps I can get students past the “This is math, not English, why do I have to write” attitude.

Editor, (2004). Using writing in mathematics. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from What’s it all about? Web site: http://www2.ups.edu/community/tofu/lev2/journaling/writemath.htm

Russell, D. (2005). Math journals for all ages. Retrieved April 11, 2008, from About.com about mathematics Web site: http://math.about.com/library/weekly/aa123001a.htm

Numb3rs - the TV show

Due to it being between testing and cultural activities, I found Numb3rs, the tv show, to use in my classroom. It is mathematically based and seems to have alot of good activities associated with it. I did a search on it and found a blog that actually looks at the mathematics and physics. It can be found at http://nuweb.neu.edu/math/cp/blog/ and has a large number of topics. There are all sorts of interesting comments about the series including further explanations, etc.
This website - http://www.weallusematheveryday.com/tools/waumed/activities_season3.htm has activities to accompany each episode for season three. There are other pages with activities for seasons one and two.
I showed the episode called Traffic from season 3 and then did the accompaning activities for the probability of licences plate numbers or birthday months and two activities dealing with the Pythagorean theorem. Although the activities said 15 to 20 mins, the activities took closer to 55 mins to do the basic part. I did like the lessons because they also contained the mathematical explanations and prep work in the teachers copy. What is nice is that TI and the NCTM are both supportive of this and have helped prepare the lesson plans to accompany this.

More good websites.

There was a web site I found this past week I forgot to book mark that was really awesome. So of course when I go looking for it, I couldn't find it. I did find these other two. I finally decided to just to do a www.a, www.b and found it. This site has online things for k-12 technology, English Language Learning and things for struggling students. It has so much including listing grant information, freebies and websites. Its a fun place to explore.

http://www.bigdealbook.com/

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/math_sec.htm
http://www.sabine.k12.la.us/vrschool/intwebcl.htm

This material is going to be quite useful for next fall when our school is due to begin the one to one technology program from Apple. I don't think our professional development person is going to give us the training we need so these sites will help me tremendously.

Finally!!!!!

I finally found a website that is actually a place with links but it has everything I need to learn to integrate technology into my math classes, including the higher level classes. its http://www.coollessons.org/coolunits.htm I am going to spend the summer using this site so I will have a years worth of ideas set so i can start school ready to teach. This has lesson plans, research modules, project-based learning, and even info on how to make your own lessons and modules. I am psyched.

NIMAS

This is a picture of the village I teach in here in Alaska. Thought everyone might enjoy a picture taken during the summer.

Now back to NIMAS which is "the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). The NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including braille and text-to-speech" (CAST, 2008). This is important because all currently copyrighted material must be sent here so the needs of visually disabled students are met and as a teacher I was unaware of this.
So far in just a few weeks, I've learned so much and this will allow me to be a better teacher. I'll know what is available when I get the two visually disabled students in my class.

CAST, (2008). NIMAS at CAST: NIMAS development & technical assistance centers. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from NIMAS at CAST Web site: http://nimas.cast.org/

I Tunes University

Since our school is supposed to be adopting the one to one technology program, several apple representatives were out visiting our school yesterday. Part of the reason was to meet with the community to tell them about the program. So our professional development person set us up to have a short inservice type meeting with one of the representatives. He showed us that there is an educational part of the I Tunes store called I Tunes U. This site has lots of things from a variety of universities including lesson plans that include technology from the Universtiy of Southern Florida. Unfortunately, these lesson plans are not in written format. They are just movie clips with the teacher explaining and showing how to do the lesson. I find I would prefer something written so I can add it to my collection. There are links to places like the Smithsonian, PBS, and other web sites. Again, most of the material is movie clips rather than anything in written format. I found a few math things but mostly the clips dealt with the history of math, not with actual math teacher. There was really more for science.
I access it by clickin on my Itunes program, then I tunes store, then I tunes U. However, you can go to www.itunes.com then click on I Tunes store, and then find I tunes U under Mac or do a search and you can learn more about it.

computer input and communications

During my research, I discovered that learning to use handwriting is a part of the process students need to be able to read. I was unaware of this as I am a high school teacher and we don't usually teach beginning reading. A comment someone made lead me to realize that students who communicate alot via IM and chatrooms tend to use a shorthand that may spill over into other parts of their lives. For instance, I belong to a forum which has threaded discussions. There was a person who wrote her posts using computer speak shorthand and alot of folks let her know that it was not appreciated nor appropriate to the venue because it made communication more difficult. I beleive that we need to be careful when shifting from one venue to another and remember the expected methods of communicating.

what online classes require

This link from http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp offers an insite into the type of student or the general type of characteriestics a student needs to complete online classes. This week's discussion has me wondering if the completion rate for online classes differs from traditional face to face classes. I think I may do a bit of research on that.

Research

Most of the research I've found on online classes is from a university perspective. I'm looking at creating the online class for the high school level because in rural Alaska we have few alternatives to the only school in the village. Although it is possible to travel 18 to 30 miles to the next school, it is not practical because of weather, no roads and travel must be done via boat, snow machine, or four wheeler. Furthermore, most villages have one high school and no alternative school so online education will provide the alternatives to students who have trouble in the regular school. Online classes will help students who regularly fail due to attendance issues; students who have had babies and cannot find a baby sitter; or students who have medical issues which prevent them from attending school. In addition, setting up online classes will meet some of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind act.
The other issue that arises is that many of these students may not have the self discipline to complete the classes within the time requirements. This may have to be factored in during the creation of the classes.

Blogging and legal issues

The idea of using blogs to share information with other teachers or parents lead me to wondering what the legal issues we have to keep in mind.  I found some interesting articles on the web at the following addresses.

1. http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/november-december-2006/blog-rules.html

2. http://w2eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-students.php

Both of these address teachers and students blogging and possible legal issues one needs to be aware of.

I'm finding out some interesting things about both topics.

more neat websites

I found two more that deal with creating good on-line classes.
1. www.elearners.com/resources/journals.asp
2. www.ibritt.com/resources/dc-instructionaldesign.htm
I am listing these in my blog so I can find them again. The first is a list of journals that deal with distance delivery courses while the second website lists places that talk about designing your own web class. These will help for my midterm.

Thoughts on Blogs and the midterm

I discovered something that I had not realized about blogs.  It is possible for someone to utilize the information on a blog to commit identity theft.  I had been aware of issues such as protecting students from preditors and protecting them legally according to school policy but this was a surprise.  I am glad I did a bit of research on blogs

While researching information for the midterm, I found a couple websites that I believe will help me prepare my report.  One is the Multimedia and Internet @ schools site (www.mmischools.com).  The Journal of Computer - Mediated Communications (www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/jcmc)  is another place that is good to look.  As I find sites, I'll post them.

Mid - term

I've started looking for articles that deal with course delivery so I know better what is out there.  At the same time, I am doing research on integrating the web effectively into my lessons.  That is a number one goal outside of this class because we are to start the apple one to one technology program. Any technology I integrate must be done so its not just play but they learn as well as when I teach.  I know I am not going to only use the computers but I need to balance traditional instruction with the computers and that is the hard part.  I can find alot for the elementary and middle school but not so much for the higher levels of math.  That is much harder but it can be done, it will just take a bit of work.

first entry

The creation of this blog came around due to the requirements of an educational technology classs I am taking as part of my Master's program.  Originally, I was going to focus on math but our superintendent announced beginning in August, the school will begin participating in the one to one apple computer program.  Based on early responses, it appears we are not going to get the time we need to really prepare so rather than whine, I am being proactive and taking it upon myself to learn how to integrate computers into my class so my students will learn to use the technology effectively.  This class will also help me bring up questions when its time to write policy, etc.  I want to make sure I am using computers and the internet as effectively as I can to help their learning.