Week 10 Post

Teaching and enhancing critical thinking is one of the more difficult things to do as a teacher. In our world of standarized testing (a.k.a multiple choice!!) and accountability, we are so fact based driven that it's tough to have time to spend on critical thinking. We concentrate on teaching the regurgitation of facts or things that are easily assessed using scantron rather than actually teaching how to reason logically! Some of things I like to do in my class that enhance critical thinking is ask the students "why" and let them explain in their own words how they reached the answer. I often tell them that the answer isn't the only thing that's important, it's how they got there. Also, even if it's incorrect, if they explain their reasoning I can really show how to fix their mistakes, and they seem to learn better that way anyways. It took me a while to really figure out how to use questioning techniques in the classroom to enhance the learning. It's not really something I was taught in college or during student teaching. Once I got into my own classroom and really saw how the students react over the year (or two or three), that is when I really started to learn the right questions to ask.

Week 9 Post

Sorry it's a little late guys... My network at school was blocking me this morning for some reason.

Anyways, one of the best sites that I have used (and want to use more) is the Illuminations site from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). They offer many lesson plans that involve technology and discovery learning. You can also search by topics and grade level to easily find a good lesson plan that coordinates with your curriculum. They have printable materials and great teacher resources to go along with the lesson.

I really like how NCTM works on keeping the lessons student-centered and in charge of their own learning. They also really believe in using the affordances of technology to facilitate learning. Overall, I think it's a great website resource!

Have a great week!

Week 8 Post

I think my miniature golf project will give the students a perfect opportunity to display their creativity and/or innovation. There are a few requirements set forth that the students need to follow, mostly dimensions and shot types, therefore the creativity limitations are minimal.

One thing that I am still considering is the materials they can use. Do I leave it completely up to them (they buy/use whatever they have) or do I give them some materials to use? The one thing I am worried about with students purchasing materials is that some students' financial obligations are different from others. On the other hand if I provide the materials, that could limit their creativity a little bit.

Now that I mention it, I started thinking about this: Do limitations/requirements necessarily limit creativity? Sometimes with special limitations or more requirements, students have to be more creative/innovative in order to solve the problem. With less or random materials, students have to be more creative in their use. On the other hand, limiting the requirements allow for more openess in their creation. Interesting to think about... I guess it depends on the type of project and its goals.

Have a great week everyone!

Week 7 Post

I promised an update on my project so here it goes:

I teach high school geometry, so we will be designing mini-miniature golf courses. We will be talking about angles of reflection, shapes, slope, etc. and they will create a course to display their understanding of these concepts. To design their course, each team (2-3 students, not sure yet) will be using Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP), geometry software that allows the students to manipulate shapes, measure their lengths, angles, etc. (I think this will be my other Cool Tool Demo). I use GSP throughout the year so the students become fairly proficient with it. Once their "blueprint" is complete we will be posting them on a wikispace or something where the other students and classes can electronically view and post comments/suggestions on their designs. Some of the restrictions are that it has to be the size of their desktop, have at least one turn, and have to bounce off at least one wall.

After that, they will build their golf courses using household materials and we will play the courses with a marble for the ball and a popsicle stick for their club. We will vote/give awards for the most difficult course, most creative, team with the best score, etc.

As far as assessments go, I will be grading their blueprints on their use of the software, following restrictions, etc. I will also grade their participation on the wikispace, kind of like how we are graded on our blogs. I will also use a rubric to grade their final construction.

I think rubrics are the best way to grade projects. First, I really like having the requirements/components up front (as a teacher and as a student!). I just think it's easier to start with the end in mind and go from there, and there are no surprises! Also, as a teacher I think it's easier to use a rubric when grading something so objective as projects can be. It makes me focus more on how close did they follow the requirements (the real knowledge we are assessing) rather than how much money did they spend to impress me!


Hope you all have a great week!