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!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Week 6 Post
Hey Blog Buddies!
I want to thank you for the comments on my last blog. Your comments gave me the perfect segue for my Week 6 Post: Block scheduling vs. traditional
I think I have a very interesting schedule and I get to see both types of scheduling together. As part of our 9th grade academy we are set up into teams and we see our students (3 classes) 60 mins. every day for the whole year. My other classes (upperclassmen) I see every other day (A day, B day) for 90 mins for the whole year. Yes, very confusing! Here's my schedule in Table format:
A Day:
90 mins: Math Tech 3 A day
60 mins: Geometry Honors
60 mins: Geometry Honors
60 mins: Geometry Honors
Lunch
90 mins: Planning
B Day:
90 mins: Math Tech 3 B day (different students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
Lunch
90 mins: Planning
So, here are the pros and cons from my unique experience.
Pros of 90 mins (cons of 60 mins):
- There is more time for labs and in class projects.
- Some teachers think it's a pro that you don't have to see the same students every day
- You only have to plan (for the most part) every other day (and if you have the same class every other day)
Pons of 60 mins (cons of 90 mins):
- Students attention span definitely does not last for 90 mins. After about an hour they are ready to do something else anyways.
- I get to see my students everyday and that helps their retention rate, especially over the weekend. I don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing the previous class concepts.
- Also, classroom management takes less time to set in as far as classroom behavior and expectations. It helps seeing them every day with being consistent!
So anyways, I enjoy having the 60 mins. I think you can still get more done with 60 mins vs. 90 every other day anyways. When I have something that will take more than 60 mins, I just have to be creative and splice it up between class periods. Plus, I think it's easier to shorten a lesson to fit into 60 mins. rather than extend it into 90 mins!
Quick update on my project: I decided to make a mini PBL with some technology components. More on this later, but basically my students will be using Geometry to build mini-miniature golf courses and we will play them in class using popsicle sticks as golf clubs and a marble for a golf ball! Should be fun and I'll explain more in my next post.
Have a great week!
I want to thank you for the comments on my last blog. Your comments gave me the perfect segue for my Week 6 Post: Block scheduling vs. traditional
I think I have a very interesting schedule and I get to see both types of scheduling together. As part of our 9th grade academy we are set up into teams and we see our students (3 classes) 60 mins. every day for the whole year. My other classes (upperclassmen) I see every other day (A day, B day) for 90 mins for the whole year. Yes, very confusing! Here's my schedule in Table format:
A Day:
90 mins: Math Tech 3 A day
60 mins: Geometry Honors
60 mins: Geometry Honors
60 mins: Geometry Honors
Lunch
90 mins: Planning
B Day:
90 mins: Math Tech 3 B day (different students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
60 mins: Geometry Honors (same students)
Lunch
90 mins: Planning
So, here are the pros and cons from my unique experience.
Pros of 90 mins (cons of 60 mins):
- There is more time for labs and in class projects.
- Some teachers think it's a pro that you don't have to see the same students every day
- You only have to plan (for the most part) every other day (and if you have the same class every other day)
Pons of 60 mins (cons of 90 mins):
- Students attention span definitely does not last for 90 mins. After about an hour they are ready to do something else anyways.
- I get to see my students everyday and that helps their retention rate, especially over the weekend. I don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing the previous class concepts.
- Also, classroom management takes less time to set in as far as classroom behavior and expectations. It helps seeing them every day with being consistent!
So anyways, I enjoy having the 60 mins. I think you can still get more done with 60 mins vs. 90 every other day anyways. When I have something that will take more than 60 mins, I just have to be creative and splice it up between class periods. Plus, I think it's easier to shorten a lesson to fit into 60 mins. rather than extend it into 90 mins!
Quick update on my project: I decided to make a mini PBL with some technology components. More on this later, but basically my students will be using Geometry to build mini-miniature golf courses and we will play them in class using popsicle sticks as golf clubs and a marble for a golf ball! Should be fun and I'll explain more in my next post.
Have a great week!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Week 5 Post
I have been thinking of different PBL projects that I have been apart of. I really haven't been apart of something as in depth as the video on the Geometry class. That was amazing, especially since I am a Geometry teacher. I love seeing projects like this (especially real-world context projects), because I do many projects throughout the year with my students. They are on a much smaller scale than the architecture project in the video, but I try to make them just as meaningful.
In the readings they mentioned a couple of times that it can be difficult to create a full-scale PBL classroom environment, and I have to agree with this. I also agree that once you reach the full-scale project implementation that it can be very rewarding. For me, from a timing standpoint, it's difficult to implement a full-scale project and still have time for everything else. The way that our class schedule is currently (90 mins every other day) it's difficult for students to retain information from class to class - especially over the weekend, when I see them on Thu/Mon or Fri/Tues. That's a long time between classes.
As far as my project, I don't have much more to report at this time. I'm still thinking of what to do. I will be planning out where I will be in my curriculum as I work on my Pre-Plan assignment. So, I should have something more concrete before Wednesday.
I hope everyone has a great week!
In the readings they mentioned a couple of times that it can be difficult to create a full-scale PBL classroom environment, and I have to agree with this. I also agree that once you reach the full-scale project implementation that it can be very rewarding. For me, from a timing standpoint, it's difficult to implement a full-scale project and still have time for everything else. The way that our class schedule is currently (90 mins every other day) it's difficult for students to retain information from class to class - especially over the weekend, when I see them on Thu/Mon or Fri/Tues. That's a long time between classes.
As far as my project, I don't have much more to report at this time. I'm still thinking of what to do. I will be planning out where I will be in my curriculum as I work on my Pre-Plan assignment. So, I should have something more concrete before Wednesday.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Week 4 Post
This week we talked about the LoTi levels, which was something that I have heard about, but haven't really studied at all. It was interesting seeing that my LoTi level was 4a based on the questionnaire that we took. This is my 5th year teaching and technology has always been important to me and my classroom. I was fortunate that my mathematics education professors really pushed us to utilize the affordance of technology to enhance student learning while I was in my undergrad. I really try to use the technology that is available to me to create authentic learning experiences.
I also found the article "Next Steps: Using LoTi as a Research Tool" very interesting as it discusses how to use the Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) framework to assess how well technology in the classroom enhances student achievement. There has been a need for accountability measures due to the large amount of money invested in technology in education. Dr. Moersch created this framework as a means to measure the effect of technology on student achievement. I found it interesting that the majority of teachers that were surveyed were at Level 2: Exploration. This is actually pretty consistent with the school that I teach at. Many teachers are afraid of using technology at a higher level for a variety of reasons, such as the time it takes to learn how to use it, the amount of standards they need to cover already, or they simply don't want to try something completely new. It's unfortunate that this perception exist, but many of the teachers at my school didn't really grow up with technology like many of the younger teachers, so I can understand the hesitancy in using something new, especially since many have been teaching the same thing the same way for many years. In fact, as our district has made an effort to require more technology use, a few of our teachers have chosen to retire instead of enduring the stress of implementing something new.
As far as my project goes, I have nothing really new to report. I'm still trying to decide exactly what I want to do. My goal for this week is to plan out where I will be at in my curriculum to determine which direction I should go.
I look forward to our conversations this week!
-LC
I also found the article "Next Steps: Using LoTi as a Research Tool" very interesting as it discusses how to use the Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) framework to assess how well technology in the classroom enhances student achievement. There has been a need for accountability measures due to the large amount of money invested in technology in education. Dr. Moersch created this framework as a means to measure the effect of technology on student achievement. I found it interesting that the majority of teachers that were surveyed were at Level 2: Exploration. This is actually pretty consistent with the school that I teach at. Many teachers are afraid of using technology at a higher level for a variety of reasons, such as the time it takes to learn how to use it, the amount of standards they need to cover already, or they simply don't want to try something completely new. It's unfortunate that this perception exist, but many of the teachers at my school didn't really grow up with technology like many of the younger teachers, so I can understand the hesitancy in using something new, especially since many have been teaching the same thing the same way for many years. In fact, as our district has made an effort to require more technology use, a few of our teachers have chosen to retire instead of enduring the stress of implementing something new.
As far as my project goes, I have nothing really new to report. I'm still trying to decide exactly what I want to do. My goal for this week is to plan out where I will be at in my curriculum to determine which direction I should go.
I look forward to our conversations this week!
-LC
Monday, September 7, 2009
Initial Project Idea
I teach Geometry Honors to 9th graders at Easley High School in Easley, SC. While finishing my Webpage with Examples assignment I found a lot of great ideas for integrating technology into the general mathematics classroom, however, many would involve a high cost and with the present economy my school district is having to face a lot of budget cuts. Some things just may not seem feasible.
I'm not really set on a specific project idea yet, but I do have some tools that are available that I would like to use. Maybe just one, or possibly a combination of a few.
To start with, my school has a site license for the Geometer's Sketchpad software. This software allows students to draw, measure, create, and manipulate shapes to investigate properties and relationships in mathematics. It's a very useful constructivist tool and mainly user friendly for the students.
This year I have been given the ABTutor classroom management software. Since I have about 15 computers in my classroom (I know I'm lucky!... even though they are slow and old) I needed an easier way to monitor their use. Our business labs had this software installed and it seemed to help them a lot. Basically, I can see all of my students computer screens as thumbnails on my desktop and they refresh every 5 seconds or so. I can monitor what they are doing, what apps are running, what websites they are going to etc. I can even remotely access their mouse/keyboard and model how to do something. I can even broadcast my desktop or another student's desktop to the entire class. The software is mainly a management tool, but I think it has some pretty neat instructional capabilities as well. I think it would be cool to explore how to use this as an instructional strategy or a student presentation tool.
Lastly, I have access to a couple of video cameras and would love to come up with an idea on how to implement video making into my classroom. Pretty self-explanatory there...
This week, my goal is to narrow down a specific topic so that I can start planning on when and how I can fit this into my already tight curriculum! Looking forward to your responses...
- LC
I'm not really set on a specific project idea yet, but I do have some tools that are available that I would like to use. Maybe just one, or possibly a combination of a few.
To start with, my school has a site license for the Geometer's Sketchpad software. This software allows students to draw, measure, create, and manipulate shapes to investigate properties and relationships in mathematics. It's a very useful constructivist tool and mainly user friendly for the students.
This year I have been given the ABTutor classroom management software. Since I have about 15 computers in my classroom (I know I'm lucky!... even though they are slow and old) I needed an easier way to monitor their use. Our business labs had this software installed and it seemed to help them a lot. Basically, I can see all of my students computer screens as thumbnails on my desktop and they refresh every 5 seconds or so. I can monitor what they are doing, what apps are running, what websites they are going to etc. I can even remotely access their mouse/keyboard and model how to do something. I can even broadcast my desktop or another student's desktop to the entire class. The software is mainly a management tool, but I think it has some pretty neat instructional capabilities as well. I think it would be cool to explore how to use this as an instructional strategy or a student presentation tool.
Lastly, I have access to a couple of video cameras and would love to come up with an idea on how to implement video making into my classroom. Pretty self-explanatory there...
This week, my goal is to narrow down a specific topic so that I can start planning on when and how I can fit this into my already tight curriculum! Looking forward to your responses...
- LC
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