Week 5: Self directed learniing

                Gizmodo has become my favorite blog to read. Every day I read something useful. This week I ran across this link.  http://lifehacker.com/10-common-tech-questions-and-their-high-tech-explanati-1411081494/@ericlimer 10 Common Tech Questions and Their High Tech Explanantions.

Basically it is a common tech FAQ and troubleshoot page for devices we used daily. I learned that battery life in iPhones, Android phones or laptops is to not use the device while plugged in at 100 percent charge. This causes a spike in energy used by the phone since it toggles between charging and using. I guess the best way I would describe it is like constantly flicking light switch on and off. This causes the devices to work harder than it needs to.  One huge surprise was finding out that there are problems with using public wi-fi. I did not know that people may have access to view what you’re doing. Passwords and personal information may be stolen. A link to a safety guide is given to protect you from possible wrong doing. 

                We have covered the importance of blogging in the classroom. On the Edutopia blog, they posted How (And Why) Teachers Should Blog. They have great reasons why blogs belong in the classroom. It was great seeing some of the things I have learned in this course listed on this blog. This blog sites how teachers may harness learning enhancement by being able to manage student activities, increase reading and writing skills, and as a platform for feedback. Creating assignments over blogs will encourage students to collaborate. This allows appreciation of peer reviews and opinions.  Blogs opens up the line of communication beyond the classroom. This site also goes on to give importance and reasons why even social media may be used in the classroom.   Using the web as a tool has again been reinforced as importance in teaching.

Week 5: Wikis in the classroom

Wikis tend to have a bad name following them. The "wiki-leaks" have been on the news and have attached the bad tag to wiki. Also, with the abundance of satire websites available, the accuracy of Wikipedia sites are always questioned. Research courses have warned me about using it as a source of information.  Richardson writes: "The collaborative environments that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort" (69).

A huge problem in math is the word problem. It is dreaded by everyone in existence.  As a teacher, all you want to do is share knowledge. Sometimes one of my students teaches better than I. By creating a wiki in my own classroom, I am able to create an interactive assignment.  Here the students can share their approach to solving these problems.  The part I am interested in seeing is the way I may be able to have interactivity with students from different classes not just a group. This would be a great example of the "Flat Classroom" that Richardson explain.

Besides the interactive capabilities, wiki is also a great source of help. I have looked at other teachers' wikis relative to math.  One wiki is only for teacher use and set up for sharing how to teach topics or show best practices.  Other wikis I have seen are for the students to develop either understanding of topics, share AP Practice tips and post video lessons. 

Week 4: Self Directed Learning

            Given that I just went through learning the benefits of using Google Drive, I though about just switching everything over from my old Dropbox account. But then I ran into this great article by edudemic.   6 Unexpected Ways You can use Dropbox

Here, you are given ideas on how to increase your storage space without wasting a dime. Free is always good.  Quick access is always great and this article shows ways on saving through email and automatic and default saving. There is also a way to create access while being offline. As a teacher, we know that electronics do not always work especially when you really need it. So offline access is the best new trick you can use.

          I am always trying to integrate my electronics into my teaching. 1. It gives me an excuse to check my phone every minute like I normally do.  2. I paid a nice chunk of change buying these things so might as well use them. I have been normally an apple user. But I have noticed that other devices have different capabilities. I have always held out on getting other brand devices because they would not be compatible with all my apple IOs devices. This Gizmodo (<------- link) article made me feel better about aquiring and using android devices. This article touches the way IOs and Android devices can share email, contacts and calenders. There are also compatible apps for both that allow you to share documents, audio and video without loss of quality.

Week 4: Google Form

Take my survey!!!!!!

Week 4: Google Drive

Google drive is a great tool for teachers and students.  I love the virtual flash drive capabilities. This eliminates the burden of carrying one and the painful agony of losing one with all your work in it.  I use drop box as my way to save things personally, but I do like the versatility of Google drive. The ability to convert between document styles could be helpful. As a math teacher, there are many ways to use excel spreadsheets to teach, create and use data. With the conversion ability, I now can use the excel tools for data purposes  and then convert it to another format for presentation purposes.

Google form is a great assessment tool. With the help of their templates, one can easily create multiple choice, text inserted response and essay response questions.  This survey tool can easily be used to gather information and data about your students, not only for assessment in courses but also as a voice of what is going well in class and what is not.

All that Google offers can open more virtual doors for collaborative instruction.  Assignments can be easily uploaded with a rubric posted. Students may easily access it from any type of device, even mobiles like smart phones. Ideas can be bounced around while eliminating the face to face shyness some have. Math classes are always though as computational learning. By making up assignments that require writing and reading, not only do these help them learn math, but they also help with cross curriculum into the language arts. My goal in these assignments will be to extend the vocabulary from conversational to an academic language.

 As a teacher, this may also eliminate the use for several bags in order to carry work the needs to be graded. We can save the heavy lifting for the gym or the extra large pizzas!!! LONG LIVE PETER PIPER!!!!!!!!

Week 3: Educational Technology Blogs

            The first blog that caught my eye was the Free Tech for Teachers. One of its most popular blogs was called “90 Page Guide to Using Blogger In School”. Which is pretty much what we plan on doing. Here is the link.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/09/updated-90-page-guide-to-using-blogger.html#.Ui-9StKsgdo

It is a great guide. The first thing in this guide is a small tutorial on how to use blogger on an android tablet. There is also a section on how to use it on the Ipad. With tablets widely used by schools now a days, this is surely to come in handy.  Like we have read and discussed, the 3 major use for the blogs are to distribute, discuss and demonstrate ideas. In this blog there are many helpful suggestions on how to manage, activity suggestions and where to get media for use on blogs. The bulk of the manual is stuff we have viewed on the videos. But in case you are somewhere that needs to be in silence, this a great reference to look at.

                I try to use my Ipad and my Iphone as often as possible in the classroom. It seems to catch the student’s attention and honestly, keeps my attention as well. So when I see Ipad and/or Iphone on any blog, I read it. In the Emerging Education Technology blog I follow, they have app updates. The link to that is:

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2013/08/more-iphone-and-ipad-apps-for-education-august-roundup/

Every month, this blogs gives reviews of apps that can be used in the classroom. With the review, the price of the app and a quick synopsis is given. There are also links for more information about the app. Besides his review, review posts are also shown. The most helpful ones are the ones submitted by other teachers who have used the app. If you are an apple product user, I highly recommend this blog.

Week 3: Pinterest and Evernote Experience

            Since both Pinterest and Evernote were new to me, I was nervous about creating accounts. When I saw the lengths of the instructional videos I thought it was going to drag and bore me. Following the steps on the videos really helped. Sometimes, I felt like it read my mind and answered the question I was thinking about. These are great tools for creative and diverse lessons inside and outside of the classroom. I was impressed. I felt like a kid in a candy store once I figured out what Pinteret did. In more than one occasion I had to stop myself from looking for things of my own personal interest instead of what I was assigned. I even went ahead and created my own personal Pinterest account to separate. I see now why teachers are addicted to this site. I see this as “hands on activity” modernized encyclopedia. The versatility of Evernote is amazing. I think this will help me with lesson planning. I love the fact that I have installed it on all my devices and can easily access my files. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this program.

            One way I would use Pinterest in my high school math classroom would be to create foldables. It is proven that students learn best when they can own and create their knowledge. Students would get on Pinterest and search for the foldable that they believe fits them best. These foldables will be used to create a vocabulary section for their notebooks. Another assignment would be to have the student create an account and pin pictures that show what we are learning being used in everyday life. For example, geometric shapes like the octagon are used for stop signs and UFC cage fighting rings. Student would pin a picture to their board. Almost like a virtual scavenger hunt. I could even have students use Evernote with these other assignments. In the foldables assignment they can describe why they chose the format they used and include what they would have added to it. For the scavenger hunt, they can also use Evernote to complete a write up of the terms seen on the pins they used. These write up could be passed on to the rest of the class to compare within. The possibilities of creating lessons are endless. I’m sure when I become a little more familiar with Pinterest and Evernote, that I may be able to use them more often in my classroom. 

Week 2

At first I had doubts about using a blog in my math classroom. But the more I have read and looked into how blogs can help, I am kind of excited about starting one. One way I will use a blog for my class is to post links and videos to helpful sites in what I am covering for class. I think giving the student options of where to get help gives the student ownership to their education. These various options might explain and/or bridge the gap that my in class teaching has not cover.

Blogs are great way to communicate. As a teacher, I can use blogs to provide assignments, grading rubrics and send out reminders. Since these blogs are open to everyone on the internet, parents may also look to see what is being done, assigned and required of their children. Parental involvement is key and blogs are a quick easy way to connect the parents with the classroom. Another way of communication would be between students. Students may ask for help, provide help and even just bounce ideas with one another. This can help eliminate the shy student falling behind because they are afraid to ask.

Chapter 2 states, “blogging increases learning, reading and thinking because it promotes critical, analytical, analogical, intuitive, associational and creative thinking.”  This holds extremely true in the case of math. While math is extremely in the computational field, with blogging, students will have to reach deep into their understanding of reading and writing to communicate. Reading and writing math is a different due to how technical the subject is. By communicating on blogs, the formal mathematical language will be used more often and therefore their academic language comprehension will increase. Can’t wait to see the results.