Thing #21

I like Podcasts, although I find the use in a math classroom may be rather limited. I would be much more likely to use youtube or teachertube to find something new and interesting to put into a class than a podcast. I have used podcasts in the past in my advisory classroom.

I had never gone to the Educational Podcast Network and was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few that had to deal with mathematical topics. I was especially interested in the section on statistics. Statistics is such an ambiguous concept to many people and there were quite a few on there that helped solidify some ideas. I am going to go through my first few weeks of lessons for statistics and see if there are any that I can use!

Thing #20

I love looking for little videos for my students to watch that connects what they are learning to what is actually happening. One of my biggest pet peeves is the 70% is good enough attitude that my students have. I found this one a few years ago and have used it during advisory a few times. It gets them talking and debating. It is interesting to hear what they have to say about it!



Seriously, check it out!

I also have used this one in the past. It was made by a student to describe exactly HOW to classify conics. I show this to them right before they do the conics project!



Of course, it goes without saying that we should be careful what we show!

Thing #19

This is a really neat site. I love to read and spend a great deal of time reading. I hate going to the bookstore and wandering around looking for a book. Sites like this allow me to get suggestions based on the books that I like. It kind of reminds me of the Netflix website and how it recommends movies to me based on what I like. This would be a great place to find like-minded individuals. I do not have a classroom library. Although I can definitely see how a teacher that had one would find this useful. I question how small libraries can use it to keep track of books. I thought that libraries were not allowed to keep a record of the books that a person checked out. I would be curious to see how they use this is they are not keeping a record...

Thing #18

I can't seem to get the Sandbox thing working...Oh well.

I set up my wiki through the district and it has pretty much sat like that all year. It seems that last school year we kept getting new and even more innovative ways to "make" our kids learn. At this point, my students find the use of Wikis and other such sites neat, but ultimately a waste of time. I tried to get mine to access my wiki outside of school and the result was not positive. The fact that just about anyone can "change" it, allowed random stuff to be posted. I had all of these hopes to use it well, but like many other teachers I gave up and went back to more traditional methods of communicating with my students. Students seem to still appreciate a direct teaching approach. I will not be attempting to incorporate it next year.

Thing #17

Okay...I am now going to climb up onto my soapbox. I without a doubt feel that the pace at which society has integrated technology is without a doubt causing people to read less and to some degree get "stupider." With knowledge, I feel that we have become a society of immediate gratification. Students do not want to "work" to find and integrate information. Instead, they surf the internet and get little bits and pieces from many different sites and carefully cut and paste it together to come up with a conclusion that is far too often someone else's! I am not sure that they would know how to go to a library and pour over a stack of books looking for useful information and then carefully take notes from it! Patience is no longer an option. Our students' brains are going a million miles an hour and keeping their attention while the phone is buzzing in their pockets is frustrating at best. I would love to see what would happen if we took students to the library and told them to go find information in the traditional sense. Or how about sit here and read this book in quiet for an hour with no external stimuli. I feel that they are lacking imagination. If they want to know what Meg from A Wrinkle in Time looks like, they don't see a mousy slightly plain girl in their head, they look it up on the internet!

Thing #16

I already use the IGoogle start page on my home computer. It is set as my home page and what pops up every time I log on. I like how easy it is to add and remove information as well as move it around. I do not have it set as my home page on my school computer. The majority of what I do on my Mac is school related and that is what I want to come up when I log onto that computer.

I will not use the online calendar, I already use the one on my Mac. If I get too many calendars going, I will lose information from one to the other! I do like some of the features on the online ones, but the one on my Mac is right in front of me all the time!

I do not really use to-do lists. I usually lose them. I think that this is something that I definitely could get into using! I am constantly stopping and going, okay WHAT NOW!

As far as class uses, I don't see where any of these things are super applicable. I already use the calendar in StudyWiz to keep my kids informed as well as on my Wiki.

Thing #15

Wow, I really like these resources. The gliffy and flowchart.com sites would be particularly useful in a math class. I love to use flow charts so that my students can see the connections between different concepts. In a Geometry classroom, the students could go to one of these sites and make a flow chart proof relatively quickly and easily. Also students that are struggling with equation solving can use a flow chart to follow the steps in solving an equation. I like that you can also make a Venn diagram. These are essential in many math classes. Students often make them by hand, but having a computer in front of them seems to help keep their attention better.

I will definitely be incorporating these in my class! This is a great resource that I didn't even know existed!