Post Dos. 12/19/2016

Reflection Parts	Description	My Notes
1. Resources	This is what I looked at, this is what I learned about, “this is what I found out”	I added a few items to my Keep note regarding collaboration: remind.com: awesome teacher-to-student and student-to-student collab tool. Schoology online forum: great place for students to ask questions and see answers to other students' questions I have always wanted to have a space for students to share "math thoughts". These could be things related to class or just random mathy things they think about. I do a lot of this on facebook already, maybe a class page? There are SO MANY math forums out there where people can ask homework questions. It would be cool to use one where my students could help other students...let's look for one. This one's pretty cool: http://www.freemathhelp.com/forum/ This idea goes along with the TED talk. Students want to take ownership in helping other students. That's a cool space.
2. Create	This is what I created - insert link here - even if not finished!	I played around more in Desmos! Here is some stuff I was working on: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5841c4d1d2baeae427b8fd1f
3. Action	This is how it went or here’s how it fits into the big picture i.e., the unit plan	I'm continuing to expand my bubble in finding new ways to use Desmos and connect my students to the outside world using math. They love playing around and I hope they don't lose that joy when it comes to doing math. I have this idea of creating some sort of a social media forum (Facebook maybe?) where they can just share mathematical thoughts. Pictures, ideas, whatever--anything "mathy". If they're thinking about math, I'm winning!

Ramblings of the week:

Ted Talk Question: What legacy do you think your students can create to make a contribution for other students or the community?

Hornet Hive…go online?

LOVE this idea of finding real problems then figuring out what tech to use.  That’s

exactly my philosophy.  Why use it if it isn’t helping you?

I keep talking about finding passion and making learning meaningful, and all the research

points to relevant learning as super important, so why am I not doing more of it?

“Do I write for my teachers or do I publish for the world this is my extra credit

philosophy!  Students should all be eligible for extra credit all year long.  If something strikes their passion, run with it.  Show me what you're doing.  You'll get EC.  Sometimes my kids come up with ridiculous stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VosHIAlxNJw

Kids like to learn from other kids.  So true from my experience.  Study groups??

Why don’t kids come to staff development?

First Reflection, 12/12/16

Time for the first reflection!  Here are the required pieces:

1. Resources	This is what I looked at, this is what I learned about, “this is what I found out”	I began a note in keep to hold all my resources. These are the ones I explored this week: Cool construction game that becomes more challenging as you go: http://euclidthegame.com/ DESMOS: desmos.com/calculator My YouTube Channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWbzCweWMwJs1nVVCaTc17g Khan: https://www.khanacademy.org/ 101 Qs http://www.101qs.com/
2. Create	This is what I created - insert link here - even if not finished!	I have had a ton of fun with Desmos these past weeks. Here is what I made, and here is what my student has been making while collaborating with me. I now have a poster of Minnesota up in my room made using Desmos. Come check it out!
3. Action	This is how it went or here’s how it fits into the big picture i.e., the unit plan	Had a ton of fun with students creating things in Desmos that I never would have dreamed possible without this new technology. Looking forward to more!

Here are my ramblings as I went about our content search this week.  It was fun!

Added a blue note to Keep for resources:

10 Student Expectations for Schools:

Relationships; Relevance; Time; Timing; Play; Practice; Choice; Authenticity; Challenge; Application

Isn’t this just what good teaching is?  I feel like I’m coming across this question more and more with the PD I’ve attended.  Isn’t that just how teachers should operate?  Is this news to people?

SAMR article: Getting Smart: Content Curation through the SAMR Lens

http://www.gettingsmart.com/2014/03/content-curation-samr-lens/

“Teaching Above the Line”: Modification and Redefinition levels of SAMR

That interactive image is SO COOL.  I can totally see using something like that on Schoology to navigate my page.  Can we embed stuff like that??

I love the idea of keeping track of everything as it comes.  Sometimes tech can be so overwhelming because I feel like there is so much stuff out there and I don’t have time to integrate it.  Keeping an organized list of cool things as I come across them is prudent; I can review it all when I have the time.

I’ve always wanted to have intentionally designed study groups in calculus.  I think it would be great for students to use collaborative online tools to share ideas within a group.  Would this be augmentation?  And what would a good math-ready platform be for that?  Sometimes I feel like the math type in google docs is a little clunky.

I really need to spend more time on Twitter, but so often I feel like it’s a waste of time…so many collaborative opportunities though!

Content Exploration Thoughts:

Khan Academy is something I’ve used in the past but haven’t been integrating at EHS as much as I could.  Students so often ask for videos if they’re gone and I direct them there but without much more instruction.  I could totally do the search myself and post links to the videos on Schoology.  Simple solution.

Online textbooks are great, but I’m worried students are losing textbooks as tools to be referenced when the going gets tough.  They just go to the page with the homework and that’s it.  We’re under curriculum review right now for math and I’m hoping we end up with a program that has better tech integration.  Sounds like a good spot to hack the content!

I like the idea of Newsela and its related sites but have trouble thinking of how to use it in a math class.

For content creation, I can definitely see doing more with students showing their work via video.  I can’t make solution videos to all my worksheets and homework assignments, but if I have students do it I could conceivably have a video solution for every assigned problem.   That would be crazy.  Many hands make light work!  MoveNote could work for that…do we have access to MoveNote??

I’m currently on a 3 year subscription to Screen Cast-o-matic, but do we have access to something like Screencastify?

It would be cool to try EDPuzzle for one of my screencasts to add in questions to my lecture while I’m away.