Mathematics with Technology

I watched the podcasts and I could tell Judy Chandler was well versed in the use of technology in math courses. It is a way of engaging students with hand on applications. This is great because students are actively participating. Ms Chandler feels that technology use in math classes in important and can enhance the educational experience although some others would disagree. With a hands on technique students actually learn what they are doing and they don't just practice for a test. They retain what they learn so the education is not wasted.

Technology in math classes can offer an immediate response to the students work. In this way, students will know if they are doing it right before they commit it to memory. Students can have better resources for their math studies with the use of technology in their class. Ms. Chandler believes that technology should become a part of the curriculum and not just something to add on the side. The student will benefit from actually seeing how problems are worked and what the results are and while they try to apply the knowledge they get immediate feedback. They don't have to wait for manual tests to be graded and returned a week later when they have forgotten the concept.

I am finding the use of technology in the classroom more and more appealing as I learn about it myself. I am all for anything that will challenge a student no matter what their ability. Computers keep student's attention and engages them in their educational process. Most students don't enjoy sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture. It is hard to focus and become interested. But , by using technology the student once again takes an active part. The technology is out there and students need to incorporate it in as much of their education as possible and that's what I want to do in my classroom.

I know that there will be "old school" teachers out their that would not agree with me but, I think it is because of a fear of the unknown. They don't have experience with it and are intimidated by it. If they can get past their fear they will find an improvement in student's performances. I am all for making learning more interesting and fun. I don't want to be stuck and let the tech world paast me by without joining and learning.

Growth vs. Fixed

I visited the Stanford News website "Growth vs. Fixed", and I agree with their theory of growth mindset. The video was about two views on intelligence growth through continued education and learning and fixed intelligence. The growth view sees the mind as a muscle (which it is in my view) that needs exercise and challenges in order for it to grow and become stronger. The fixed mindset is depressing because there is no growth of intelligence, you are just stuck with what you have. Stanford held a workshop where the students were divided into two groups. One group was given the growth classes and taught how the brain can increase and grow through challenges and learning new things. They compared the growth to that of a baby learning new things. The other group was just given study skills without any motivation to grow through learning and making mistakes. At the end of the study teachers could tell which group their students belonged to because group one students improved dramatically and group two continued to have declining grades.

Even a race car coach could see the results and he wanted to apply this training to his drivers so that they could learn from their mistakes and become better drivers. It is obvious that they make mistakes during races but unless they see the mistakes and learn from them then they will continue to make the same mistakes. If they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again then they won't win. So this coach wanted the drivers to study the races, see their mistakes and improve their racing skills. Through their growth they increase the wins that they obtain.

This view of growth through education is an idea that I have always believed in or I wouldn't have returned to school to complete my degree. I believe that you will continue to learn throughout your lifetime if you let yourself. This is a view that I want to instill in my children when I teach. You won't stop learning just because you graduate unless you don't try. No, you won't always get it right the first time but you will get it and you will learn. This continued learning will add on to the person that my students will become and that is great. The world changes and you have to keep up with the changes or it will leave you behind. But, most important without continued learning what do you have to look forward to. Why are you here on earth? I want my students to be hungry to learn and stay hungry for knowledge the rest of their lives.

The Cigar Box Project

I found a sight that I found quite interesting. The students are from Calgary Science School and they started a year long project of discovering Canadian history through cigar boxes. They would collect the boxes and study the pictures on the box and research for what time period they we from. The class is led by history teacher Neil Stevenson. The website can be found here The students created five historical panels and three short documentaries. They were "Inspired by the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa,Canada." There you will find an online exhibit of cigar boxes called "Canada in a Box".here The students had no experience with layout or design so the school brought in a graphic designer named Teak Sato, from the Alberta College of Art and Design, to give the students some basic lessons in layout and design. This was so interesting I loved the idea.

This is a great way to engage students creativity and give them hands on view to history, which I admit is a passion of mine. History can sometimes be boring to students but I can't see how a student would have time to be bored. Each student is concentrating on the pictures and wanting to find out where they came from and what the story is behind the picture that they are engaged in a hunt. Students can utilize technology and build skills while learning history. I know that I would have like such a project when I was in middle school or even high school. What a great idea and what terrific work.

The Edible Schoolyard/A Night in the Global Village

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This is a very interesting and creative approach to learning. The concept started by Alice Water reconnects students to how they get their food. It incorporates nutrition and agriculture, science and chemistry allowing students to experience an all encompassing classroom in nature. The scene is Martin Luther Middle School in Berkley California where students have cleared a parking lot and made a garden. They learned every aspect of gardening and preparing the food that they grew. They also learned the concept of composting to enrich the soil and make it better for planting. Students get a chance to improve their school, learn and be proud of what they are doing. Most importantly they are having fun and don't even realize that they are learning. I think that is when a subject really makes an impact on the student.

This project is teaching students to appreciate and respect the earth and how important it is to protect the environment that sustains us as humans. The students become aware of the ecosystem and how everything works together to benefit everything else. In this way a student can learn to appreciate what the earth has to offer and what it takes to keep it environmentally safe. This realization can be translating in their own lives. They can see what an individual can do. Students learn how the ecosystem effects businesses and their very way of life. They get a chance to see how everything is effected by their actions, that's a hard lesson to try to teach in the classroom.

I would love to teach sustainability through hands own activities such as the Edible Schoolyard. It is a way to bring a concept to life and have students become passionate about a subject. That is an invaluable tool of teaching. Anytime a teacher can bring a subject to life, to make it real for their students then they will have made an impression on those students. Some students will never have a chance anywhere else to experience gardening and learn how our food gets to the table.

A Night in the Global Village is a great idea too. At the Rocky Mt. School of Expeditionary Learning, students have a chance to experience poverty and hunger in real life situations. The students at the school go to a special camp at the Heifer Ranch in Arizona to stay in a village created for them there. The students are split into groups representing impoverished countries with very little or no resources. They spend the night in a village constructed by the school and have to learn to negotiate for the things they need to survive. Students learn on a global scale how hunger and poverty affects relationships with other countries. Some of the groups had nothing but, the group from Guatemala had water, the most important resource, and therefor they had the power. Students got the chance to see how those with resources could demand that those without do things to get something they need. They learned how those without are subject to control by those that do have things. This podcast shows how conditions can affect relationships globally.

This is a concept that is not easily understood in a classroom. They need to experience some of the hardships to understand how someone could become desperate and in need for things just to survive and are willing to do what it takes to get them. Students learn how to work together to survive out of necessity. They don't have the luxury of being concerned with just their individual comfort.

I think that the village is a great idea for students to experience walking in someone's shoes. You can read about this but the experience brings it alive for you as a student in a way a book can not.

Podcasts

I listened to some pod casts and found them interesting and much like a talk show on the web. The SmartBoard lessons gave rules and expectations for the year and educational plans for the students. This cast was based out of Canada and they were really interested in other countries that used podcasts and would like to share. This was something I wanted to listen to so I could get an idea of what a podcast was like. I needed to know what to expect and well I do now.

Another podcast was Kid Cast, which had instructions for kids by kids on how to podcast. There were plenty of start-up ideas and how tos for kids to learn how to start a podcast and what to say. Topics would range from history, and how toes, to Ripley's Believe It or Not. They had topics on health and fitness and nutrition for kids. These kids even talk about environmental issues like global warming and what is happening in their world. They really have an opportunity to get involved with their world and talk about possible solutions. This podcast joins kids from around the world and lets them share their ideas in one place.

When listening to David Warlick with Connect Learning, the discussion was about a different approach to educational leadership conferences. He had gone to the Science Leadership Academy and their new plan was called "Educon" which was a combination of education and conferences, its all about talking, communicating with other school leaders to brain storm ideas about leadership in education in their own schools. Communication is one of the most important aspects of an educational team. This cast gives an excellent example of how to utilize pod casts to achieve widespread communication.

I think that pod casts can be a very useful tool in education. It is beneficial for both the teachers and the students. I think that I would like to incorporate the use of pod casts in my classroom with my students. It is best to keep an open mind when approaching the use of pod casts, you never really know how you can utilize them in everyday teaching. I think that many more teachers should use pod casts to give a more exciting approach to teaching. Pod Casts allow students to participate more in their own educational process. The class becomes more proactive than passive.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

As I watched this lecture, I had to admire someone for speaking in front of so many people and do it with such poise and grace. The composure that he had, under very trying and difficult times, was amazing. But he didn't focus on this, he focused on the positive and that's admirable. The first thing I noticed in his speech was that he was very well prepared and comfortable with his material. He kept eye contact with the audience and even made personal references making the lecture more personal and inviting to the audience. He spoke about the use of indirect learning and I hope as a teacher I can use these techniques to make learning something not seam like your learning something. That is a great talent if you can do it well and I think Randy did.

The tenacity of Randy Pausch is obvious and that is what got him to where he was. He called it determination but no matter what you call it it is shared by those who achieve success. Every great leader has had it and every great educator has it. The ability to take dreams and turn them into reality takes this skill. When road blocks are put up in front of you in the pursuit of your dreams and they will then that road becomes a challenge and not a defeat unless you let it. He had a dream of the virtual reality classes and he made them happen. He knew that to be successful in a class like that creative license had to be taken. He fought for that because for most schools that is not what they want. They like structure with locked in plans, anything else is very scary for them. But I know from experience as an artist that you can't be dictated to and be creative. You must think for yourself and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, otherwise you won't learn. Randy knew that and conveyed that to his students.

Creativity unlocks childlike wonders and creativity invents new ideas and inventions and is what allows us to evolve. Creativity is needed to learn to help others. I mean to really help others you have to see a vision of success in what you are doing. There will always be more than one way to accomplish something and an open mind will allow the discovery of new ways. I think Randy encouraged that creativity so that his students could achieve more than they thought possible to achieve. That negative bar was missing. The thing that we use to stop our growth, that thing that keeps everything safe because there is no risk involved, that is what stops us from achieving if we let it.

So, I think that we shouldn't let it,(that crazy bar), stop us. I believe that that was what Randy was trying to say. He said look what we can do if we just let it happen and don't set limits. This is what happens when we let our minds expand and give it freedom to create. To nurture this idea is one of the greatest gifts that a teacher can give to their students. Students can and usually learn more in self directed education settings and I think that we need those settings more and more in classrooms.

Ipods

Ipods are being used more and more in the classrooms to aid in instruction, as a means of taking tours, listening to interviews, and student presentations. Students use them to listen to guest lectures. They can learn a new language or listen to music and concerts all from their classrooms or anywhere. The student can access videos, pictures and books, see them and read them anywhere. This technology makes available information that might not be available to some students. It not only opens the world of knowledge but, puts that knowledge at their fingertips. Ipods travel which is important in our world of laptops. Most podcasts are listened to on the go and not in the classroom. In this way podcasting has moved the classroom to the world and the world to the classroom.

Duke University was credited as a pioneer in the use of ipods in education. Duke University has increased its use of ipods in the classroom. They use them to supplement instruction in many ways. They even went so far as to distribute ipods to be used by incoming freshmen. The students would then be required to use these in any class that required ipods. They formed a group called "DDI", to distribute and encourage there use. Your can check out DDI at: here The Center for Instructional Technology has interests in videocasting too. Some instructors feel that the use of this technology allows them to bring the class outside of the classroom and into the real world.

The use of ipods is increasing from elementary and middle schools, to high schools and colleges all over the world. I feel, that anyone not using them will be missing a lot and are at risk of being left behind by technology. I hope to use this technology in my classroom when I begin teaching.