Appropriate Use of Technology, again 2.2

1. What steps (categories) did the author use to design their Lesson Plan (eg, Step 1: Learning Objectives; Step 2: Materials)? These were not directly stated, so I would only have to guess. And that is that the learning target would be: I(the student) will be able to understand different techniques (angles and ratios) of discovering how to determine if triangles are similar.
2. What types of methods and teaching strategies were implemented?  Direct instruction implementing the use of technology.
3. Describe any applications of critical thinking or problem solving you observed. He does a great job explaining the triangles and similarity. I feel that this (in the class room) could lead to practice problems that the students could do in pairs.
4. If you were to teach this same lesson, what might you change about the delivery or example(s) I would not do this lesson on the computer, this seems pointless to me. Using hands on examples of triangles would be better for constructive learning.
5. If I wanted to do this in my classroom, I would add hands on activities as well (so that they actually have to measure the angles with a protractor). Furthermore I would have practice problems for them to try with their partner (next to them), then go over as a group.

Warm-ups in Math Education

I have been in a variety of math classrooms throughout my lifetime, and warm ups have been apart of the majority of them. Warm ups have different meanings to each class. I personally will use a five problem daily warm up. Two questions will be moderately easy covering the past topic of the week, the third and forth will apply the same concept in a harder more applicable way. The last problem will be a challenge, it will be a problem in which the explanation will follow in the weeks lessons. The last problem will let me see how students would go about solving for it without the proper technique given. This will help me see their way of thinking and help me construct a way that is beneficial for them to understand. Simultaneously the students will feel good about themselves in solving the first two-four problems and let them see what type of problems we are going to focus on in the week to come (they will no that the last problem is just to try, not expected to know).
      So, overall, warm ups are used to boost students confidence as well as let them experiment with new topics/problems. Warm ups are not tests and will not be graded, they will be placed in sketchbooks in which I will read once a week to see their progress. This allows me to see what I need to spend more time on or go over, as well as see how my students go about solving problems without knowledge of a technique prior to solving. This is beneficial because it helps structure the way in which I will teach these new techniques. Problem five of these warm ups are like mini pre-assesments.

Appropriate Use of Technloogy

Our shared sheet can be found here. 

 I found the geometry lesson...it wasn't my favorite, but it was the closest I could find to the standard we found. I still feel like technology is not necessary for math.

OTEN

Hello my blog post reader...went to the OTEN conference today. The first workshop was basically the same thing as our technology class (made me feel smart, I know what everything was). The second one was good. Stellarium was the technology used, but the teacher showed us this is three different ways. Firsts had us write down what we thought the moons pattern was and then explain our thoughts. Then we saw the stellarium example (which was still a bit rough to grab the concept). Then he had us go out side and do a hands on example (which I finally understood)! It was informational as well as introducing a new technology...bah technology. I downloaded the free stellarium, its actually really fun to play with without any purpose. It would be a great activity with ones kids to look it up and actually go outside and try and find the constellations! If your interested you can get to the download from this site.

Task 1-1- educ 533- Best Practices Research

 After doing some research I felt like Engaging the student and relevant learning were the most crucial. I think that both of these can be met by integrating the curriculum. As I stated on my google shared sheet, Math is apart of everything; shopping for clothes (finding percentages off), grocery shopping (fruits per pound), and more importantly ART! Griding, proportions, scale, lighting, perspective, calculations, color mixing etc... Why learn math if it has no meaning to your life? This is why integrating the curriculum is vital.

The majority of sites I visited regarding best practices instruction all include technology, perhaps I didn't expand my research enough but this was upsetting. I feel like all these articles are saying oh man direct instruction is killing students attitudes regarding math, which I agree. But their answer is, spice it up with technology. Although this can be an effective learning tool I feel that this is only adding to the problem. To me, the problem is how we go about teaching. If you are implementing a boring lesson plan than your use of technology will also more often then not be boring.  Some articles really stressed asking other teachers their methods and trying to find what works and building/ taking upon their ideas. Its not stealing when our primary goal is to educate students. I like this. Currently I am doing this at my student teaching site. I am stealing ideas that I like from various teachers, to create what I hope to be the most effective learning style for my class.  Again I am going to stress that technology is NOT the answer. In class activities, projects, real life examples, all of these can be engaging and effective, and I hope to learn more of these hands on construction possibilities in this class.

http://www.mlms.loganschools.org/wested_docs/west_research.htm
http://ozpk.tripod.com/00best
http://www.ctserc.org/s/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=28
http://www.ttms.org/best_practice/best_practice.htm
http://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html

About Me...For Math Methods

Hi, my name is Stacey and I want to teach middle and high school art. I always enjoyed math (although its a strange pairing) especially algebra. I recently was a math tutor for a middle school and loved it. I feel like my artzie'ness helped the struggling students. This is why I am endorsing in middle school multiple subjects. I went to Oregon State and received a degree in fine art (emphasizing in painting) and minored in art history.  I was originally a graphic design major, made it through junior year and decided on the off chance I live to be a hundred I didn't want to work in front of a computer for the rest of my life. So bare with me and the technology because I will fight it as much as possible. I love painting, reading sci-fi, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream, and fighting crime...yes I am sarcastic.

'New Tech Standards & Requirements'

Surprisingly enough I skipped over the create technology aspect and really found 2.A and 2.C interesting.It is my understanding that these two requirements want students to work collaboratively, not just with other students but people from other countries by using different technologies. This will bring continents which seem estranged from us, and bring their ideas to the classroom.I thought about this one for a while. I think that by having my students sign up for something like Blue Canvas would be extremely helpful as well as satisfying the technology requirements 2.A and 2.C. Blue canvas is exactly like facebook except its for artists or wannabe's. Essentially you sign up, create a profile and upload your artwork. Once thats said and done, you can explore other peoples artwork from across the world, you can blog/message back and forth. This is a great tool for artists to see work outside of their norm, to see other cultures and societies and their processes. I tried to create an account this summer to see what it was all about. So I just went in and finished it up, you can see my page of art and at the top you can search other art to explore from.

The third rule I liked was 6.A. Which to me was to get the student out in the computer/technology setting explore in order to use. I would add an element of creativity to this rule. So, for my high school students final project I would want them to create a slide show of all their work from the term. This would be open in terms of what application would be used, whether they want music or text etc... So once they had a general idea of what they wanted to do they would have to explore the technology tool on their own and figure out how to manipulate it to their specificity. Here is my example of what I did this summer using Youtube (they would use art work):



With this all being said I do see a lot of challenges mainly concerning computers and location. I have never seen one art classroom with a computer. So I would be assuming that all students have access as well as internet outside of the classroom. This is a big assumption that cannot be made. Perhaps I can work a deal with the technology person at my school, that my students one day a month can fit in and work with the technology. Also, the majority of art networks involve blogging/instant messaging, something that is not permitted on school grounds. I would have to talk to the principal regarding a way around this dilemma.