Geometer sketchpad using projector and Imac

Decemeber 13 and 14 I had two great days. I was able to easily project my introduction to as software package called Geometer sketchpad. Students were able to see the first lesson and design a geometric figure to my specifications using the software. None of this would have been possible had it not been for the projector and Imac that I have been so privileged to use and learn. Both days in the computer lab the students were engaged and working very hard to animate their "Mr. Triangle." On Monday the students will lead the class with short cut methods for proving triangles congruent using the computer and projector in the classroom.

Thing # 5 RPC

At our meeting on December 12 we looked at the research calculator. Although I have not planned a lesson and directed its use in my classroom I do have a better understanding of it as a powerful tool. Highland Science teacher extrodiniar did an excellent job of showing us how to incorporate this into a project. What a great guiding quest...alternative fuel sources. I want to be like John. I am considering a Geometry Research project where students investigate one aspect of geometry. I could easily work this in for mid Tri2 or Tri 3. The calculator may be more useful from the teachers aspect particularly for shorter projects. Karen and Leslie did a great job of leading us through this extensive tool.
The other item we talked about was the rubistar to generate rubrics. This was cool since I had just created one for a project in my algebra class. Its again one of those sites that one has to use many times before it would become quick and easy.

Thing #

I was able to show my advisory a cool dvd on possiblities in life. I once again a had my projector and computer ready for class discussion and display. We also watched an intertaining YouTube puppet show with Harry Potter. We continued our research and keep the students informed of the research engines on connect St. Paul. In my advisory we looked into trusses since we were studying triangles. We looked at the Star-Tribune pictures and history of the 35w bridge. We even were able to look at the new plans for the bridge. This created a healthy discussion in my Geometry class. In Algebra we took a look at YouTube Ma and Pa kettle do Math. Students found it very entertaining since we had just finished studying percents and proportions. I still have an adjustment to set-up and take down each day. It is good to use the video chunks to enhance the class discussion.

Thing #

I am happy to say that I have done one power point presentation in my class. I did not however write the power point. It was provided with the HOLT materials for the mathematics curriculum. I will create my own slide show soon. I must say it was easy to run with the remote and clicker for the slides. My students appreciated the change and it allowed for a deeper discussion of the functions we were studying. A couple of my colleagues noticed the set up. I have finally got the projector on a cart so that it is easier to see the projection on the screen. They were interested and a little skeptical as to whether it was worth all the set up and tear down time. Like anything, the more you pracitce the less scary it becomes to teach a lesson in this manner.

Thing 13

I had the good fortune on the early release day in early October to have Karen come in to present to Highland staff the research calculator. We went to http://www.metrolibraries.net/pro/dribbling.html. There are so many steps for this research that could help students get organized. As a group of teachers we have discussed the usefulness of this calculator. Some of the parts of it were also demonstrated by Leslie Yoder in one of our session. I guess my personal feeling is that I would utilize some parts of the calculator if I was having my students do a longer research paper. In math class if I assign research it is usually happening simultaneously with the other parts of the class. This can be overwhelming to students. I have found that they can not organize their time and thoughts. The research calculator can help students work with a deadline by helping them to create their own deadlines with dates of thesis statement, beginning the research, brainstorming and focusing their ideas to less broad topics. This site had some information literacy lessons that could be done in the class to emphisize the steps used in any research.

Thing 10

I did a little search or googling for some math items. The one site that I looked at was Dr. Math and I found some good reference information for my students with history of percent. I also found some good questions and answers to why we do constructions in geometry. These will be excellent reference material in my classes. I also went ot utube and found the very funny video of Ma andPa Kettle doing math. One must understand the concept to appreciate the humor. My students will love it. I plan to get the students attention by using at least one of these on test review day in my algebra class before finals.

Thing 14

What a great class we had today. We worked in groups in a jigsaw manner. We each looked at one online resource found in the www.connect.spps.org. My group looked at united streaming and where we could look at a tutorial to learn more on its use. We discovered that in the Atomic Learning their is a tutorial that explains all the A,B, C's for streaming. It looks like the home page has a title of Discovering streaming. This is an easy access for many different subjects. In mathematics I saw a nice video on functions that I could use in my class. It was stated that there are a number of other databases that link to united streaming. Students will enjoy the videos. There are teacher planning tools as well as quizes at the end of a video. There were some great suggestions to prepare for presenting the video in class. One was to download to the desktop for easy access. Another was to burn it on to a DVD. To enlarge the screen it was suggested to use the remote control and zoom for a clearer picture. It was also suggested that we use speakers since the computer speaker is not able to give the volume for the class.
Along with this database we were exposed to a number of other reliable resources. Gale had the student Edition, Informe, and Discovery, EBSCO, SIRS Discover for grades 4-9 and Researcher for grades 9-12. So many resources. It was a very good class for we students to dig in. Thank you Metronet and friends.

Thing 15

On November 8 I was able to help my advisory students connect to the online resouces available to them at connect.spps.org in our Mac Lab at Highland. Thanks to our media specialist who initiated this 9th grade introduction to all of our students. She designed a nice 8-10 questionairre that had all students look for some key locations. I am sure these students will be able to use this in the future to find reliable resources for all their classes.

Thing 8

One of our metronet trained teachers presented United Streaming to our staff on the first staff development day. Through the connect.spps. org>On-line Learning Resources I was able to set up my own account. I checked out "The Great Gatsby" for the fun of it and shared that with my daughter. Looks like some cool math videos and ideas. It appears to be a reliable source for our students to access as well as we teachers.

Thing 14

Thanks to our wonderful librarian or media specialist and a group of motivated staff, we are making attempts to establish a Information Literacy Plan for the future of Highland Park Senior High. We are hoping to move the school into the 21st Century with our cross disciplinary research initiatives. We would like to focus in on the themes of lifelong learning and creating a culture of learning throughout the school. We are scheduled to meet with our new high school Principal Katzmarak on October 30, 2007 after school to make some proposal and state a vision for Highland's future. Go Highland.

Thing 4

I have accessed the online library system and I have requested my first item. I have requested "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" in DVD form for my personal viewing. I waited 2 days and rechecked the online library for the status of my request and it stated my requested was being processed. This is so cool. You can even take care of your library fines online. Way too convenient. In my case, that may be the trick to keeping those fines at a minimum and avoiding the embarrassing confrontation with the librarian when he/she convey those fines. One can only hope.
In order to utilize the Public Library in the classroom our Highland Librarian will work with our advisory students and staff to help them acquire library cards.

Thing 3

I have registered my blog with google, I think.

planning classroom use of technology

Perhaps I am just complaining, but I find it very difficult to plan and implement the use of my projector in my classroom. For one I need to learn how to do a power point presentation and utilize the slides. The other part is just the set-up and take down time of getting my classroom ready for the technology. I used the on-line book for a classroom exercise and practice for the online resource with the students. Most of the students watched but just afew will use this outside of class. It was slow in the building. what is even more frustrating is the cords and the distances needed to plug in the projector and with the large number of students I was worriied about the stability of it on the overhead. It went okay, but the students commented that it was extremely slow. I would love to be able to show a movie clip, but again the set up and speaker set up is really important planning before the go ahead. I will keep working at this, but the bottom line is that everything takes planning, set-up and implementing time. So long...

Thing 1

I have read through all the items and to become information literate I will need more time to plan , research and prepare my own presentations for my classroom. To do any of these initiatives we will need to collaborate with my colleagues to work together to make things happen. At Highland we have a good team in its beginning stages. We are considering the Metronet group as our PDP in order to support each other in utilizing the equipment and information in our classrooms.

Projector and computer

I have finally mastered the changing from Mac to Windows environment on our lovely laptops. I also figured out with some help how to set the projector so that I can use it with the dual images. I used the set up once in my classroom to access the new HOLT book adoption OnLine version. I taught the students how to use the online version and some are already using it. It was a challenge with typing in all the student names and ID but I did it. There is so much information online that students have a very quick access at any online keyboard. I am now looking forward to using the computer and projector for movies and other classroom adventures. I have not use it for slide presentation as of yet, but hope to soon.

I find it very interesting that we use this term called blog and no one I have talked to really has a good definition of what blogging is. Is it a word that has the been defined and placed in the approved dictionaries? Who is actually creditted with designing this name? Am I doing what I am suppose to be doing with this blogging assignment? "Blog-gone-it" some one let me know, please.

September 13,2007

Learning how to do my very first post.