Another Thing

So what is the scale of King Kong to the miniature used in the 1933 Movie starring Fay Wray? Well that would be one foot to every 3/4 inch. I started my class with a 3.5 minute YouTube video clip from the movie. The black and white version can now be seen in color. The students enjoyed the scene and we talked about the history of this movie. It was the one of the first movie makers to use miniature models to simulate a large monster. There was also a good FAQ site that addressed the movie. Tomorrow I will take a look at Crazy Horse Monument and continue our discussion of similarity in the Mathematical sense. Sort of neat... the students asked for the Rap version of PI that I had run out of time for about a week ago. It was pretty cool too.

Thing 15

I just wanted to say that our media specialist at Highland has been great at inviting our staff to join in in order to update our own learning and usage of information literacy. My attendance at the BER Workshop by Joanne Troutner can be credited to Janet's invitation. I was able to see the perspective that Joanne presented and I dare say her message is already being implemented. She made it clear how just a picture, video, audio or podcast can be a brief and meaningful class opener or segue during the class. No doubt there is an art to smoothly transitioning during a class to include these types of information sound bytes. I find that if I condition my self to put just a few little interesting tidbits each week I am more likely to make an attempt to enhance the class this way. Her message was that in her presentation she would present so much that you would feel overwhelmed. My head was spinning at the end of the day. But by making a decision to try one or to things can make things feel doable. She also encouraged us to simply spread the wealth by sharing one or two things you liked or found interesting with a friend or colleague.

Thing9

I know that I have talked about video use in my class in the past. This most recent use was due to a couple of things. First I wanted to get my students to engage in an experiment using bouncy "super" balls to generate a sequence of numbers. And I wanted to include something fun and different. I found a video on balls bouncing we believe the location was San Francisco. With the video was a little audio music to go along for the ride. What was funny is that I introduced so that the music would be background for the students to draw their sketch of their bouncy ball. The students were attentive to the 2.5 minute clip and they were asking if it was real or pretend. The music was soothing and the video was entertaining and educational for creating a visual of a ball bouncing... in fact several balls bouncing. We moved on to the experiment and data collection in a light-hearted manner.

Thing 9

I was at an information literacy workshop on Friday March 14. I missed PI Day with my students and decided to find out what NPR had to offer. At that npr website I found and used a YouTube video of a reporter going to Times Square in New York and asking people what the symbol Pi meant. It was a quick and easy video to include in my class. The reporter was not very impressed with the Times Square group and head to the Mathematics Department of NYU. One gal recites 52 digits of Pi. Students were impressed. I was also able to get a high school rapper doing Pi and some interesting limericks and songs and trivia. Did you know that March 14th is Einstein's Birthday? I didn't know that either.

Thing 5

I just attended a 2 hour workshop at 1930 Como on Urban Planet. I have begun updating my web access at Highland Park Senior High School. I was not able to update my student portal grades over the weekend and my students were looking for that update to see what they were missing. I hope to get better at maintaining this area for students to access information for my classes. I put the online textbook URL and some pictures of the students doing an activity. I think it would be cool to have students use a wiki or blog to submit their solutions to the challenge problem, but little steps are all I can take.

Thing 21

Today in class we actually had to go to YouTube for the tutorial for common craft social bookmarking. Easy viewing and only lasted about 4 minutes.

Thing 23

In class today we created our own delicious account for Social Bookmarking. It was one of the easiest things to do and one thing I believe I will find useful. The video was helpful. It was laid out quite simply in the tutorial. I registered my account and installed Buttons with Karen's help. I will be able to Tag more websites and share them with my students and colleagues. This networking should allow me to find other good resources in this shared space.

Thing 17

I am so excited. I am attending a Bureau of Education and Research seminar on Friday, March 14. I was informed of this opportunity by our Librarian at Highland. The seminar claims to provide practical ways to use project- based technology activities with an extensive resource book. The presenter will be Joanne Troutner. I am looking for ideas and activities that they have ready to go for our Mathematics classroom.

Thing #

Very interesting projects from my class. I had to practically invite students again to turn in a project. Many of the students I guess thought it was optional. I am not sure where my expectations became unclear. I collected a bunch of projects with out citations. I had gone through the procedure more than once. I had to hand the project back to students and state...I can not accept this with out the citations. I gave the students the opportunity to return the project with citations. This was frustrating because I had to regrade so many. I will with this project make copies of the good and the bad for future work samples. I will be highlighting each of the parts for students to see where they need improvements. Whew. Trimester 2 is done.