ED 720 Week 12 Assignment-Classroom Integration

     In response to the prompt, we were asked to discuss and relate the impact of technology in our own classroom and how it relates to one of the themes in Karchmer's study.  I chose to focus on the themes of: evaluating the accuracy of internet use and ensuring safe internet use.

     Since the students in my class will be using the internet for multiple parts of the unit, I wanted to take them in to the computer lab before we really got into the depth of the lesson to to get a sense of their internet searching skills.  The students were asked a series of questions related to parallel lines.  The sheet that the students had can be found here: Defining Parallel Lines

     As I have students searching the internet, I try to watch what they are searching and how they are searching.  Many of them resort to the standard "googling".  They are very unsure of how to search for information on the internet and do not know how to evaluate the accuracy of internet sites and information.

I wonder that the information that the student's gather on the internet is something that they are retrieving safely. Each time I bring the students into the computer lab, I worry of the internet safety of my students and I am constantly walking around the room observing what is happening on each of their computers. I constantly wonder that they have open windows where they are searching for answers to my questions while searching for other things that relate to their own personal lives. When we gave the students the district assessment we were able to have the students all log on under a special log in name where they were unable to access the internet. However, when I need them to access the internet, it is a difficult job to fully watch them as they search for the information asked.

One thing I do try to do is incorporate chances for all students to use the internet. If the process seems difficult, I will sit with students or make a modifies assignment so that all students have the chance to access the internet. I did not like what the teacher "David" in the study said about students who had trouble keeping up with using the technology. He had difficulty finding reading material for his weaker (SPED) students so he did not permit them to use computers. He stated, " My weak readers, those in special ed, are not using computers. Their reading abilities make is so difficult to complete a task that they run out of time before completing whatever it is they must do."(Karchmer, page 1261) To me, he could have done a lot more to motivate these students to use the internet. And that was just another theme that Karchmer touched upon in her study.

Reflection of Open Mic #3-Twitteracy

     For the Open Mic #3, my group decided to look at Twitteracy.  This was a close look at Twitter, Literacy and how it related to the classroom.  I really enjoyed working with the three women in my group.  Our collaboration is amazing and we really know when to help each other.  We all took our parts and ran with them and in the end, we had a fantastic #twitteracy.  
     I liked how each person was required to answer the prompt and then turn it into a twitter post.  This may have been difficult for some and I did notice many use abbreviations to shorten their posts.  It was fun to see how people's responses and tweets were interconnected.
     When we first came up with the idea of Twitteracy, I was skeptical.  Although I have a twitter account, I must admit, I do not use it as much as I would like to.  I have co-workers who use it in school and tweet out assignments.  I really would like to get to that point, but I know that there are students in my classes that do not have their own devices and worry that it would not be fair to them.  I really hope everyone enjoyed the Open Mic as much as we did!

ED 7718 Reflection of Unit Plan

     I really enjoyed being able to share my plan with other teachers on Wednesday night.  Most of the time when I am planning out a lesson, I just try it out and see the after effects.  This was a nice way to see what may or may not happen before I even try the ideas out.  An even nicer piece is that one of my "critical friends" is also a mathematics teacher so she could give me some real insight on what I might get from the students.

     My group was very kind about giving me ideas of what was missing from my lesson.  My unit plan is to run a total of 4-5 days.  I have a rubric for the "culminating" project but they helped me see that I did not have rubrics written out for any of the other assignments.  Therefore, I plan to add these rubrics into my unit plan.

     I also was able to talk about the fact that I would like my students to blog at the end of the unit, but I am not sure that they will be able to because of the access to the blogging sites.  Therefore, I tried to see if there were any other options I could look into where the students would be able to comment on the unit.

     I did enjoy the us of "critical" friends as they helped me realize I need to be clearer in my expectations of what I am asking for.  This has helped me look at my unit plan in a different light and I plan to tweak it before I teach the unit to my students.

Geometry-Parallel Line Unit Plan

High School Geometry and Online Reading Comprehension Unit Plan

Online Reading Comprehension Unit for High School Geometry

Online Reading Comprehension and the Math Classroom

Math online reading comprehension can be used in any mathematics classroom.  The following is a unit that can be used for Geometry.  This unit is designed to integrate online reading comprehension into a lesson from Geometry that may not usually use Online Reading Comprehension.

Geometry Unit Plan:

Parallel Lines, Transversals, Common Angles, and Online Reading Comprehension

Overview and Day 1:

This unit will focus primarily on a re-introduction to parallel lines.  Students will have already learned about parallel lines in a previous chapter, but we will now incorporate transversals and the angles that are formed from these lines and transversals.  The students will be required to complete online research using online reading comprehension strategies.

Students will use the internet to complete a series of questions relating to the definitions of parallel lines and transversals. Day 1-Defining Parallel Lines Using the Internet Questionnaire

Materials Needed for Day 1:

• Each student will need a computer with access to the Internet
• Parallel Line Definition Sheet

Day 2:

Students will use Geometer’s Sketchpad, a program designed for geometry curriculum, to draw two parallel lines and a transversal.  They will then measure the angles that are formed from these three lines.  Day 2-Geometer's Sketchpad Activity on Parallel Lines

Once the students have measured the eight angles that are formed from the parallel lines and transversal, the class with discuss how the angles are related.  They form Alternate Interior Angles (equal), Alternate Exterior Angles (equal), Corresponding Angles (equal), and Same-Side Interior Angles (supplementary).

At the end of class, the teacher will discuss with the students how these lines and angles will relate to tomorrow’s lesson and how they will use the internet for their searching.   The students’ assignment for homework will be to use what they learned in class and apply it to parallel lines and measurements on their own.  Day 2-Angles formed by Parallels Homework Assignment

Materials Needed for Day 2:

• Each student will need a computer equipped with Geometer’s Sketchpad

• Parallel Line Question/Information Sheet
• Parallel Line worksheet

Day 3:

On Day Three, students will be using Google Earth and Google Maps to find two parallel streets in their town that are parallel and are intersected by a third street which we call the transversal.  

The students must find their streets and have them approved by the teacher.  This must be printed out in class so that the students can reference it in the future.  There are many streets that will fall under these definitions, so the students need to look carefully for streets that fall under this category.

Once the students have found their streets, they must then zoom into the map to find the landmarks that are located at the eight “corner” angles that are created by the two parallel lines and the transversal. Parallel Line Project Outline

Materials Needed for Day 3:

• Each student must have a computer with Internet access
• Access to Google Earth/Google Maps

Day 4:

Students will complete the conversion from Google Earth to their own version in class using online tools.  In the past I have given students a choice of:  

• Drawing streets neatly on construction paper using color and decoration
• Using a computer to draw the diagram
• Constructing a three dimensional model to portray the diagram.

This year, I want the students to use technology to increase their overall reading comprehension and skills.  The students can use a variety of tools such as their own blogs, websites, prezi, coggle, microsoft word or publisher, or any other tool approved by the teacher.Day 4- Parallel Line Project Rubric

Materials Needed for Day 4:

• All students need access to computer with internet
• Use of online tools for creation of new map
• Final Project Rubric
• Teacher needs access to email for students to send projects.

To conclude the unit, students will work on a short essay that they will then share to a class blog where other students will be able to comment.  This essay is a chance for the students to reflect on the unit.  I would like the students to provide feedback to myself as well as their peers.

Common Core

The following Geometry Common Core standards will be addressed within this lesson:

Transformations and the Coordinate Plane

CC.9-12.G.CO.1 Know precise definitions of angle, circle, perpendicular line, parallel line, and line segment, based on the undefined notions of point, line, distance along a line, and distance around a circular arc.

CC.9-12.G.GPE.5 Prove the slope criteria for parallel and perpendicular lines and use them to solve geometric problems (e.g., find the equation of a line parallel or perpendicular to a given line that passes through a given point).

Congruence, Proof and Constructions

CC.9-12.G.CO.9 Prove theorems about lines and angles. Theorems include: vertical angles are congruent; when a transversal crosses parallel lines, alternate interior angles are congruent and corresponding angles are congruent; points on a perpendicular bisector of a line segment are exactly those equidistant from the segment's endpoints.

Students may use geometric simulations (computer software or graphing calculator) to explore theorems about lines and angles.

Week Six Discussion Response EDUC 7718 (Paskov)

1.   Conversation, discussion, presentation.    What are they and how do they appear in your professional life?    If you were to diagram the power relationships in each of them,  what would the diagrams look like?     Which are technology-enhanced and which technology impeded?   Is there anything about the current status and role of these in your present professional situation that you would like to change?

In my professional life, conversation, discussion, and presentation appear every day.

As teachers, I think that these three items are crucial to our profession in order to continue the day to day process of teaching.  Without conversation among students, colleagues and parents we would be unable to complete our lessons.  Without daily discussions, the students would be left confused and without presentation, they would be left to teach themselves.  Therefore, we need these items to continue on our daily lives as educators.

Conversation:

In my school we have ninth grade teams.  I am a part of one of them.  Each week I meet with the other ninth grade math teachers to converse about the curriculum and where we all are in the subject matter.  We are currently formulating pre and post tests to collect data for our students so that we can pinpoint the weak areas that we can try to overcome in the upcoming years.  

We are taking are previously made district made Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s) and pulling out the most important topics.  From these topics we are formulating multiple choice questions for the students to answer.  From these pre and post tests, we hope that students will increase their scores by  at least two questions.  We have created a Google Doc to collect this data across the curriculum for all of the teachers so that we can visualize the difference in scores amongst all of the subjects.  This is a nice way to offer conversation as well as discussion of why the students are not performing as well as they should.

Discussion:

Being on the ninth grade team gives me team meeting time each day.  We use this time to discuss plans for struggling students or students with behavior issues.  We meet with parents, students, guidance counselors, and administrators to help get these students on the right track for their ninth grade year.  

As we discuss students we access their grades and attendance issues on a large screen projector and analyze them as a team.  This then gives us an idea as a “team” of teacher where the student are struggling and how we can approach their weaknesses.   I think that this particular part is technology enhanced.  Without the technology of PowerSchool, we would not be able to view the students’ schedules and grades.  Technology gives us the upper hand and lets us be one step ahead of the students so that we can bring them in and speak to them before their troubles worsen.

Presentation:

There are many different times where teachers present to other teachers using the new technologies that have been given to our school.

As I read through Turkle’s readings I realized that many of us are falling in to this category of always being online.  I am completely guilty of one of those teachers that attends a faculty meeting or team meeting and has me cell phone on my side checking emails and text messgaes throughout the majority of the meeting.  As Turkle stated, “Parents say they are more stressed than ever as they try to keep up with email and messages.  They always feel behind.” (Turkle, page 164)  I often feel the same way.  I teach five classes right in a row since my conference period falls in the morning period.  Sometimes administration or other teachers get upset with me because I did not respond to an email in an efficient and timely manner.  I try to get back to my colleagues as quickly as I can but I am certainly pressed for time as I am constantly teaching and do not have time to check email all of the time. Some  teachers have their school email sent directly to their mobile devices, but that is an option that I have decided to not choose at this time.

Checking phone messages is a whole other topic.  In our school, we do not have phones in our classrooms so we are to share phones with the other 100 teachers in the school.  There are about five phones that we can use amongst the faculty.  This leads to late responses and upset parents.

2.  Feedback.    Please describe what sort of feedback you want from me.   I am trying to challenge your thinking with the comment feature running throughout the text, but that forces you into Google docs.-- a limitation, ----while the global comments features in the other formats don’t seem detailed enough to me.   Maybe it’s my age: I am missing the private conversations before after and during  face to face classes.  What are your thoughts and suggestions?

I really enjoy getting feedback from you in the form of Google Docs.  I think perhaps this is the reason I continue to use Google Docs.  You are very descriptive with your feedback and your grading.  Your feedback is timely and well organized.  You do not simply use the rubric as a guide, you actually complete it as a chart.  This is helpful for me to see where I went wrong and what I could fix.

It is interesting to find out that as we struggle with using different mediums in our coursework, you are struggling with different mediums as you leave us feedback.  I personally think that the choice of using Google Docs really works well as a place for leaving comments and you can then attach the rubric.  However, if we branch into different mediums, leaving a comment becomes very detailed and can not be left at each point.  It is a possibility to continue to provide the feedback rubric in a Google Doc even though we may be using different mediums?

My choice of medium

This week I have chosen to post my response on my blog.  I wrote my response in Google 

Docs first so that I could make sure everything was in proper placement.  Google Docs is 

something that I have grown accustomed to, but I wanted to try to use a different medium as 

suggested for this week’s response. I will be interested to see how feedback is left in this format.    

My New Website!!!

I decided to try to work on my digital hub a bit tonight.  I just got curious as to what some sites look like and then I started to fiddle around a bit.  I ended up getting more involved in it than I thought.  I created a site within Google Sites since all of my information is in Google.  I have created a Classroom website that I am going to try to use through my school.  The website address is below:

https://sites.google.com/site/mathwithpaskov/home


It is a very rough draft of what I would like to see in my website as I have not uploaded a syllabus or submitted my claases that I teach or their assignments, but it has some bones to it.  I am looking forward to working on it more and more.

A Reflection on being a Discussion Director

     After an intense week, my time of being discussion director has come to a close.  I would like to take this time to reflect on some things I might change for the next time.  I had to prepare for this in a short amount of time but I was very adamant about making my own discussion questions.  I really wanted to formulate them on my own.  My discussion questions for the week were:

Discussion Question #1:

Few "new literacies" such as the Internet, wikis, blogs, search engines, instant messaging, email,  and online gaming have made their way into the classroom.  What are your feelings about "new literacies" and the classroom?  

Discussion Question #2:

Many times we are to believe that if students are high achieving in offline text, they will be high achieving in online text.  This is not always the case.  What are your feelings about the idea of Isomorphism?  Do you think it exists?  Have you seen any examples of Isomorphism in your own classroom?

     

     I had given instructions that even though the two questions were unrelated, I wanted everyone to feel free to choose one to begin the discussion with and then we could shift to the second question or we could discuss both and see where they took us.  

     After looking over the discussion, I realized that although I enjoyed seeing everyone's ideas and opinions on both questions but, I should have stuck to one question.  What happened was that some of my classmates though it was necessary to answer both questions, which is was not.  Had I stuck to one of the questions, I could have seen where it took us.  (The first discussion question had started to make a different turn, a turn into professional development and the lack of teachers being prepared.)  I would have liked to formulate a new question based around that topic.  However, many of my classmates then shifted back to the second question.  This is where some people dropped from the discussion or were just trying to make sure they answered both prompts. 

     If I were to run a discussion again, I would definitely only begin with one question.  This way everyone knows what to answer and the discussion can proceed from there.

      Of course there are the tough jobs like the grading.  I want to be fair to everyone.  If I can advise anyone else it would be to make sure you join in the discussion as soon as you can.  I know that we are all busy, but when we have free time get involved.  As the director I went in each day and responded to everyone as much as I could.  However, it is hard for someone to join into a discussion after a week.  

     I really enjoyed being a discussion director.  Working with everyone was a lot of fun.  I realize my style may not work for everyone and that is fine with me.  I look forward to seeing how everyone else holds their discussions.   If anyone has questions about being a discussion director, please feel free to ask me.