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Thursday, August 27, 2009

New Beginnings

I've completed my MAT program and am staring a new adventure. In a few short days I start my teaching assignment at JDHS, Juneau Douglas High School. I'm excited about the oppurtunity to teach and I'll try to update more later!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

My Personal Technology IEP

I chose to write my Individualized Education Plan (IEP) based upon my lack of knowledge on operating a Mac and any software that Mac’s use.

My Goals:
Andrea will be able to adequately navigate a Mac and will demonstrate this proficiency by

  • being able to open applications by using Finder
  • using iworks suite including pages, numbers, and keynote
    (A keynote presentation, import a graph from numbers, and pages for the script of my project)
  • able to export slides from Keynote into imovie
  • complete a digital story using imovie

To demonstrate that these goals were met, I created a final project using imovie.

Using this newly acquired knowledge, I have designed a series of lessons that will integrate this technology into my content area, mathematics. I will use my imovie as a sample for my students to see a final project idea and I would then have the knowledge to confidently lead them through the process. Click here for the full lesson plans.

Lesson 1: Rough Draft Idea
Lesson 2: Rough Draft equations, chart, and solving the system of equations two ways
Lesson 3: The script
Lesson 4: Begin Keynote
Lesson 5: Using numbers to make a graph, finish Keynote
Lesson 6: Export Keynote as jpeg images into imovie and begin voice over
Lesson 7: Bring it all home- complete project

I would consider myself to have sound technological skills on a computer. I can usually fix things, change things, and generally get around close to an advanced user. Come to think of it, I am actually quite proud of my computer and technological skills and those skills have served as an advantage getting the jobs that I’ve had. But all this information was on one platform: a PC. To enter the world of Mac’s and not even be quite sure how to open a program was a difficult transition for this apt user. I’ve spent this last semester learning basic navigation skills and using some basic software that is MAC specific. This task was met with intense frustration at moments, me actually trying to read help bubbles for assistance, and a more persistent attitude that I can and will be proficient with all computers. At the beginning of this project, I simply struggled with knowing PC shortcuts and knowing that I could do something special with a line of text, but not being able to find that function on the Mac. Luckily I have now conquered my frustration and feel ready to face the world.

I began by working on my own digital storytelling project to accustom myself to various software I was hoping my students would soon be able to use. This experience helped immensely because I had an unmatched empathy to the students who were frustrated and felt the task might be impossible. Upon completion of my digital project, I then moved forward with the project in the classroom.

Students worked in teams and on the first day were given project overview, rubric, and rough draft.

The Drawbacks:

This project ended up taking a little more time than I had originally thought. It was originally only going to be 5 lesson days but became 7 lessons. I believe I was most shocked to see gaping holes in students understanding of technology and basics on how software is used. This is not to say that they are not wildly proficient in technology, but their expertise is related to different software. The other obstacle of the project was the constant monitoring that was required to ensure students were on task. I used Remote Desktop that enabled me to view what students were working on, close programs that were not applicable, or send messages for them to get back on task. At one point I put a rotating monitoring screen of the students laptops on the overhead projector for other students to monitor as I moved about the classroom. This project was completed with 3 sections of Algebra 1 students and both my host teacher and I played vital roles in assisting students at every turn.

The Positive Outcomes:

The 1 to 1 laptops were part of a grant effort where each freshman this year was assigned a laptop for educational use. This project integrated the laptops effectively into the classroom giving student opportunities to use technology to advance their own learning. Also the project allowed for a wide range of student creativity to surface which is sometimes rarely explored within a mathematics classroom. The situations and problems that the teams of students choose were of a wide variety representing a plethora of student interests. The math was solid and was reinforced several times throughout the project ensuring that they could solve a system of equations in several different ways. This was also a good project in working with a team member farthing my personal philosophy of being able to talk about math to help students be able to grasp it in a deeper and stronger reality.

A wide range of final digital stories were turned in. I have chosen a variety of projects to show the full spectrum of what a final product could look like (or should look like).

Sample Student Videos

(You will need to sign into TeacherTube or create a free account to view my student's work).
Two pretty good ones:
Megleen Issues - Storage Rental Space Options and Justin's Musical Dilemma - Downloading Music

Two "other" ones: I need a tan! - Tanning Salon packages and
Pet Washers - Dog grooming

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Article Review: Technologies for Reading


Technologies for Reading: Assistive Technologies for Literacy
Taken from the Association for supervision and Curriculum Development

by Ted Hasselbring and Margaret Bausch

In reading this article, I was surprised to learn that as many as 8 of 10 students are faced with reading problems so intense that they cannot read grade level material. The writer suggests that an ideal situation is not only using assistive technology to help with the day to day reading but rather the student could continue to improve their reading skills. The Kentucky Department of Education used a software program in 95% of their schools called Read & Write Gold which assists students with both reading and writing. Since students can use the software independently in most cases, this allows the students to listen to a specific passage several times without having to ask questions or for it to be read to them again by a teacher.

Schools are also addressing increasing a students reading skills with technologies because some of the assistive technology won't be available to them outside of the schools walls. One study conducted in the Des Moines Independent Community School District found that 18% of students who had one year of intervention no longer required special education for reading the following year. While technology continues to advance and student success is apparent, this achievement is still educator focused; for it is the role of the professional to know when and how to best integrate such technology. The author concludes that "technology is not magic" but rather a tool that can be skillfully and wisely applied by excellent educators.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Online Social Web


I have participated in "Teach-nology" online community through their content specific math forum. This forum is used by teachers to share successes in teaching, to ask for help on specific mathematical problems, or to pass along what they felt was a great lesson plan. I find it to sometimes be a little cumbersome to review as it is not grade specific so the math ranges from elementary to advanced high school class topics. The most beneficial part of being a member of this online community is simply reading and learning what others teacher have found to work to see how I can incorporate other ideas in my classroom so that each student is met on their level paying attention to all the various learning styles and learning differences.

TeAchnology also has a seperate forum for new teachers that has some interesting posts. With thier large membership and various threads on all the avaible forums, one is bound to find somehing interesting or useful to their own specifc teaching career or content area. Visit the TeAchnology website to see what you can find to assist you in your teacher career!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Digital Story: Solving Systems of Equations

In our Algebra 1 class, students were given a project involving a systems of equations. The project began with an outline of information that was needed: the problem, the equations, the table of values, the graph, and solving the system by substitution and elimination. After the initial phase had been completed and approved, students then went into the electronic world using their 1 to 1 laptops. Their first task was to write the narrative for their movie. Then using programs like Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and imovie the digital story began to come alive.

I created a sample digital story for the project. To begin, I used a story map to create the story and this can be viewed here. My sample video can be view at youtube at this link!

Students creativity with this project was impressive. From students who were determined to only use real information and truly seek out the better cell company based on their texting plans to students who dream of wooed by two different NBA teams and the deals that they'd be offered. The project was completed by pairs of students. To grade this project, I created a rubric. It can be viewed at this link.

Internet Resources I like



Here is a list of three of my favorite online resources that I have used as a teacher.



1: One resource I found especially helpful integrating technology into my mathematics classroom is illuminations. This resource is brought to us by NCTM is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics so any of the lessons or activities are all linked back to standards.


2: Another resource that I have recently been able to integrate more fully into my class is
classzone. This is a link to a specific activity that was already set up to help reinforce newly introduced mathematical vocabulary. It is by the same folks who make the textbook so activities are directly related to lessons I'm teaching.


3: My last favorite website that I'll take time to mention is
catchvideo where you can captures and download youtube videos to use in the classroom since JSD restricts youtube from it's servers.