Thing 19

1.  This digital story was created in iMovie.  I did find iMovie pretty easy to use.  I will need to play around with PhotoStory since my school doesn't have Macs.

2.    Here is the link to my video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEr3SXTYVM



3.   I could see my students using digital storytelling as a way of explaining a topic in math to their peers.  There are times when  a student just doesn't understand something that has been taught by me.  But when one of their peers explains it, it all seems to make sense to the student.

Digital storytelling could also be used for students who are homebound and/or have the tendency to miss ( skip)  their favorite class (math).  This way, the student doesn't miss out on information that was presented in class.

4.  The feedback from the video has been great!  The music that was chosen was perfect for the video and my viewers found the captions funny.  One viewer said it was perfect.  Aww... bless her heart.  :)  I did have my sister preview it before I sent it to YouTube and she found 2 mistakes that I quickly cleared up.  Other than that, everything else was good.

Thing 18

1.  My district has an online program for students that has been in place for 4 years now.  Because of this online program, all teachers have access to e2020/education2020 for all courses that are taught within the building.  There have been several traditional classes that have blended online learning with traditional learning with some success.

Personally, I have used e2020 to prepare my students for the ACT/MME test.  Naturally, some students did find it beneficial and chose to continue working on e2020 at home.  For them, they felt better prepared for the actually ACT/MME.  Other students didn't take it seriously because there wasn't a grade attached to working on e2020 or they became frustrated with the content and decided to give up.

For this upcoming school year, I hope to incorporate the e2020 program as well as phschool.com  more in my planning for the classes I will be teaching.  I know I have students that would find learning some of the content online beneficial to their success in math.  Plus it would give students another view on how math can be taught.  It would also give them the opportunity to learn upcoming topics before they are taught.  I know I loose a few with some of my lectures.  Hopefully, by giving them another avenue of learning, they will use it to gain a better understand of the topics taught in class.

Downside:  Being able to get into a computer lab when every teacher in trying to do the same thing.  Too few labs and too few working computers is a big issue.

NOTE:  e2020 and phschool.com are at no cost to our students.

2.  Instead of writing a paragraph I decided to list some things that would enable a student to be successful as an online student.

• Commitment to taking online courses with the knowledge that you will be working independently.
• Being a self-sufficient independent (for the most part) learner
• Knowing the cost, if any, for taking online classes
• Willingness to increase skills for the workplace
• Willingness to learn new ways of communication(i.e. Skype, blogging, creating own website)
• Take on the responsibility for own learning
• Knowing if the course can be accessed at home, school, library, etc.
• Having a computer
• Knowing if working ahead is allowed
• The limit on the number of courses that can be taken in a semester
• Knowing who to contact for tech support
• What teachers are available and when to help when topics need more explanation 
• Will online courses count towards graduation?
• Are the online courses accredited?
• Will in-school lab time be required?
• Learning how to use the program that provides the online course
• Knowing how homework (if any), quizzes and tests are to be turned in.
• What happens when passing the course isn't possible?

Thing 17

1.  Interesting and informative site to have joined.  Im particularly interested in some of the course catalog offerings that are online.  Im not really sure if I would use the collaboration center but would definitely use the Reference Center seems to provide resourceful information that I could use in my classroom.

2.  Since I have a Facebook acct that is strictly for my personal use, I went ahead and signed up for Twitter.  One of the people that was suggested to follow was J. Lo.  Really??  Anyway here is my Twitter page.  Just following 11 so far.  Don't know if I would ever use this though with students.  Honestly, I wouldn't have my students follow me or be a part of my Facebook page even if it was strictly used for academic purposes.  I just see too much of a risk with what can be posted on Facebook and Twitter by students.  Plus there are plenty of other avenues to communicate with students via online sources.

3.

4.   Below is the screenshot of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics website.  The purpose of this organization is as follows according to their mission statement :

The cost for membership varies from $104 for Individual membership to $40 for a Student membership.

Some benefits include subscriptions to Journal for Research in Mathematics Education or Mathematics Teacher just to name a few. There are also discounts on all conferences for being a member.

 Skills that I could bring to this organization would be my knowledge of teaching students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, learning  and social economic backgrounds the fun of learning math.

Thing 16

1.  The pair of databases that I took a look at were InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition.  What I decided to search for was information on the Pythagorean Theorem for students to find material for a research project.

a.  Appropriateness
Both sites are appropriate for high school students to use and from the links that I did click on, nothing seem inappropriate .
b.  Usability
Both sites were easy to use and their page layouts are not messy and confusing.   There are various tabs that allow for searches of material (i.e.  basic search, advance search and publication search)
c.  Content
In searching for information on the Pythagorean Theorem I found that both sites really didn't produce enough  information  that I would want my students to look for.  InfoTrac Junior barely had anything on the subject while InfoTrac Student had more news articles, journals and books available.   The one thing, however, that is making me think both databases wouldn't be useful on the subject of the Pythagorean Theorem is the fact that there are articles that contain the words Pythagorean Theorem but have nothing to do with its creator or how it is used.
d.  Credibility
Although the both databases didn't impress me when searching for the Pythagorean Theorem,  I would still let students know about both.  There are other topics in math and other subject areas where both databases could prove very useful to students.

2.  The database I took a look at was the General Reference Center Gold.  I chose to do a search on cyber bullying since it has been a hot topic in schools across the country for the past couple of years.

a.  Appropriateness
Yes, this site is appropriate for students to use in researching information on the topic of cyber bullying.
b. Usability
Just like the other sites, this one easy to use and its page layouts are not messy and confusing.   There are various tabs that allow for searches of material (i.e.  basic search, advance search and publication search).
c.  Content
I did find the content  to contain reliable information that would be useful for students doing research on the topic.  I also clicked on several videos that were a part of the search.   The only downside was that I had to install Flip4Mac software in order to view some of the Windows Media videos.

d.  Credibility

The General Reference Center Gold just like the others is creditable and useful.  And just like the other databases, students will either find a wealth of sources or very little depending on what they are searching.

  

3.  Citation for a video in MLA format using the citation tool in MEL:

4.  A citation using EasyBib

Thing 15

I chose to use iGoogle because like most things with Google its easy to learn and navigate.   Google, however, has decided to retire iGoogle in November 2013.  Great...

Anyway,  using a RSS aggregator would be helpful to my students in keeping up with the latest news, entertainment, interests  and educational resource feeds all in one place.  

Thing 14

1.  I took a pptx file of a graphic organizer and converted it into a pdf file.   Since I type a lot of my notes, formula sheets and other things  in Word and sometimes PowerPoint, being able to use an online tool that coverts from one format to another would be very beneficial to my students.   I can covert my documents into a format that students could easily access without having to pay for software to open the original files.  This would give students the ability to not fall behind if they are absent during lecture.  It would also give students the chance to convert their own files at school and send them to their personal email addresses in order for them to have access.

Below are screenshots of the original document in pptx and its conversion in pdf.

2.

Converted docx to pdf:  Result was good.  No problems.

Coverted docx to bmp:  Result was good but each of the four pages of the original document resulted in four separate downloads in bmp.

Converted docx to png.  Result was good but each of the four pages of the original document resulted in four separate downloads in png.

Converted docx to odt.  Result was good.  No problems.

Converted docx to txt.  Restult wasn't that good.  Items that I had bold and underlined in the original didn't show up in the txt format.  Also spacing in the txt format was off.

A screenshot of what is emailed from Zamar 

A screenshot of what will be downloaded 

3.   Since my district moved from Outlook over to Google Docs, everyone has been using Google Calendar with students, within departments, individually, within individual  schools and the district.   It's an easy way to communicate upcoming events without having to constantly remind people verbally or use printed calendars.  It's a great tool to use to let students and parents know when assignments are due, when quizzes and tests will take place and what in general is going on at the school.  

Below is my Google calendar from January of this year.  What you see in orange in mine and what you see in purple and yellow is what has been shared with the entire staff by the athletic office and the principal.

Thing 13

1.  Here is a Google Earth screenshot of the famous Manitou Incline just outside of Colorado Springs, CO.  This was my very first hiking experience and it was tough but totally cool.  The other screenshot is to show you what the incline really looks like and how steep.  I ready to go back and tackle the Incline a few more times.

2.  This is my number one place that I want to visit.  Had the opportunity to visit several years ago but I chose to work summer school.  What was I thinking!?!?

3.  Quizlet

Since I use flashcards all the time in my Geometry classes and the one providing the 3 x 5 notecards or making some from card stock,  Quizlet would be much easier for my students to use and save me time.   Plus they wouldn't lose their note cards.  They could easily quiz themselves on the terminology of the course as well as share their flashcards with others.  I would use it as a review tool that would include vocabulary as well as mathematical images prior to a quiz or test.