Twitter 101 @ MRHS

Attended a workshop on Twitter yesterday. Mr. Howe is doing some great things both in his class and online, here's his outline for the workshop. He's got some things that I never new about. Not that I've used twitter much since I signed up in 2007.

Here are the main points I got.
1. To send it to a group chat use #keyword like #mathchat or #edtech
2. Ask for help from a group like #sschat - Howe asked about ways to electronically submit papers & if someone else had used a particular activity in their AP U.S. History class and how it went.

CPS training

So I actually finally gave my training to the math teachers at MRHS. I pretty much bombed it. I was far more unprepared than I thought - evenhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif though I started planning a month in advance. So here's my powerpoint.

I had the plan of
1) talk about what clickers are used for
3) And give the teachers time to interact with several of the different functions of CPS
a)Verbal questions using stolen web-based quizzes
b)Fast grade where the student clicks in their response from a given worksheet of questions (this is where I faulted because I didn't preload the correct responses)
c)CPS quiz/premade questions
d)pick a student at random
e)chart responses to measure performance both on individual and group questions.
3) Give them time to set up one of their own to use.

If you're reading this and want some more of the info I created email me at protsee95@yahoo.com

CPS clicker trainer?

So in suggesting a training on how to better utilize the CPS clickers with powerpoint. I essentially was elected to give the training. Here are my thoughts right now:

1)handout of the instruction to create a ppt and use of CPS to record grade
2)show video segement from einstruction website
3)demonstrate to participants a live ppt questionairre
4)ask if there are any questions

Unfortunately our school only has the old school IR devices. so only MC style questions are available. Got a huge interest from the calc teacher who wanted a different method of review for AP exam!

CPS for ppt

just learned about how to use CPS and ppt together they actually have a nice tutorial at http://www.einstruction.com/programs/product-training under online training tools.

Mass Texts

So I have had this thought, since the global learners started: to utilize text messaging in an educational format. however after doing some research on the web, particularly this article. I find that using texts does have its hidden flaws.

yet the idea is still out there and I found an internet application that will process the request. I have yet to test it out, but the future will yeild a blog of it's results. If you're interested its called Tatango.

Algebra lesson

So I am taking a class this spring semester titled "teaching algebra and trigonometry." The final exam for the project was to create/compile a document that other teachers could use/learn from for teaching a unit in the courses of Algebra or Trigonometry. I did my unit for ACHS's Alg 9B's first unit of study - Linear Functions. It's 50 pages long, so it might seem cumbersome unless you're actually teaching a unit on linear functins. I've attached a link to the link on my webpage for you to view the document.

I've got this exact message on my blog too. Haven't quite figured out how to do the "cross-blogging" thing yet.

Algebra 9B Unit 1

So I am taking a class this spring semester titled "teaching algebra and trigonometry." The final exam for the project was to create/compile a document that other teachers could use/learn from for teaching a unit in the courses of Algebra or Trigonometry. I did my unit for ACHS's Alg 9B's first unit of study - Linear Functions. It's 50 pages long, so it might seem cumbersome unless you're actually teaching a unit on linear functins. I've attached a link to the link on my webpage for you to view the document.

Collaborative Team project

So I've got a majority of the projects finally turned in, and I'm not sure if I didn't model a good final project or if the students simply missunderstood the goal of the project that Ms. Bucher, Ms. Enoch and I worked on. As a reminder, the kids were to choose a political issue, write a persuasive essay, find supporting statistics, and put it all together in a multimedia presentation in the form of a photostory or powerpoint. The 3 that did the powerpoint did great, listing sources and actually having persuasive text in their slides; however, the rest who chose to do a photostory really only had descriptive text and little to no persuasion or supportive statistics. I'll try to find two or three exemplars that I publish their work and maybe get some critiques from my listening audience.

Avid Training

So I went to an AVID pathways training last week (11/27 & 11/28) and our presenter reinforced some ideas: like TV sets the attention span of our students and we should look at doing some break up activity every 10-15 minutes. Some of the ideas he shared are doing a warm-up like a review of volume, then taking a sheet of paper and cutting it exactly in half and forming two different cylinders (by folding the hot dog and hamburger ways) and asking the students to "Vote with their feet" by saying the left side of the room is the short fat cylinder can hold more M&Ms and the right side of the room says the tall skinny cylinder can hold more M&Ms or those who stand in the middle think the both will hold equal amounts of M&Ms. After seeing the distribution toss out the "Brain" (often called the talking stick) and have people from the three groups make statements to persuade someone from the other groups to change their mind (of course the person who convinces another gets a prize). Then after every one's had the opportunity to bring someone over explain the Volume solutions.

Another example he gave was "4 corners." In the west corner is the walking trail, the North corner is one lane dirt road, the East corner is paved street and the South corner is the autobahn. Meaning the west is people who know nothing, the north knows a little, East has played with it but not in depth knowledge, South knows all there is to know. He gave the name "facebook" and we all moved. Then starting with the west we explained what we knew.

Project ideas

1. Lowering the drinking age
2. Decriminalizing marijuana
3. Fingerprinting students for use in schools - lunch, book check out, fines, etc
4. Uniforms in schools
5. Curfew laws
6. Religion in schools
7. Off campus Lunch
8. Creationism vs. Evolution being taught in schools
9. Use of technology in the classroom (or lack there of)
Should students be allowed to use their phones during class?
Should teachers send tests to thier students phones?
Does background music improve learning?
10. Healthcare - private personal coverage vs. global governmental coverage
11. Immigration - various issues abound here

Students should be allowed to generate their own topics with approval of instructor and it be in the boundaries of a policital issue with statistical persuasions either for or against the position.

Continuing the project

Here's the latest thoughts on continuing the project. We have a time line of before Christmas break. This week til Thursday Ms. Bucher is doing and introduction to research and what is a source. Thursday and Friday Ms. Enoch and I will show and have the students select their political topic to do research on. We'll divide time up among the three of us for research on from December 3 to the 12th and from the 13th to the 19th have them create their multimedia final project of a commercial, PowerPoint (type) presentation or short film. With student presentations on the 20th and the 21st.

10 math questions

So I'm trying to use an idea from a book by Lynne Kelly called "Challenging Minds." The idea is to have students answer questions that may or may not have answers in traditional resource places. The example they use is "What is an Apgar test?" the problem with the question is that I found an answer on google, which I believe is the primary resource for most people; however,the idea is that if a student had asked their mom or a recent mother they would be able to explain what a Apgar Test is. So for an introduction to the research/persuasion project we thought it would be best to find 10 questions each for Civics, Statistics, and Persuasion. I'll post comments for some of my ideas.

Adding on to the unit project

So the idea comes in that we need to help our students become better at projects, not only the resources to look at how to manage their time. I've collaborated with my team (Tonya and Patti Jo) about how we can work together to support eachother. So we reconfigured another project for GT kids. We're going to ask 20 or so questions from our respective fields and have the kids take the questions home to murr over (most probably set aside) then have them complete research with text sources only for one day and finally two days for internet research. The idea is that they realize that books and the internet are not their only resources for information. People too have knowledge and they are often the best resource we can find and trust.

End of term 1

So I had lots of great ideas and no time to implement. So here's my thought: term 2 work collaboratively with my team and create a team project in which we all have differing assignments/goals based upon the student position on a political idea or opinion. So I can keep track myself here are some possible ideas

1. Lowering the drinking age
2. Decriminalizing marijuana
3. Fingerprinting students for use in schools - lunch, book check out, fines, etc
4. Uniforms in schools
5. Curfew laws

Ideally a webquest can be set up for the students to explore these ideas and pick groups for themselves to work on a project that either supports or arguees against the statistics, the article or the claim itself. From there, I'd like to employ the use of Zoomerang and have the kids create a survey to see if the other students as a whole either agree or disagree with the claim.

Decompression

So I'd like to talk about teachers needing time to decompress. We always talk about wait time when dealing with our students, and how we need to give them time to process and learn the material. What about teachers? As a global learner i've been trying to put into practice all the things that were presented that I wanted to take back to my classroom. However, I'm finding that task difficult because I never let myself decompress about what happens during a day. Sure I reflect here and on my own when I don't have a place to write/blog; however, it never feels like enough. I've been working on my classroom management with several teachers in the hopes my student will be mature enough to use technology in a learning appropriate way, but they have trouble coming prepared, doing work, and treating books, calculators, desks, other students and the adults in my room with the respect they deserve. I saw it best when I took my classes down to the lab (where each student had their own computer to use) and helped them set up gmail, blogger, wikispaces, and gizmo accounts. They all did fine with the email (as far as I could tell) but the majority couldn't go further and I spent most of my time redirecting the technoliterate students away from other webpages and focuse on the ones they should be on.

Oh, well. This is mostly me just venting and looking for answers that possibly don't exist for my classroom right now.

adams14schools.org

So I discovered something interesting during the ACHS homepage professional development by Dave Tarwater. The adams14schools.org site is not across the board for all google applications. For instance my I can access my email once I'm in the www.adams14schools.org site, however if I go to the google search page and click the sign in icon near the top left and try loggin in using my email john.protsman@adams14schools.org and use the same password from the adams14schools page it tells me that my username and password do not match. However, I created a blogger account awhile back an if I use that password it signs me in. I find it strange. I'll talk to Dave, the Tech Man, Tarwater. Regina put up a comment that he needs a cape, I say we gotta get him the full costume!

http://protsmans-algebra.blogspot.com/

So i've been working on trying to get access to my other blog account through adams14schools.org and it seems it was a simple case of inputing the wrong password. I guess I wasn't as diligent in using docs as a place for storage of accounts, logins, and passwords. Funny stuff.

Been awhile

So it's been awhile since I posted. I first want to thank some of the teachers that personally work with me: Michelle Troch, Carmen Herrada & Annette Garcia. I was having some trouble getting my large (31 student) last block class to settle down, get work done and not distract others. I tried some strategies like changing seats, breaking up class activities, recording them and adding adults to the classroom. As painful as it was to get sick last thursday, it pushed Michelle to try some of her strategies (and some we discussed like no group work, no bathroom, no electronics and consequences) with the class and with that introduced I get to help continue the structure she set up and enforce those consequences.

I continue to have trouble with student access to computers outside of class. I sent an email to all of my students through the adams14schools account with an extra credit assignment, and only one of my almost 100 students chose to complete the blog post.

I did have success with my block two and setting them up to use gizmo's. They were alot more tech advanced than I thought and most of them completed 3 gizmo activities and quizzes in one class session.

I'm still not managing my time effectively to grade, plan, and post to my website. However, I did set my team up with theirs at Click here. We'll see how the rest of the trimester and year goes.

@adams14schools.org

I've also had issues with the school google accounts. There are many students I've referred to Chris about their student accounts however on a personal note I created a blog through my @adams14schools.com account and after logging out I can't get back in. These are just my frustrations

Technical difficulties

So I've been experiencing technical difficulties lately. First in TAAT my students were mixed up compared to my class roster. Second, I've been (Thursday and Friday) able to connect to the wireless router in SW200 from the Math Laptop cart. Today I tried to move the laptop cart and the router into my room and found that none of the laptops, mine nor the laptops from the cart to connect to with anything greater than the comment of "limited or no connectivity." I'm still working on a couple of troubling issues regarding student participation and the clickers. For some reason I've got a hand full that plain hate the device and what it stands for, so they simply refuse to participate, and most of them are my better performing students. Very troubling issue for me right now.