Sunday, October 31, 2010

Classroom 2.0

So I signed up for Classroom 2.0 as a learning community.  It made me laugh, all the links they wanted from me, which I wouldn't have had before my classes this August with Prof. Jablonski.  I feel I will be very backward on this site.  I want to suggest to my professor that SOU make a technology class just like what they have for beginning teachers, but advertised and directed toward us old teachers.  We really need this new stuff and yet don't have time to play and discover.  (I would suggest that he go a little slower and be a little more patient with my crowd).  : }

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Asset Map

I completed an asset map.  It is a really good activity to make you aware of all the help and possibilities you may have.

Wiki entry pg 57

I answered all the questions to page 57 on my Wiki site  https://sites.google.com/site/mscalliesprojectbasedlearning and it was very useful in getting me thinking about the purpose of the project in regards to my standards.  ( unfortunately I had to type it twice because it erased as I tried to look at the photo on the Wiki page)
I really appreciate having the Delicious Site because I can easily navigate to the standards and cut and paste.

Project ideas

I did look on some of those sites but did not see something specific to math, technology and assessment.  I will look further.
I talked to Dr. J about project ideas and purpose for this week.  I need to complete pages 67-74 in the text.  Big ideas for this week are complete project sketch and asset map as well as focus on the big ideas that I want to cover in my math class.  I want to review the 3 focal points and make sure I touch on all of them.
As a project idea, we discussed a restaurant unit.  I did this about 15 years ago in a class I was long term subbing in.  We brought in an architect to talk about some of the factors in design.  Some of the most squirrelly kids latched onto this project, worked constantly and had great final products.
So these are some of the factors that we talked about: area of restaurant, carpeting/tile, paint(surface area), scale drawings, volume of drink containers, cost of materials, cost of food, menu, sign design, storage, air-conditioning/heating in cubic feet, and people capacity.
For the technology aspect we talked about Google Earth to look at the location of a place, Google Sketch for sign design and possibly layout of the restaurant, digital camera use to take pictures of different restaurants as they scope out what they like and dislike about places.
In my own class I am thinking I want to get through the basic skills first and then use this project and others to solidfy the skills and anchor them in real life practice.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Reading Reinventing Project-Based Learning

In chapter 1 I focused on the thoughts that the curriculum is taught through the project and it is not a side activity.  When reading about the blogs, not one seemed to have a mathematical focus.  I need to go back into edutopia.org and browse their library of project ideas. 
In my head ideas are flitting around about the kids somehow doing a project on fractions, but I want it to be something that makes sense as a real problem.
This chapter also discusses the isolation of teachers.  I find our precious planning time is filled with many other things aside from planning curriculum.  I do enjoy collaborating but we don't have time.
I like the idea of sharing and reflecting with other teachers.  I think it would be nice if we could watch each other once in a while during our prep periods.  It would work well with certain teachers, but harder with those whom I don't have trust in.
I need to try classroom20.ning.com or globalcommunity.ning.com for an online community.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Wiki page

I have created a wiki page with a link but it reminds me of the Newsletter assignment.  It is harder to navigate and change the site the way I want it.  I don't have the patience to fine tune it right now.  But it is started.
I tried to look up online communities but had no success so far.  I am thinking of asking my colleague, Cindy, at work this week.
I also met with Dr. J on Thursday to flesh out the class.  That was a good session.  I am set.

Previous journal entries 9/26- Oct 15th

9/29/10 The first step for me is setting up this site on my web page.
I will then look into sites such as edutopia for descriptions of project based learning.
10/5  ESD Fall Conference at SOU  8 am to 4 pm
    The theme of the conference was PBIS and RTI which involves assessment.  The keynote speaker and person I watched for two sessions, Myron Dueck,
talked about ways of assessing and grading that enhanced motivation and effort.  He made clear arguments for why he does what he does, and it makes sense to me.

One thing I want to include into the grading structure of my math classes are in-completes rather than zeros.  Then the student has no option but to turn in the work if they wish a grade in the course.  This is more of a motivation for high school but we can use it with our grade accountability sheets.
I am hoping that kids will at least look at the problems once this way.

The other thing that I will incorporate, starting today with a quiz I returned, is letting kids do make up tests and breaking the tests up into sections so kids can clearly see which section they need work on.  Kids already seemed excited by this prospect.  And isn't that just what I want?
I really felt I got a great deal of useful, pertinent, and timely information.

10/8 The State of Jefferson Math Conference 8 until 3:30 pm.
This was wonderful information on the new scoring guide for problem solving work samples.  Grades 3-8 need to have at least one recorded problem solving work sample.  New legislation allows high school students to meet their requirements either through passing the OAKS test or by passing two work samples with 4's.   We discussed in detail how to score the problem solving so I feel more confident about what I am doing.

This conference really reinforced my focus on problem solving with math this year.  I am glad of the Thinking About Math Course I took in June.  The conference also showed me strategies for sequencing the sharing of students problems.

Creating Blog Oct 23/10

I have never created a blog before.  I played with the templates and font colors and information I want to share.  I got confused thinking this is what students would look at and created it as a teacher for the class and had to change it.  You can spend a lot of time on things like that.  I am hoping to get to the Wiki creation today as well as linking the blog and Wiki site to my website.