My Math For Elementary Teachers classes finished their first set of projects last week. I got permission to post some of their work on my blog. I think you will be as excited about their work as I am. One of the projects was to write a 30 minute classroom activity, based on one of the lessons from class. They were to use the free online program called Glogster:
Here is the link to the Glog
Here is a link to this Glog
I am having a great time grading these!
I created my first Glog ever! I believe my students will have a lot of fun creating one as a project for my course. In the same manner as I created samples of a mindmap, and a Prezi, I took my syllabus and turned it into a Glog for my students.
As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I am having my students rotate through creating several visual online tools to help them learn to better organize information and share with others. In preparation for having them create a mindmap, I created one using MindMeister of the syllabus for my course!
I have been spending the past few weeks trying to think of better ways to get my future teachers to be more engaged in their learning. I have decided to model several ideas after a great friend of mine who writes the amazing Teaching College Math blog, Maria Andersen.
Not only am I going to use hands on manipulatives and technology (like I have been) to teach with, but to help my students organize their thoughts and the material for the course, I am going to have them create a Prezi, a Wiki, a Blog and a Mindmap. One fourth of the class will be doing each of these for every test. Each student will rotate through the 4 types of online tools for every test (but not in the same order as the rest of their group). All students will also create a google website to house links to all of their creations and any notes or other information they want to add, along with their service learning journal. The website will be private and they will only share viewing privileges with me. The other 4 online components will be public and shared with the rest of the class.
I am hoping that not only will they have a better feel for the material in each quarter of the course, but it will be theirs to keep online and reuse the ideas and links when they become teachers. It will be helpful for them to study for each test because all 4 types of models will be created by the class for each test, and they will be able to use one another’s to help them study.
I decided I would model some of the types for the students, by creating my syllabus as a Prezi, and also in a mindmap format. (I will write a new blog entry when I finish my mindmapped syllabus).
I thought it would not be as helpful to show them the syllabus in Blog format (they can see this blog for ideas), and my syllabus is already on a website (just not a free google one). I am still contemplating whether to show an example of my syllabus as a wiki.
Here is the first pass at my syllabus as a Prezi:
Math156syllabus on Prezi *the Prezi is now having issues viewing…try THIS LINK
I think I have narrowed it down to have them use the following free online tools:
Prezi (for a free online presentation style of tool)
MindMeister (for a free online mindmapping tool)
Glogster (for a free online fun poster tool))
Wordpress or Blogger (for a free online blog)
Google website for their free online website
I hope they are as excited as I am to learn these great tools and put them into “action”!
Today I gave a 3 1/2 hour hands-on workshop on teaching with technology, in Tucson, AZ
Looking at the screenshot of my website for the workshop above, you can see the major topics were:
To see the full workshop, along with all the materials presented, you can visit my google website for the workshop. During the workshop I presented with the Mobi, and had the participants often answer questions using the CPS Pulse clickers (eInstruction). It was really a lot of fun!
If you view the workshop website, to have it make more sense, scroll down on the HOME page to see the schedule and follow the links IN ORDER that are in the schedule. When you make a google website, the side links are alphabetical, NOT in the order I presented them in!
The workshop was in a computer lab, so each participant was on a laptop. My 13 (soon to be 14) year old son was my technical helper during the entire workshop, walking around helping anyone who had questions. He also taught the part of the workshop on Animationish! He did a fantastic job and I was very grateful to have him with me! I hope he can help me during my 8 hour workshop I am giving in October! 🙂
Today I downloaded the Beta version of Snagit for Mac! I am so excited! I have it on my Windows computer, but I usually use my Mac since I have Adobe Web Premium on it, and have really missed out on using Snagit. Jing is great for a free program, but Snagit is amazing!
*Here is a link to download the Beta Version of Snagit for Mac
… and here is a link to the final version of my Flash animation that introduces Volume
Today I spent quite a few hours building “blocks” (cubes) from scratch in Flash and placing them into
3 dimensional space to fill a rectangular prism!
It was a visually interesting problem to try to figure out which cubes to put in first, and
which ones had to be on a higher layer in Flash then the other ones!
Plus I had to try to get them to “fit” into a geometric rectangular prism. (OK, I gave up, they didn’t fit exactly!)
The end product wasn’t too bad though! (this is a JING video taken of just part of the Flash animation)
In just a couple weeks I will be down in Tucson, AZ giving a hands-on workshop to teachers and administrators. They will have full versions of software in a computer lab to play with!
A representative from the AZ Department of Education emailed me and asked me if I would give a workshop this summer on using technology to teach math, and I jumped at the chance!
I, however, did not write up the introduction to my workshop, as you can see below:
I am actually teaching more than the Livescribe Pulse smartpen in my 3 1/2 hours. I am also going to focus on Animationish (FableVision) and Workspace (eInstruction), along with showing Jing and Google apps. I hope to have time to share a little about Hyperstudio5 as well!
Here is a link to the conference details:
Arizona Career and Technical Education Conference 2010
Hopefully I will see some of you there!
Link to the actual Hyperstudio Stack in HTML5
I had a great time at ISTE! This is the first time I have ever been to a conference and stayed in the vendor area the entire time!
I worked with several companies while I was there. Every day I spent some time in the eInstruction booth showing folks how I use the Mobi, CPS Pulse student response clickers, ExamView and Workspace in my own classes. That was very exciting! I was so busy that I didn’t get any photos of their booth!
I also presented with Jim Marggraff, CEO and founder of the Livescribe Pulse smartpen at a breakfast on Tuesday morning. It was amazing to meet the man who invented the Leap Pad and the Livescribe Pulse smartpen! I presented the next day at their poster session as well.
I spent a lot of time in the FableVision Learning booth as well, with my friends Peter and Paul Reynolds and the FableVision Learning staff! I finally got to meet Peggy Healy Sterns, who created Stationary Studio and The Graph Club (Tom Snyder Productions). She is currently working on a new project called fab@school with FableVision and Mackiev Software (and other great folks). Photos and more information about this project if you click on the photo above!
You can see some photos of my adventure on the link below: It will take you to my Hyperstudio 5 stack on the web. If you are using a Mac, you need to use Safari, and on a PC, you need to use Internet Explorer (there is a plug-in for Hyperstudio for Safari and Internet Explorer). I had fun making it! Be sure to click on the pictures! Some will take you to other websites and some open videos! Pretty neat software created by my great friend Roger Wagner (Mackiev Software sells Hyperstudio 5), who spent some time showing me the ins and outs of Hyperstudio AND a chained Bible from the 1500s! I wish I had a photo of that
I am excited to share another part of my upcoming ISTE conference with you. I found out just today that I will have the pleasure of helping with the Constructivist Celebration the day before ISTE begins! As a FableVision Learning Amabassador, I am often given amazing opportunities to work with the great folks at FableVision Learning during conferences and workshops like this!
To learn more about the Constructivist Consortium, go to the website at:
http://www.constructivistconsortium.org/cc2010/index.html
During the ISTE conference I will also be helping out in the FableVision Learning booth, showing some of their wonderful software products like Animationish and Stationary Studio. I am really excited to meet the designer of Stationary Studio, Dr. Peggy Healy Sterns, who has a new project called Fab@School. She will be at ISTE and available to share details of her newest journey!
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