Capstone for Things 15-21

Capstone Reflection for Things #15-21

I see my use of the screen-casting and virtual classroom technology growing a lot over the next several months. I like the idea of having my classes available to those who could not attend and for those who need to review concepts. I see a lot of potential for a virtual classroom semester review before the semester final. We will do some review in the classroom, but there is always a sizable demand for reviewing the material before the test.  Recording this year’s session (usually on a Saturday) will allow those who could not attend a chance to hear the same material as those who could. It’s possible that the review would be then online for next school year’s final.

I also like the visual learning tools – presenting the same information in a radically different manner that is intriguing enough to awaken the students’ intellectual curiosity. Part of learning the material in math/geometry is getting a lot of exposure to the material and becoming comfortable enough with the material to expand concepts and figure out new problems based on those learned principles.

As for Marzano, there are a number of the initiatives that are in play when using these tools:

Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition: these tools provide interesting ways for students to put forth more effort to learn the material. Also, having students use some of the tools and present material is an effective motivator and provides recognition for their efforts.

For Summarizing and Note-Taking, these tools give students an additional opportunity to observe the concepts and work additional problems. Also, having students put together some of the visual learning tools is a way of taking notes, writing out concepts and tying them together.

Highlighted in this section is Using Non-Linguistic Representations. Creating a Bubbl or Gliffy diagram helps translate words and concepts into a graphical representation of the interrelationships existing in the material. Having students put the representations together should help them organize their thoughts and increase the depth of their understanding.

The Michigan content standards (and the upcoming core curriculum) include doing proofs in Geometry. A vital part of that process is for students to learn and use postulates and theorems (along with a few definitions). Using the visual learning tools and assigning partners of students to present diagrams and word clouds of specific theorems for presentation to the class meets a number of the NET-S standards:

Creativity and Innovation (creating original works, using models to explore complex concepts)

Communication and collaboration (creations would  be shared with the class – postings on GoogleApps. These projects would encourage critical thinking, or at least provide the basis for critical thought to begin.

These applications provide a lot of room for application, experimentation and learning – much of it coming from your own efforts. The amount of online research into your subject is mind-boggling (and in some ways, counterproductive) – but the opportunity is there to keep on learning and growing, either as a teacher or a student.

Thing #21 - Screen-casting

For my screencast, I used Camtasia and presented a triangle proof - one of the longer proofs that require students to add material and think about how to get from the simple areas to the more complex line of thought. We are just reaching the point where students have enough confidence to complete simple (5-line) proofs on their own. As we move forward, the proofs increase in complexity, drawing on the full semester of geometric activity, since we have learned postulates and theorems from Chapter One onward. To begin seeing the more complex connections, students have to work through a lot of proofs and learn a lot of postulates and theorems. They then have to draw on that knowledge and determine how to put the items together in a logical sequence. It takes time and practice.

I can see me doing several "Proof-Casts" per week and posting them on Blackboard. I posted the first one today - which was actually my second "take" on the screen-cast. For the first screen-cast, I presented the lesson live with a full (28 students) classroom. I generally have a lot of give-and-take with the students as we go through something complicated - trying to lead them into each conclusion to determine the direction for the next line in the proof. I showed the video to a fellow teacher and, while the message was good, the presentation was lacking a little bit. The first screen-cast had an incredible amount of background noise, such that it was difficult to focus on the message. I will also need to balance the on-screen marking with the animations of PowerPoint - you cannot do both at once effectively. More underlining while making points would be useful as well. Also, the camera positioning was poor - I need to find a better way to place/mount it for the best picture.

I see many screecasts in my future...

The URL is: Blackboard video post

Thing #20 - Visual Learning

I put a Bubbl diagram together on the topic of Triangle Proofs:

I also did a tagxedo of one of the Triangle Proof theorems:

These visual learning tools offer unique perspectives on educational themes - perspectives that are engaging enough to rouse curiosity from a student view - trying to "get" the message. As educators, we are competing for the students' attention, curiosity and time.  These tools are an additional avenue worth pursuing to facilitate learning new, and sometimes uninterestion topics.

The Bubbl diagram is a nice way to organize a concept overview and show students the links to related items and to tie those items together.

The tools are helpful because they are graphic, visual, intriguing and informative. The idea is to pique the students' interest and to increase their knowledge and understanding. These graphics provide a different pathway into the students' brains and hopefully open the right portals for education to occur. I can see me using these tools and projecting them onto the Brightlink screen during my classes. I can also see assigning students to put together their own Tagxedos and showing them to their classmates on the big screen. They could also be printed out and displayed in the classroom.



The screen shot of my Tagxedo reflection:

Thing #19 - Virtual Classroom

Currently, I extend the classroom using Blackboard.  Assignments are posted, extra help is posted, some answers are posted as well. I would like to extend further by putting course content online.  Some fo the content will be as screen casts using Camtasia and some will be the posting of presentations used in the course.  I would like to conduct review sessions live online (using something like AdobeConnect) - but my Geometry classes include 110 students, which would require a pretty hefty licensing fee. I am planning to do the reviews as screencasts as well - it would give the students the ability to listen several times over with a lot of visual material to help out.

As a student Navigating the Land of Online Learning, it seemed that being informed about the course, the computer, having an internet computer, how the course is valued by the school and knowing the rules of the course all contribute towards a successful conclusion  of the course. One item not mentioned is that the student must be motivated and interested - the student needs to put in the time and effort to complete the course. What is necessary:

Dealing with asynchronous classes.
Having internet access. Mac? PC? Both?
Finding the course that you need or really want to take.
Finding the parameters from the teacher
Keep parents in the loop
Check on the cost, if any

I would hope that online courses would help grow a students creativity and capacity for innovation, but realistically think that it would be hard to grow in this manner individually versus being in a group setting.

Certainly, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making would be part of any class - we hope to be creating tomorrow's thinking adults. As for  Technology Operations and Concepts, certainly just completing and participating in an online course implies a level of competence in the technology area.

Thing #18 - Staying Informed

I selected the iGoogle RSS aggregator because our school is integrating Google Apps as a resource/tool for teachers and students, so it seemed logical to stay in that arena.  I signed up for a number of math-related sites and will be curious to see what turns up (not much so far, but it's early). These updates will help me stay current, review new ideas, highlight issues, identify resouces that all could be used to improve my pedegogy. As a teacher, you never stop learning.  The RSS capability of iGoogle will help facilitate that learning by providing new material to absorb.

Thing #17 - Research and Reference Tools

I went on both InfoTrack Junior and Student editionsl and entered math terms to see what would arise. The answer is not much - the databases seem to be geared for research in other areas. Both sites came up with similar references, probably indicating that I would need to better understand the database to craft my queries more appropriately. For my classroom, I did not see much in the way of useability. There were some interesting articles that had little to do with my request and I would like to go back and read them. The results seemed to be mixed - various articles from various sources around the web - largely credible sites with a mixture of education/peer-reviewed articles with articles from mainstream periodicals. I did not see any credibility problems in that search.

Screen shot of Junior Edition:

Screenshot of Student Edition:

Advanced Research.

I went to the Educators Reference Complete and did a search on teaching ADHD students and got more information than I could absorb in an evening. The articles appeared to be education-oriented, peer-reviewed or education industry publications with a high degree of credibility. A number of the articles contained strategies to be tried in the classroom.

Work Cited 1: Using the Educators Reference Complete, I did a search on Math Lesson Plans and got a few (not a lot) interesting hits. The citation for the article is:

For thWork Cited - 2, I selected an article on a topic that I have used from Mathematics Teacher, one of the journals from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics discussing a new method of teaching proofs. The BibMe citation is:

Dirksen, Jennifer, Nathaniel Dirksen, and Ivan Cheng. "ProofBlocks: A Visual Approach to Proof ." Mathematics Teacher Apr. 2010: 571. Print.

Thing #16 - Professional Learning Networks

LearnPort has a good variety of courses and educational connections - plenty of online courses to take, opportunities to earn SB-CEUs, commity rooms, peer net capabilities, lesson plans and more. Looks like a great resource. Some of the 21 Things-type topics are listed in my screenshot.

Facebook is great for social networking. I suppose I could see a use or two in a math classroom, but I would be afraid that the postings would largely be teenage social angst and, other than getting to know the students better, I feel that Blackboard offers more in the educational arena.

Joined MACUL - we'll see if they accept me...

ISTE has a lot to offer in the technology area - for $95 -  implementing NETS, forums and groups to belong to, a collection of webinars, a collection of the standards - along with additional resources to assimilate technology into the educational arena. "Teacher Educators" looked like one group that I would be interested in. My contributions would be based on actual experience in the classroom and in dealing with technology integration into the math curriculum. I am willing to try new things and, as with most teachers, willing to discuss the experience and offer feedback. I am a technology mentor at my school and would like to keep up with the latest and greatest.