Math, technology, education, and beyond

It sure has been some time since I have added to this blog. There were many things going on that have been taking up my time, and I hadn’t had this as a priority. I hope I can change that, as things should settle down a little more after the next two days, which are our last two days of Apple training. The biggest hurdle with this training is that I am still a half-day teacher, as well, so I lose time in the classroom with my students, and it is difficult to get a substitute in who can also teach the math. As a matter of fact, I had one in on Friday, and she was to cover how to apply length, area, and volume in real-world situations. She left me a note that she hasn’t seen the info since she was in Geometry…in 1965! So when I am out of the classroom, I often have to spend a day to catch the students up on the info they were supposed to have learned.

But such is life, and here I am again now. I have a list a mile long of sites I need to check out, along with being enrolled in two graduate courses over the summer (Flash and Management of Change in Instructional Technology) through Philadelphia University. It’s a great Master’s program in Instructional Technology. And I am attending NECC in Atlanta this summer, as well as doing trainings here at school, working a second job, hopefully visiting my sister in California, working on new curriculum for my courses I am teaching next year (redoing what I’ve taught in Math for Standards and working on materials for FST), moving, and who knows what else.

But I hope to continue looking at these various websites and continue doing research into what new ideas are rolling out in the EdTech world. I want to be able to continue coming up with new ideas that teachers in my school can use (including myself).

So we will see where things go from here for me as we approach the end of a school year.

It is now our 12th day in our new building, and people are definitely settling in. Our CFF teachers are working on creating and implementing materials for use in class. Unfortunately, we still do not have all of our equipment, although there are a few people still waiting for DVD/VCR combos (the last of which are being installed today) and dongles. There are also pieces of software that we would like, but you can’t have everything. Hopefully we can get the software in the budget for next year.

We had our out of the box training from Apple last week (I’m still trying to catch up from when I was “out” for that and the CFF Coaches training from Apple), and it was quite well received. It was nice to be able to get all of our CFF teachers together to talk about what we are now able to do as well as to have time to play/work with the software and create materials for our classes. I know that my students have been enjoying the fact that notes are presented in a very different way than what I used to do, and that’s just th beginning. I am also working on incorporating blogs and wikis into my lessons, although I am still trying to work on a good way to do that. Part of it will be just trying different things out and seeing what works and what doesn’t. The more risks that I am willing to take in class with the lessons, the more risks the students will take with creating quality projects…at least that’s my hope.

I created a podcast (newly updated audio) as practice in the CFF Coaches training. It seemed to impress many of the other coaches that were there as they saw it as a way that their math teachers could incorporate more technology into their curriculum. I saw it as just another way to make sure students get the information they need. I guess I’m still at the point where I don’t completely see this as ground-breaking stuff, but then again, I’ve worked with computers and technology for as long as I can remember. It’s amazing to see the differing views on technology, between those that are used to having it and those that are still learning it.

If you want the podcast, leave me a comment with an email I can send it to. I’m also hoping to get a blog page set up in the near future.