Math, technology, education, and beyond

I think slideShare is going to be my new favorite toy.  I love that I can have students go back and review the notes by going online.  It’s not really any extra work for me, as I only have to convert my Keynotes to .pdf’s and then upload!

[slideshare id=143268&doc=section-27-1193154269386898-1&w=425]

I still find it so amazing that there are students of mine that worry more about how to do something than why it is they are doing it. Case in point: I have recently introduced a lesson on variance and standard deviation. The students did well and following the process to find the standard deviation. They were even able to remember the formula for it. However, when it came to questions that asked which set of data had the most variation or what a range of scores were when we knew the mean and standard deviation, not many knew what to do. All it took for me to get the idea through to them was to ask what standard deviation is.

Unfortunately, most gave the answer, “The square root of the variance!”

I responded, “That’s how you find it, but what is it?” Blank stares. “Okay, look at your notes.”

Ten seconds later, 15 hands shot up. “It’s tells how far scores deviate from the mean.”

Now, they had an understanding of what was being asked in these questions. This brings me to the fact that it is still so difficult to get students to think about why something is, not just how to do it. One way I try to get students to think about math is to ask them how to get to Harrisburg. Some say to take 422. Others send you out to Interstate 81. Others will choose back roads. I ask them why they chose that way, and whether one way is more correct. The students say that they’re all correct, as we end up in Harrisburg each time. However, one will usually point out that depending on how quickly you want to get there and what time of day it is, you might want to choose one way over another. If it is in the height of rush hour, traffic moves more slowly on 422, and when it merges into 322 and then I-83, it gets even more backed up. But if you go to I-81, traffic tends to move better.

Now we have an understanding about how to get to Harrisburg, not just directions. I can now relate to my students that math is the same. If you only know a process, you don’t get any of the understanding for it. We now take a look at the formula for finding standard deviation and take it apart. Using the order of operations, you can go through the process step-by-step to see how it works. Understanding of the individual parts leads to an understanding of the whole. Those that take the time to look at all the pieces will have a much better understanding of mathematics as a whole.

Does anyone know how much information is out there? Will anyone ever be to say for sure whether a certain site is perfect for them to find info? I know there are millions upon millions of websites that are out there, and I know I will only ever see a small fraction of them. So how much information am I actually missing? How much information is being looked-over or past by my colleagues and students? How can I help them access these sites?

These questions helped me to look at websites that are out there and collect them in one central place. That’s where my Helpful Websites page comes in. I designed this site as part of my position as Classrooms for the Future coach for Annville-Cleona. It is currently a bit math-heavy, as I am also a math teacher. As more sites are funneled to me from my colleagues, I will be updating the site as necessary.

I know there are sites that I will be looking at using once I get into my “smart” classroom. I am really excited about what I will be able to do with my students, especially once all of my equipment is ready.

Will Richardson brings up some amazing points in his blog entry The Privacy Gap.

I have an interesting stance myself, as I am in the buffer area between those who view privacy in the old way and those bringing about this new view of privacy. When xanga was big, I created one and found the kids. It was a bit of a lesson on privacy, as some of them came up to me and said, “I don’t want you to know that certain thing about me.” I told them, “If you don’t want me to know it, don’t put in on there. And if I can access it, then who else can?” It is true that kids view privacy a bit differently than it used to be viewed, but there are still lessons to be learned here.

Luckily, many of these kids are savvy enough to learn a quick lesson. The idea is not to restrict the access they have to information that is out there or to keep them from connecting at all, as some parents do. It’s amazing when I told some parents about my AIM screenname so kids could contact me when I was at home and they said they do not allow their kids to have AIM. This was a college professor! He thought he was protecting his kids. Yet they had xanga pages, with personal information written in the blogs for everyone to see! At least with AIM they could pick and choose who to speak with.

This is a fight that we will have to take up with parents first. We need to get parents to stress the correct way to share and access information on today’s world wide web and trust that the kids will do it correctly.

I have grown to become quite attached to the math site purplemath.com. There are many great modules on here that give great tips on how to solve many different concepts in math, as well as giving different ways of solving than what you would see normally in many math classes. I have been sharing this site with the math teachers and special ed teachers in my district, and even shared with a few students and parents already, as well. I hope to have a site up soon that has a collection of these links for all to access. When that’s up, I’ll be sure to share the url.

Seeing Math Secondary

I was sent a link to this site today, and I found it to be quite interesting. Who would have thought that there would be such a nice interactive grapher out there? And the best part is it’s free! You can download the applets for working offline, as well, which is a great feature, so even if there is an outage in your network, you can still work with the program. I am still messing around with the different graphers, so I’m not 100% sure of what all they can do.

It seems like everyday I talk to at least one teacher in my school about how to use technology in their classroom. And the great part of it is that I don’t go up to them and say, “Why don’t you try this?” They come up to me and say, “How can I do this?” The teachers in my district are so technologically advanced when compared to some of the districts in our area, it’s amazing. And they are not afraid to try out new things. We have one teacher who is going to use blogs to discuss a book among different classes (and hopefully also with the author)! There was never an opportunity like this when I came through school. Another teacher is planning on using Comic Life so students can create a storyboard of a presentation. I only wish that I had more time to work with all of these teachers. Sometimes, I feel being a half-day coach is like only doing half the job.

This past weekend I went to both Hershey Bears games. I took a glance up at the Bears’ suite and noticed Ray Borque was sitting up there. He and his wife were there to watch their son, Chris, who is a second year member of the Bears. During the game on Sunday, my roommate looked at me and said that we should get his autograph. I remembered that they sell NHL pucks in the gift shop, so we bought two Bruins pucks and a marker. We walked to the spot under the suite and my roommate said, “Excuse me, Mr. Borque, but would you mind signing a couple pucks for us?” He said to toss them up, and he signed them! Real sweet! It was awesome of him. Now we each have a signed puck from Ray Borque!

Also, after the game on Sunday, the third star was the goalie from Binghamton, Kelly Glass. They had lost 5-2, but he faced 45 shots, saving 40 of them. Great performance. He got a nice round of applause from the Hershey fans, and then handed out his goalie stick to a little girl in the stands! Now that was a real class act! I have never seen that from a visiting goalie, and he has now made a number of fans in Hershey.