Sunday, November 28, 2010

Moodle

Course Management System
Moodle

Moodle is a great opportunity for our school to go green (PAPERLESS!!)

Can be used to create a discussion board

Used as a teacher website so parents can be informed on in class work

Moodle can be used as a site for students to upload assignments for the teacher to grade

It is a site that schools can utilize and implement in all classrooms

Use as a wiki to create discussion boards for students to respond to writing prompts.

Monday, August 16, 2010

6713 Final Reflection

My GAME plan is going to be a work in progress all school year. Since we have not begun the year yet, I have not been able to reflect and work on making my students more creative learners. However, I have begun to think of ways to incorporate new ideas into each lesson to make my classroom more inquiry based learning to spark their creativity. We have our first staff meeting in two weeks and I am going to take the time to share my GAME plan with the other teachers in my department and see if maybe they would like to work on the same plan as me. Having a colleague work on the GAME plan as well would be a great way to see where the adjustments need to be.

In regards to the professional development GAME plan I have done about as much as I can do until our first staff meeting. By coming up with an email database of the entire math teachers it has simplified the amount of time it would normally take to locate each and every math teacher in the school. I hope that the other departments in my school will like this idea and maybe do the same. I would love to get an email database of all of my students in my own classrooms this year as well so that I can send grades home electronically and reduce the amount of phone calls that are usually made before the marking period ends.

6712 Final Reflection

The most striking revelation that I have had while taking this course is that I need to take a step back sometimes and let my students develop questions to ask me instead of always giving them questions to answer. By having my students develop questions they are digging deeper into their minds and having to think a little harder about the subject. This also allows them to learn more about the subject and in a much deeper way. By creating their own questions they are setting themselves up for success and understanding the bigger picture of what is being taught to them.

I have taken a lot away from this course. By creating the unit plan for Quadrilaterals I have now given myself three new projects to try to fit in during the unit. I am very excited to pass these ideas on to my fellow Geometry teachers and to see what they think of them.

One professional development goal that I would like to pursue is to open the lines of communication with the other teachers in my department so we can talk about different assessment ideas. One way that I could do this is to bring up this topic at our next math staff meeting. I also could take it one step further and open this discussion up to the entire school at our next entire staff meeting. I always find it interesting to see how other teachers are accessing their students in comparison to me. I think that this is something that all teachers could benefit from.

Darcey Kondel

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

GAME Plan Review

After reviewing my GAME plans this week, I have realized that I never included the ISTE NETS-S yet in them! The Digital Storytelling of this week has reenergized my ideas for the upcoming school year, but it still is hard to get into that school mode!

For my GAME plan to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity I cover the following ISTE NETS-S: 1. Creativity and innovation, 2. Communication and collaboration, and 3. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. I want my students to communicate with each other to solve problems instead of always asking me, the teacher. I feel that students need to struggle a bit in order to learn. I want them to use their imagination and creativity to inspire themselves instead of myself always having to be the cheerleader for the subject.

For my GAME plan to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership I cover the following ISTE NETS-S: 1. Communication and collaboration, 2. Critical Thinking, problem solving, and decision making, and 3. Technology operations and concepts. I would love for all of the teachers in my school to communicate on a regular basis and make big decisions in the school together. We really need to communicate through some sort of technology because it is too hard to get together on a regular basis. This is why I believe a blog/wiki would be the best option. I really hope to get this working the first week of school to better our schools atmosphere professionally.

Darcey Kondel

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

GAME Plan Evaluation Part 2

GAME Plan Evaluation

It has been very hard to put my GAME plan into play or even start on Facilitating and Inspiring Student Learning and Creativity since school doesn’t start for over a month. I have set up the blog but am worried now about creating log ins for all of my students and having them create passwords that they will memorize.

Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership has not gone well this week either.
Last week I set up the email database and have not discussed this with the other Geometry teachers yet, it seems that they all took their vacations this week. I hope to be able to share this idea with them and see how they feel about it.

Darcey Kondel

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

GAME Plan Evaluation

GAME Plan Progress Evaluation

For my GAME plan to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity I really have not had any progress since we are in the summer months and there is no school right now. However, I have found myself thinking of lessons that I use in class to change in order to have them use a class blog or wiki page. I have also talked to other teachers in my department and they seem very excited about using a wiki or blog in their classes as well.

For my GAME plan to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership I think that I have done a great job getting a hold of my coworkers and discussing ideas with them on how we can use the wiki or blog page together in our classes. I have also set up an email database of the teachers in my department so instead of typing each email address out I can just click on “Geometry Teachers” and an email is sent to all Geometry teachers.

I’m very excited about my GAME plan and to see how it plays out this upcoming school year!

Darcey Kondel

Thursday, July 15, 2010

GAME Plan Progress-Week 4 Post

For my first GAME plan to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity I am finding a lot of great information. I have talked to other math teachers and have found many ways for my students to find the information that they will need to complete the project. I wonder if my students will be able to use Google Docs outside of school since we will not have that much time to work on their journaling in class. I hope that it will not take much time to teach them about it and set up the account. I do not feel that I need to change this GAME plan yet, but it may need to be tweaked down the road after I talk to more of my colleagues.

For my second GAME plan to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership I have heard of a few different ways to set up the network of discussion. We may use a blog or wiki, but we are not sure at this time which will work the best. The only problem I am having at this time is not having the teachers around right now to really see their faces when talking to them about this network. Although through email they seem excited, but I do not know if this is just an email or if they are truly excited about the idea. I hope that the beginning of the school year will give me more insight.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

GAME Plan Resources

For my first GAME plan to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity my students will need a few different resources. The first resource they will need is a computer with internet. If they do not have access I will provide them with time during school hours. My students will also need a journal to keep track of how the learning is going for them. I may need to set up a Google Doc for them to use as it may be easier for myself to grade if I can access it from anywhere. I have not been able to take any steps yet since I am out of school for the summer. I hope to make this a regular classroom activity once the school year begins. I feel that if I start the year off this way, students will be more likely to catch on and be excited about it as the year progresses.

For my second GAME pan to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership I will need just as many resources. I will need a computer with internet in order to set up the blog or wiki and each teacher will need access as well. At school we all have access so I think that staying a few minutes after school would be the easiest way to post to the site. I really do not need any additional information since we will be posting to the same site. I may need my colleagues home email addresses for the summer months if we choose to work on school material then, but other than that I do not think we will need anything else. The steps that I have started are talking to my coworkers about what they thought about creating a blog to use as a sounding board for the department. Everyone thinks that it’s a great idea so I will start putting it together as the school year gets closer.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

My GAME Plan

My GAME plan to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity:

G: The goals that I want from my students are to be creative learners. I want my students to be able to learn on their own in their own home on a project that we are doing in and outside of class that they must use the internet for.
A: I want to provide my students with websites that can help inspire their learning. I want them to go home and be even more excited about learning there than in the classroom.
M: I will have journals that my students write in. I will collect them to see if this is really working for them. I will be interested to see how often they are actually working outside of the classroom.
E: I will give students a participation grade as to how they performed in and outside of the classroom on this specific assignment. I hope to see many students working outside of the classroom with others and without the help of the teacher.

My GAME plan to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership:

G: My goal is to set up a network of teachers in the math department to help each other learn from one another how to teach different lessons.
A: I plan to create a wiki or blog page for all of us to post on to reflect on different lessons that we have taught. I hope that everyone will participate so as to get the most out of the action portion of this GAME plan.
M: I will monitor by reminding everyone to post via email or in person. I will also monitor using the wiki or blog page and combining those pages that may have been duplicates.
E: We will evaluate by trying each other’s ideas the following year and seeing if they worked in our own classroom. By leaving the pages available they will give all teachers a different idea of how to introduce a subject on a level that they may not have thought of.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Final Reflection

After completing this course I have come to realize that I am actually doing a better job than I thought in terms of adjusting my instruction to my students' learning. In week 1 I said that I thought I was more into Social Constructionism in terms of learning theories, and I still do believe that this is what I focus on. I love to hear my students talking about solving the equations during work time instead of what they are going to do on the weekend, which is what social construction focuses on (Laureate, 2009).

One thing that I will immediately change is the amount of time that I lecture. I will try my hardest to give my students a chance to teach themselves and others instead of myself standing at the front of the class the entire class period. I will try to use powerpoints in class more and also have my students learn how to interact using the SmartBoard that I have in my classroom. If they become aware of the technology, they will be much more intrigued to learn.

Over time I would like to integrate a wiki into my classroom to encourage students to discuss subjects that we are learning about in class in different ways. I also would like to have my students design lessons so to understand what is necessary to be prepared for a lesson. I think by teaching eachother they will gain a deeper understanding of the subject.

I have truely taken a step back and looked at my teaching styles this term. I feel that I am actually doing a fairly good job, but have obviously found places to grow.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). 2009. Brain Research and Learning [Motion picture]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Baltimore: Author

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Social Learning

Collaboration is something that I encourage in my classroom. High school students want to interact with each other and it’s our place as educators to promote the positive interaction that can take place in the classroom. I currently teach Geometry and Algebra II at a high school in Michigan. In Michigan, our standards of our students have dramatically increased over the past 2 years. Not only do our students have to take 4 years of math, but they now have to get through Algebra II in order to receive a diploma. I find it impossible to teach this material effectively to my students, unless I allow them to work collaboratively.

Every day in my classroom you can see my students working collaboratively. Many teachers that walk past may think that they are just talking with each other about what they are doing on the weekend, but if they were to stick around and actually listen to their conversations, they would find that they are engaged in learning. When my students work together, they only work in groups of 2 or 3, which, according to Pitler, et al., would be considered a group of “manageable size” (Pitler et al., 2007). I find that the students are teaching each other and gaining a deeper meaning of the subject as they work together.

Students are engaged in learning all throughout the lecture given at the beginning of each class. I then allow them to work on their assignments together to see if maybe one of their peers can explain the lesson to someone else in a completely different way in order to get everyone on board with the material. Since the material is now so intense in our classrooms, I find it important that students and I be able to explain or understand a lesson or problem in many different ways.

Lately I have been allowing my students to take pod quizzes which are when they actually take a quiz in groups of 4 or less. I find that these pod quizzes promote “individual and group accountability” and also “positive interdependence” (Pitler et. al, 2007). I have found students discussing problems in a much deeper way just by having the opportunity to work together. They want to succeed and want to make sure that every person in their group knows how to do these problems due to the fact that they do not know what quiz I will be grading. Pod quizzes are a great way to hear your students engaged in learning.

Darcey Kondel

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Voice Thread

This is a Voice Thread in regards to the problems that I am seeing in my own classrooms. The main problem, as you will see, is the new standards that Michigan has put into place for our students.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Constructionism in Geometry

In my high school Geometry classroom, Constructionism can be seen in many of the units. Since Geometry is a very visual subject, it is important to my students learning that they can actual visualize the figures and know how to apply the many formulas that are presented in class. Constructionism allows my students to visualize these figures. Most the units that we cover require the students to create a project to better understand the unit. By creating a project, usually a visual representation of the unit, this requires the student to create an “external artifact or something they share with others” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).

Our students complete many projects each year, but the project that corresponds to the resources this week in terms of data collection is the project on solid figures. Solid figures, or 3 dimensional figures, have many formulas that go along with them regarding surface area, lateral area, and volume of the figures. We try to get our students to understand how these formulas are created by having them discover the relationship between these formulas and the area formulas of triangles, rectangles, and other figures that we had been using all year long. Once our have students have come up with the relationship, we then have a computer lab day where they pick a real-life building, usually one that is famous, and calculate the surface area, lateral area, and volume of the building. Although the students are not actually coming up with a hypothesis and conclusion, they are still using “data collection tools” such as the internet, to find the correct information about these buildings (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).

By using a real-life building, our students can now have a visual representation in their own minds as to what these figures different areas and the volume really means. Once they have done all of the calculations, then we spend a day in class actually building the figures (obviously much smaller than real life). I believe that by actually building these figures, they now are creating a visual for others in the class to see what the figure looks like. On the figure they must also put the surface area, lateral area, and volume of the figure. This allows students to compare their buildings to others’ buildings.

Constructionism is a great way for students to retain knowledge. By creating a real-life model they are gaining empathy towards the subject and discussing the lesson with deeper thoughts.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Behaviorism and Technology

Behaviorism can be seen in the classroom more than ever now. The school that I teach at gives students a "Cardinal Code" grade which grades them on their effort in class, responsibility, and other characertistics that can be seen in the classroom. After reading through Ms. Powell's spreadsheet on effort and achievement, I think that our students could calculate their own Cardinal Code grade by entering there scores into excel (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.158). These grades go on our students report cards and many times we have parents concerned about their Cardinal Code grades instead of their academic because these grades show how they perform in a classroom in regards to effort and responsibility.

Homework is very important in behaviorism. Behaviorism encourages reinforcement and punishment which can be found in many different ways (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). Many times for homework assignments I give positive reinforcement by giving a grade based on completion of the assignment and the effort that was put in. However, I know that feedback is important so I try very hard to give a lot of feedback on quizzes and tests so they can learn from their mistakes and move forward. To reinforce feedback that is not given so much on homework I always recommend our online resources that come with our book. The online resources for our textbook are amazing! We are able to give our students an access code that allows them to access from home the textbook so they do not have to take it home, online quizzes over the sections that we have covered and also online tests. These onlines quizzes and tests give immediate feedback to the students, which is key in the learning of the subject I teach, Mathematics. These web resources allow my students to "practice concepts and skills repeatedly from their homes" which is great for students who do not like to ask questions in class (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.195). Having these online resources available is another way for educators to push behaviorism by using reinforcement, even when we are not available outstide of school hours.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.