This week we were asked to look at a list of web tools we could use in our classrooms to enhance our teaching practice, or to make life easier for our students. A lot of the items on the list of web tools are things I've used in the past to varying degrees. But I wanted to focus this post on a couple of things that weren't on the list. As a math teacher, one of my favorite web sites is Khan Academy. Sal Khan created Khan Academy and the website has evolved over the years to now include basically anything a kid could ever need to pass any math class. I've mostly used the site's videos as a form of flipping my classroom. A lot of the topics I cover in Algebra are presented the same way in his videos, so I use them from time to time. Khan Academy also has practice problems associated with each video so the students can practice the concepts just covered in the video they watched. The videos on Khan Academy are basically YouTube videos. In my AP Statistics class this year, most of the kids have struggled to adapt to the higher level of work. One of them (you know, instead of just reading the book) searched on YouTube for videos about the content. He came in to class the next day raving about "mathmanbillg" who apparently is an AP Stats teacher. He told me the videos made the concepts really clear to him, so I showed the video to the class and they thought it was "ehh, ok". They can never just admit when something's cool, right? I'm hopeful that the class will use these kinds of tutorial videos as a supplement to their learning if reading the book isn't clear enough to them. Here's one of the statistics video's from mathmanbillg:
Since we're talking about assistive technology this week, I thought I would comment on some of the things I've seen students use as well as what I think would be good technology to use. I think the only assistive technology I've seen used in my classroom is an electronic word processor. A few years ago I had a student who took notes on it because he took forever to take notes by hand. He was a really bright kid, but he just wrote slowly. Bringing up iPads again (which I'm probably going to do all the time), I spoke with one of the Special Education teachers at my school a couple weeks ago. She teaches English and just got an iPad cart earlier this year. She was telling me how she loves having them in her class because she can now use the iPads for students to have text read to them rather than having to read aloud to the class herself (and then repeat parts if one student falls behind). It frees her up to address each of the students on a more individual level, based on who needs the most help. I use my iPads similarly in math, by having students complete problems on a website that will walk the students through the solving process if they get stuck. It's basically impossible for 35 students to learn everything from me talking at the front of the room and then expect them to instantly understand everything I just covered. With iPads, I can "ignore" the ones who get it and let them work independently, and I can give more attention to those who are struggling with the concepts, or with staying on task! Some of the resources I've found for assistive technology, in working on my case study are MathTalk and AbleData. These sites allow students to complete math worksheets online and let text be read to them. Sometimes LD students have trouble reading (or focusing while reading) and benefit from hearing the text. AbleData makes calculators that give audible feedback to confirm the buttons that were pressed, so students can verify that they've pressed the series of keys they intended to press.
In class this week, we've been asked to start thinking about our literature review paper for the class this semester. To aid in this process, we must complete an exercise to familiarize ourselves with the UMUC library. Wait, didn't we all do that with "UCSP 611"? I've known how to search using Boolean operators since high school. That's all I'm going to say about that exercise. Anyway, with that process, and seeing that my group presentation this semester is on the flipped classroom, I thought about researching how iPads could aid in the flipped classroom concept. I've had iPads in my classroom for 3 years now (well, part of one year, then a full year, and a month so far this year). I'm very comfortable using iPads in the classroom, and know of a lot of resources to help make learning math easier for my students. But, our iPads aren't allowed to be removed from the classroom. The school doesn't really want us requiring homework to be done electronically because it puts pressure on the occasional student who doesn't have internet and a computer at home. I think a type of flipped classroom could be accomplished in my room, where I create videos of lessons ahead of time and have the students watch these at the start of class each day. Then we could discuss concepts from the videos and proceed to do work on the iPad for the day. It's not a true "flipped classroom", but it's probably as close as I'd be able to get right now. With that in mind, I thought about some of the resources I've used and where I've learned about them. My main source would have to be my colleague Mr. Shulman. His technology blog covers many apps that he uses in the classroom. On the iPads, one of the key ways teachers at my school create information for students is through Google Drive. I love Drive, because it has all the software of Microsoft Office, but for free and in the cloud. Each student in our county has been given a Google email address, allowing them to create and save information on the Drive. [Hah--the only problem is getting kids to remember their password!] Lastly, I'll leave you all with The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake:
This video is from Numberphile (get it? they love numbers?). I've tried to show videos like this to my classes the last few years, but they get lost in the British accents and heavy math (a lot of content is only interesting to people who already have a college math degree). Oops, sometimes I'm a nerd.
Well, this is my first post. It's going well so far. Or is it? It's tough to say. I feel like I'm being forced to contrive introspection. I'm not that introspective on my own. I feel like I'm a writer on SNL, making the "Deep Thoughts" jokes. A lot of what we discuss in educational technology is obvious to those of us already using it in the classroom. But, not everyone has access to the same technology, and certainly not everyone has the same experience or expertise with technology. So the things I think are "obvious" probably aren't...but I'm still going to end up writing with some humor thrown in. Sorry, I just can't help it. I think I'll talk about "classic" events in my county for a bit. I've had iPads in my classroom for 3 years now. The first year I was volunteered for a "pilot program" which comprised 6 teachers across different content areas at my school. We went to *a lot* of training that year, and had frequent meetings to discuss apps we found useful for our content areas and how we were using the iPads in general in our classes. I never wanted to be in the program...I just had told my department head that I was interested in getting a cart of iPads since our school had just [to me] miraculously fortunately received 30 carts of 30 iPads each as part of a grant. So last week there was a staff email about signing up for iPad training if we were interested in obtaining a cart this year. I already have my cart and have been using it since the start of school. (The school apparently didn't feel it was a security risk to leave the cart in my classroom all summer instead of locking it away like they're supposed to, and like I was led to believe would happen before I left at the end of last school year.) I ignored this email because why would I need training on something I've been using for 3 years? Why would I need to fill out an application to use something that I already have? Little do I know. I was told that I had to fill out the application and show up at the training as part of a "record keeping" process since we have a new principal who has no idea how to run a high school. Yaaay. It's not like I have other things to do for an hour and a half after school. Maybe I'll write a blog post during the training. I'm sure you all would love to follow along!
