Goals:
I am taking steps to improve my proficiency in the following two performance indicators:
Standard 1, b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
Standard 3, c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.
Actions:
For 1c: 1) Start a folder on my computer for websites, articles and ideas for teaching authentic math problems and applications for my algebra students.
2) Incorporate new uses of graphing calculators into math lessons.
For 3c: 1) Go to the wiki and blog I made this summer and learn how to modify them for optimum student use.
2) Discuss these issues with colleagues at my school who use wikis and blogs.
Monitoring:
Read through new additions to the folder at least once a week and consider ways to use in class.
Go to wiki or blog once a week and add or change a feature.
Evaluate:
Compare how I taught algebra last year to how I am teaching it this year and will be teaching it next year.
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Cathy,
ReplyDeleteI think you chose a great goal to pursue by focusing on a class wiki. This is something that I’ve been brainstorming ideas on as far as how I can use a wiki with a student project. I would be interested in any ideas or strategies you come up with the effective integrate a wiki with your algebra students.
Cathy,
ReplyDeleteI have a similar professional development goal in that I want to collect and post on an intranet useful technology integration resources for educators in my district.
In terms of math and science, over the past several years my district has worked with Robert Panoff who is president and executive director of The Shodor Education Foundation: http://www.shodor.org/
As part of his website, there are free online materials and interactive applications that can help promote student understanding of key mathematical and science concepts. There are several java based programs that pertain directly to algebra. Here is the site for those activities: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/
You can browse to “subject areas” and then choose algebra or any of the other mathematical subject areas. A list of activities and the concepts they relate to will be displayed.
In terms of blogs, I have helped several teachers in my district set up blogs that they use to communicate with parents and students. For most of the teachers, this is the first time they have used a blog. We have started to use blogs to communicate with parents because we do not have an extranet. With the blogs, educators are able to describe what they are doing each week in class, post homework assignments and even attach documents if they are needed by students. We use an option whereby any parent’s posts to the blog are monitored by the educator. That way personal correspondence from parents can be filtered and responded to by e-mail instead of through the blog where it is viewable by all the parents.
Kevin
I am a HS math teacher too and I have been trying to organize my internet resources too. I am still new to all this technology and internet stuff so I end up searching for things by topic as I go. It would probably be much more effective to save resources to a folder. I very recently started to organize some of my favorite sites by bookmarking them and putting them in folders for each course that I teach. I enjoy the site http://highschoolace.com/ace/ace.cfm, it is a good resource for high school students in all subjects, maybe you'll like it too. It is geared towards the students but I used the links and resources myself.
ReplyDeleteCathy
ReplyDeleteI especially like your idea about communicating with parents. My district is always after us to be more open and transparent. The more you can post online for parents/guardians to see the easier it is for you. The online information can answer many questions that parents might have and provide them with details about what is going on in class. I have found this to be a very useful tool.
I try to post all of my assignments online and it has helped tremendously with my students parents. They are wable to check grades online and then see what assignments are missing and then pull up the assignments at home. Students are unable to use the "I forgot" when it comes to homework now.
ReplyDelete