I was just thinking of another important thing I got out of this class...if it wasn't for Alec, I would have no pictures on my website, my blog, or in my portfolio. Big deal eh?
Well, I wouldn't even have had any personal information, and I certainly wouldn't have ever blogged.
Alec helped me to get over my "fears" in class, and by learning about the technology, I was able to see first hand that it wasn't so bad, and that I could indeed live with putting some stuff about me on the web!! (I think I've even come to like blogging)!!!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
ECMP Reflection Part 2
The end is actually here, tomorrow is the last day of classes for me, and thus the last day of ECMP. I have enjoyed my time in this class immensely, and I have gotten a lot of value out of it. What have I learnt?
One thing that stands out is the opensource software and the other software that is found on the web that is free. I like this because I picture myself teaching at a community school, where if students have computers, they are likely not going to have Microsoft XP, or whatever, so having an option to get software, free, that is just as good, is a lovely thought!!
Not only have I enjoyed what I have learnt, I really enjoyed watching the movies done by my colleagues. The videos on beauty and the reality of our culture, wasn't an eye opener for me, but sometimes I get consumed in my subject area and with teaching my students only math, but these issues are more important...so it has led me to ponder how I could go about discussing these topics in my classes.
I'm sure I will find some way!!
One thing that stands out is the opensource software and the other software that is found on the web that is free. I like this because I picture myself teaching at a community school, where if students have computers, they are likely not going to have Microsoft XP, or whatever, so having an option to get software, free, that is just as good, is a lovely thought!!
Not only have I enjoyed what I have learnt, I really enjoyed watching the movies done by my colleagues. The videos on beauty and the reality of our culture, wasn't an eye opener for me, but sometimes I get consumed in my subject area and with teaching my students only math, but these issues are more important...so it has led me to ponder how I could go about discussing these topics in my classes.
I'm sure I will find some way!!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Youtube in a Classroom
After reading Alec comment on my blog about "Ma and Pa Kettle - Math Lesson" I was a little upset!!!
I didn't use a lot of technology (with the exception of a Smart Board) in my internship, and now that I have found a number of good You Tube math videos, I was upset to hear that a lot of schools do not allow this.
Hopefully Alec was right, and there is a way to get around this. So, here are a few of the sites that I like, pi day, and search Al G Bra, he too has some good sites, and my last favorite, is American Pi.
I didn't use a lot of technology (with the exception of a Smart Board) in my internship, and now that I have found a number of good You Tube math videos, I was upset to hear that a lot of schools do not allow this.
Hopefully Alec was right, and there is a way to get around this. So, here are a few of the sites that I like, pi day, and search Al G Bra, he too has some good sites, and my last favorite, is American Pi.
Monday, April 9, 2007
300
Quick little blurb on the movie 300 which I saw this weekend. I just read a review on hotmail entertainment, and the movie was basically ripped to shreds.
Now, the movie is quite gory, and there is a lot of violence...point taken, but having studied Ancient history and this particular Battle of Thermoplyae, I can tell you that there were a lot of accurate portrayals. Even the amount of violence and hard life of the Spartans, is accurate to the best knowledge of historians, even if it is gruesome. The lifestyle was pretty accurate, the soldiers (leaving their parents, being starved, etc.), the tough Spartan women, valuing war....
This author makes numerous cracks at the movie, one being the use of war elephants, why not they say? Well, ridiculous as it sounds, they existed and came from Northern Africa; whether or not the Persians used them I can not specifically recall, but they did at least exist!!
So, my point...? The plot is not "over-the-top" or made up, it was a real battle, where 300 Spartan soldiers died for the freedom of their people and all of Greece. Besides what I have mentioned, there are elements up for debate (like how the Persians found the path through the mountain), but it was definitely NOT laughable.
I recommend anyone with an interest in Ancient history, Spartan history, or action films, this movie is worth seeing.
I would just like to add that before one tries to critique a movie they should do some research regarding it's accuracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, the movie is quite gory, and there is a lot of violence...point taken, but having studied Ancient history and this particular Battle of Thermoplyae, I can tell you that there were a lot of accurate portrayals. Even the amount of violence and hard life of the Spartans, is accurate to the best knowledge of historians, even if it is gruesome. The lifestyle was pretty accurate, the soldiers (leaving their parents, being starved, etc.), the tough Spartan women, valuing war....
This author makes numerous cracks at the movie, one being the use of war elephants, why not they say? Well, ridiculous as it sounds, they existed and came from Northern Africa; whether or not the Persians used them I can not specifically recall, but they did at least exist!!
So, my point...? The plot is not "over-the-top" or made up, it was a real battle, where 300 Spartan soldiers died for the freedom of their people and all of Greece. Besides what I have mentioned, there are elements up for debate (like how the Persians found the path through the mountain), but it was definitely NOT laughable.
I recommend anyone with an interest in Ancient history, Spartan history, or action films, this movie is worth seeing.
I would just like to add that before one tries to critique a movie they should do some research regarding it's accuracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tapped In
I've been putting this off, since the one seminar that I wanted to partake in I was unable to attend. I hate not finishing something, but it seems that this is what I have come to...little things just kept coming up, and keeping me from attending any of the seminars. At first, it was the ones that I wanted to attend that I couldn't seem to make, but since today was the last day, as you can see it came to be even the ones that I didn't care about I never made (which is likely the ultimate reason that I never did fully make it through).
In any event, one day I would like to attend a seminar on math or perhaps history, but until then, I am afraid that I have yet to join a tapped in session.
In any event, one day I would like to attend a seminar on math or perhaps history, but until then, I am afraid that I have yet to join a tapped in session.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Math
Not surprising that I would be blogging about math...since that is what most of my blogs are about. I can't help it, math is such a wonderful subject. I am currently working on an assignment for my Math 308 class, and one of the questions involves finding the slope of the tangent line to the circle x² + y² = 25 at the point (3,4). Sounds a little confusing at first, but what they are asking for is to find the derivative of this function....what is the function? Well the function is y, so if we solve for y, we get f(x) = √(25-x²). How I had to find this was using 4 different methods.
I am a little rusty on my calculus since I haven't touched any in 3 and a half years. So it took a lot more effort and figuring out than it should have, but while I was working away I was totally happy, and content. Sitting down figuring out a problem, was not stressful (like so many papers and projects that I have to do), it was just nice and relaxing, even when I was coming up with dead ends!!! = )
Once I started getting back into things, and I started remembering stuff again, it was real nice and I never fully realized how much I missed doing stuff like that until now.
I am a little rusty on my calculus since I haven't touched any in 3 and a half years. So it took a lot more effort and figuring out than it should have, but while I was working away I was totally happy, and content. Sitting down figuring out a problem, was not stressful (like so many papers and projects that I have to do), it was just nice and relaxing, even when I was coming up with dead ends!!! = )
Once I started getting back into things, and I started remembering stuff again, it was real nice and I never fully realized how much I missed doing stuff like that until now.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Tech Task #9
Okay...tech task #9 involved evaluating some software. Being a high school teacher I decided to search for something that didn't apply to young elementary students.
Boy was that hard!!
There were some math ones that I found, Cinderella and geometer sketchpad. But they were not real user friendly. The tutorials were quite difficult to follow, involved a lot of reading and contained a lot of information that was, overall, difficult to follow.
With this in mind I would not recommend using any of these with a class. It would take too long to figure it out, and likely just confuse your students - particularly Cinderella...the geometer sketch pad does have some hope!!
The other one that was at least do-able, was Celestia. I couldn't find any real educational benefit out of it, but it was fun to play around in the galaxy. So what was Celestia about?
Well, you could take tours around different places (planets, comets, stars...), with the tour there was a brief description of some of the places that you stopped at, but not much.
Outside of the tour you could search items in the galaxy, but only ones pre-recognized by the computer were findable.
Over all, out of the 3 programs I looked at, I wouldn't recommend any of them.
Boy was that hard!!
There were some math ones that I found, Cinderella and geometer sketchpad. But they were not real user friendly. The tutorials were quite difficult to follow, involved a lot of reading and contained a lot of information that was, overall, difficult to follow.
With this in mind I would not recommend using any of these with a class. It would take too long to figure it out, and likely just confuse your students - particularly Cinderella...the geometer sketch pad does have some hope!!
The other one that was at least do-able, was Celestia. I couldn't find any real educational benefit out of it, but it was fun to play around in the galaxy. So what was Celestia about?
Well, you could take tours around different places (planets, comets, stars...), with the tour there was a brief description of some of the places that you stopped at, but not much.
Outside of the tour you could search items in the galaxy, but only ones pre-recognized by the computer were findable.
Over all, out of the 3 programs I looked at, I wouldn't recommend any of them.
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