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.

ECMP Reflection part 1

We are wrapping up with classes which means ECMP is almost over. Reflecting upon my experiences in this class, I would like to mention first that I took this class because I heard how great Alec was, and to be very honest, I was looking forward to the no final part. Since it is my last semester before I get my degree, I wanted this to be EASY!!!

Things have changed. I have really enjoyed taking this class, and I have learned quite a lot. I am sad though that I did not take this class before my internship...since the website that I created I would have loved to share with my students. Oh well...I've got something I can share with future students!!!
I would recommend to any students in the faculty of Education to take this class, and try to do so in their 2nd or 3rd year, then they could use their project in their internship, but also their online portfolio, they could actually use during interviews...instead of it being a work in progress.

Interesting...!!

The funny math video at the top of my blog is really quite interesting. It is a "math lesson" about dividing shares (25%) evenly between 5 people. The argument is 14% a piece, for each person or 5. It is actually quite neat how the arguments work with this particular number.

I would be careful before showing this in a class, because if I had weak students I would be afraid of the outcome it could potentially have. But as long as I had a strong class, I think this would be an awesome little video to watch at the beginning of class!!
It is called "Math Lesson - Pa and Ma Kettle."

Standardized Testing

Should Saskatchewan adopt standardized testing?? This has become a rather large question, and there are a number of people pushing for it. This is a problem!!!!! As educators it should be our responsibility to STOP this before it gets any further.
Why??? I have good reason to believe this, I am not trying to just be difficult!!

First thing I guess I should say is that I am coming from a math background and thus I think primarily in terms of math.
What is standardized testing?? Prime examples of what this is are looking at the education system in Alberta and the United States (also known as the No Child Left Behind program). In both these places students are required to complete "standard" tests, which means they are all the same and every students must take it. In both these circumstances the main focuses of the test are math, reading, writing and science. However there has been numerous studies which are suggesting that these "standard" tests are not effective because they are multiple choice, which means that students are not able to show what they really know, and simply have to memorize facts to pass (they don't actually need to have an understanding). Then these results are published and schools inevitably become rated against one another, and the government (and firms supporting this - like those making the tests) argue that this is a good thing!! That ranking a school as 54th in the state is going to make those kids and teachers work harder to be number one. Well if you are living in a low socio-economic neighbor you might already be working as you can! So as you can see a large part of the problem is the focus on these numbers/stats with no contextual information.
As you can see this could become a problem for teachers in Saskatchewan if our province adopts standardized testing. Studies continually show that these tests do not benefit students, being ranked does not give them the boost to do better, but harms their morale, and most importantly these tests are NOT accurate measures of how students are achieving.
There are numerous other issues pertaining to standardized testing like, high-stakes testing, issues of accountability, teaching to the test, but I dont' want to blog about this any longer...it's been long enough!!

The end...

The end is in sight....I am mere weeks away from graduating and I am sooooo excited because my brain just seems FRIED. 4 years at University has been long enough, I am ready to be done.

I've got a few more papers/projects to work my way through and then I have a summer of no homework, relax and do whatever I feel like...and I'll be making money because I've got a job!! So come end of April, life will be good!!

I am looking forward to have time to read the paper and do other leisure activities like that. I like being up on the news, but have a hard time making time for it with everything else in my life AND school.

Basically I am looking forward to a summer of shutting down my brain and then getting my OWN classroom come the fall (if I get a job)!!

Astronomy Podcast

Okay...I found a podcast to listen to. Thanks Alec for giving me that site about the math podcasts...unfortunately I couldn't get them to work, and since I didn't know what to do to get it to work, I instead watched an astronomy podcast Episode 18: black holes big and small. It was actually quite interesting, this discussion was primarily what black holes are, what were to happen if some poor soul got sucked in, etc. What I found was quite cool, was the aspect of math and physics that were discussed....they weren't discussed in great lenghts to make someone who is not of a math background to cringe, but were brief enough that I was able to pick up and understand some of it.

This podcast was much more enjoyable then I thought any podcast would be. I was able to put it on in the background and do other work while I was listening, so I didn't have to stop doing everything and sit down and do just that for 30 mins. Which was really nice!!!!
So overall I enjoyed listening to my first podcast ever.

Now in regards to education and teaching...
I dont' know if I'd ever use a podcast in my classroom, nor do I think that I myself would ever actually make one. They seem to be full of educational information (most that I had looked at anyway), but I am unsure of how I could use this in a math classroom or if it would even be useful (I am talking here as if there was a useful math podcast out there).
To me this seems like something I would have in my classroom as an extension of the students learning...perhaps a personal project of some sort...?
In this respect though, I think they could be useful and helpful for students.

I'm still unsure of exactly how I feel right now, but I think that pretty much sums it up...

Podcasting - Before hand

I haven't listened to a podcast yet because I am having a hard time finding an interesting one. I wanted to listen to one that is about my major...math!! But that is proving quite difficult so I will have to settle for something else.

To be honest I am unsure if I will like the podcasts, even if they are really good. Sometimes I find that technology consumes me and takes over my life. And this seems like it could be just another thing that involves me using my computer and staring at a screen.....