Tool #11

For your final 11 Tools post, answer these questions:

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.

My favorite tools are embedding videos into the blog so that students could have a tutoring center for questions on homework. Also, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with each other and other classes in order to promote horizontal learning. I definitely want to take advantage of using Edmodo to collaborate with the other classes to create a review. 

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?
I realize now how important it is to have the technology incorporated into my classroom. It makes it more entertaining for them and less difficult for me. I feel like it will really individualize the learning experience for each student. I will definitely change my lesson plans because I will now think about how I can release control to the students to learn.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I was not surprised by the section on digital citizenship, but I did think it was helpful to me because it brought up a lot of points that I might now have thought of to discuss with the students. 

Tool #10

Being a responsible digital citizen means that they understand that it is to be used for purposeful collaboration. I want to teach them about the safety of putting things on the internet and about how they are permanently on there. Also, I want to teach them that the material that is on the internet is other people's work and that it is never acceptable to just copy someone else's work. I plan to show them the video about understanding digital citizenship before they are allowed to use the technology. I will play a game of "Do's and Don'ts by modeling different internet behaviors. Also, they will need to sign a contract with me about the appropriate use of the technology letting me know that they are agreeing to be responsible. I would share these with the parents after giving them a debrief on the things that the students agreed to.

Tool #7

I think it would be a good idea to share assignments with the 7th grade math classes. It would be a cool thing  to use Edmodo and have a 3 day project that one day, one class works on it for one teacher, another class for another teacher  does another part, and another one does the 3rd part. Then we can put them together to create a whole presentation to show all the classes. We could use it for the Unit 4 on Multiplying and Dividing fractions. One teacher could do the how to multiply, one teacher could do how to divide, and one could do the mixed application part. Then we could put it together for the review for the students as their review.

Tool #6

I will use Edmodo in my classroom by creating a quiz for students to take when I am using stations for review. It will allow me to be able to have all students work on the same thing and give me feedback while I work the other stations. I am going to use Skype to try to get different professionals to skype with the class so that students can see how math has real world applications. It will be like interviews so that I can get the students to broaden their horizons for future possibilities.

Tool #9

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective? I think that we as a society are becoming a much more digital age. Things have even advanced since I was in the classroom 4 years ago. Without equipping our students with the tools to use and adapt to technology, they will feel lost when they enter the job market. Training them to use technology gives them a skill set that could set them apart from another candidate for a job in the future.
2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers? If we don't hold the students accountable for the things they come in contact with at the school, then they don't learn to respect property, whether it be their own or someone else's. It is important that they learn to take pride in the things that they have. It also creates great team building skills if you give them an "accountability partner."
3. Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? I REALLY like like Studyladder one. Groups of students could work together as a team at stations. It will really help individualize the learning experience because if we are ending a unit and I see that different students are struggling with different things, I can group them together and have them go to a station to use that study tool. Also it will be great for review. I also like InterActivate. It looks a little more advanced than Studyladder does, so I might consider advancing into that website. It has games, as well as quizzes which I really like!
4. List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? The AFactorTree will be really helpful for the factors lessons. Everyday Math Equivalent Fractions will be good for review when we are getting ready to learn to convert to decimals and percentages. Then I might move into Freddy Fractions to help advance their understanding and practice the converstions.
5. What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station. I think that anytime you can get students working together in small groups of 3 or 4 students it will allow you to pair strong students with weaker students and give everyone the chance to learn. I might put them in groups of 3 and number them off so I can say "Pass the board to #2, etc." and use it as a whiteboard for solving a problem that I put on the board.

Tool #8

I really like that the netbooks are smaller than normal laptop. I think that it is necessary for middle schoolers. What I found to be so great about the iPads and iPod touches is that you don't have to synch them with the computer to get something onto there, you can do it from the store by entering your id. For management of the materials, I will have a log. To check a piece of technology out, out must sign in, give me something of yours as collateral, and when you return it in its proper condition, you will get your item back. At the end of every class, it will be a student job to double check the technology before anyone can leave the class. The log is important because it lets you see who used what in the case of damage or error, and the student job helps because you have already checked it, but it is a student keeping the other students accountable at this point. Always a plus!

Tool #5

Today I learned a lot of really great tools that I can use in my class. Blogspot is one of the coolest because I can use it to connect with other people to seek help and share ideas. I also will be able to use it to create a blog for my class so students can work on the homework together and seek my help on any problem. I will upload the homework for the night to remind them as well as make myself available to help. Another really cool tool I learned to use is a Prezi. I know that our Active Boards make our presentations more engaging, but the presentation methods of this company are too great! I tested it out a little bit using my class rules.

<div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_3xim0wsn09ab" name="prezi_3xim0wsn09ab" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowFullScreenInteractive" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=3xim0wsn09ab&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed_3xim0wsn09ab" name="preziEmbed_3xim0wsn09ab" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowFullScreenInteractive="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=3xim0wsn09ab&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="Math Rules!" href="http://prezi.com/3xim0wsn09ab/math-rules/">Math Rules!</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div>

I am not sure if I would use it a lot, but maybe more for speed drills like review fractions, multiplication, common factors, etc. It will be great for a do-now in the first 5 minutes.