Digital Storytelling

I can see a use for digital storytelling in the classroom, even in mathematics.  I could use to share biographies of mathematicians.  The digital stories could also express how theorems and formulas are derived.  Showing students video, audio, and photographical representations of events could help students to visualize and understand how mathematicians come up with their discoveries.  I would also use digital stories to showcase how conic sections are able to be seen in the real world.  Many students are unaware of the mathematics around them.  Presenting the images through a digital story will allow me to engage the students in a way that I might not have been able to  when presenting examples on the overhead.  

Last Week of Class

It always amazes me how other professions do not share as much as we do.  Other professions requires people to watch out for numero uno!  Educators recognize that sharing is and collaborating is one of the most effective and efficient ways to create the best possible lesson plan.  At my high school all the math teachers share a common office.  This was the best situation to come into as a first year teacher.  During my first year, not only did I have one mentor that was looking out for me, but I had seven other teachers there to discuss with, bounce ideas off of, and most importantly collaborate with.  That is how I feel much of what we have done in this class has been.  Through collaborative sharing and exploring different applets, technologies, and techniques we are becoming better educators.  I have really enjoyed examining  having the set time to investigate different applications, especially Rubistar.  I believe that providing students with clear expectations will allow the students to succeed and produce better work, but I never enjoyed making them.  This website has premade rubrix which can be modified and individualized. 

            Another interesting component that we looked at this week were WebQuests.  I think, when appropriate, these are a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom.  WebQuests allow students to take on some of the responsibility of learning as well as allow them to use and develop technology skills to become better 21st Century learners.  I will try to find different WebQuests and/or create my own which will work within my curriculum.  Most of the time WebQuests are not the most efficient and effective way to teach math, it can be a very useful tool if it can serve the same purpose as a lecture.  I look forward to incorporating these into my curriculum.  

The hardest part about not being in this class is the responsibility I will have to place on myself to seek out the curricular resources we were exposed to.  We were given the tools and know-how, now it's just putting that into practice.  

Internet Safety & Social Network

The Internet is a vast unknown for most people, which is why some of us get sucked into exploring different sites for hours on end. I was in college when Facebook first came out so I have used Facebook for 4 years. I have had to make the transition between having my college life displayed on Facebook to monitoring it and having discussion with friends to determine if we were going to edit our profiles because were are educators. As Facebook has advanced, the ability to use different setting has given me a sense of peace of mind knowing that I have more control over who is able to see what on my profile. I feel fortunate that I have the enough sense to actually set those up, but many of my students don't think like that.

As a math teacher, I do not have many lessons for my students on the computer, however, I do know that part of my job is to address additional issues, social issues, that aren't part of my curriculum. I feel that it is important to talk take the time to talk to students about these issues be it a short Mrs. O'Brien P.S.A. or a quick class discussion. Because I am a young teacher, many students may take what I say differently than what their parents say. Today in class we had a little side bar about Facebook in my Honors Algebra 2 class. Many of the students had questions about the New Berlin student and we talked about it. It was a good lead in to a discussion of protesting themselves on the Internet. They seemed engaged in the conversation and some students made comments about how they had gotten talks from their parents about the issue last night. Somehow hearing it from a 26 year-old that has a Facebook account made it a little more real to them. There are opportunities out there, even for math teacher, to take a couple minutes to address life issues.