Thing #12

This summer, I’ve been thinking about different ways that I can incorporate projects and hands-on activities in my sixth grade math class.  Amont other ideas I may try, one involves a Ribbon Project.  I hope to incorporate the ideas of fractions and decimals in a project where students are given the creative freedom to create a project out of ribbon.  The slideshow I created can be used as a introduction to the project.  I embedded the slideshow in my wiki page.

Thing #11

I have always loved photography (although I’ve never claimed to be very good at it myself), so I loved looking through Flickr this week.  It was so much fun!  I nearly jumped out of my skin when I read about Darren Kuropatura’s idea on the Cool Cat Teacher blog.  I can see so many applications for this across the grade levels of mathematics.  When I taught high school, I used to love showing my geometry classes how geometrical shapes and theorems could be seen in the world around them.  I can see how my 8th grade Algebra students could look for linear and quadratic functions in photos, and my sixth graders could find representations of fractions and percents.  I’m so excited to see how I can use this!

photo by december snowdrift

photo by jek in the box

photo by Jen Chan

photo by terriseesthings

photo by jek in the box

photo by Photos By Zoe

Thing #10

In my three years of teaching, I have heard at least five lectures or presentations about fair use and the dangers of copyright infringement.  My solution to the dilemma?  I avoid using other people’s work like the plague.  When creating powerpoint presentations for my classes, I try my hardest to use my own photos to illustrate the concepts.  I’ve even begun trying to take pictures for that purpose, for inclusion in my classroom in order to avoid breaking copyright laws.  I’ve been taught about the rights granted me as a teacher under the policies of fair use.  My husband is an attorney, and he has reassured me of them as well.  Nevertheless, I’m a wimp, and I don’t want to get in trouble or offend the original creator or author of the work.

So, this whole creative commons thing is pretty cool.  I have never seen (or at least noticed) a (cc) symbol (By the way, I did check…My computer’s version of Microsoft Word does not acknowledge that symbol in the way it does the copyright symbol when I type it).  But, I will be on the look-out for it.  I think that creative commons has fantastic potential for helping teachers and students share with one another.  Its implications for the Web 2.0 tools alone are incredible.  I do see potential negatives, though.  Students have a hard enough time finding good, solid information on the web.  It used to be (back in the good ol’ days) that solid copyright and publishing details were a good head’s up that the source you found was “legit.”  With the absence of that now, we will need to have even stronger, fool-proof methods for identifying solid, reliable sources of information.

Stretch Exercise: I searched Flickr and found this.  I find it to be hysterical!  From what I can tell, I have followed the rules of the creative commons license in using it in this blog.  Please let me know if I’m wrong.

Photo by Tidewater Muse

Thing #8 – Stretch

Just for fun, I looked for my high school on Wikipedie: Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia.  I was pleased to see that the information included seems (from my recollection) to be accurate, although the tone was somewhat dry.  There was a variety of information presented, including history, feeder schools, administration, school website, extracurricular activities, notable alumni, and athletics.  I laughed when I saw that “traffic problems” was set aside as its own category because, when I was a student there, the traffic problems were of great concern.  I checked out the discussions tab, and only one person has mentioned anything.  It seems a new notable alumni was added to the page, and there is some question about whether he is notable or part of our alumni.  When I went to the history page, I noticed that there have been a pretty good number of changes made to the page since its birth in October 2008, most of which were made by the same two or three people.  I wonder who those people are…and why they’re so interested in Lakeside’s page on Wikipedia!

Thing #8

It’s wiki-mania!  I have seen wikis before, and I’ve always thought they were the neatest idea.  To allow a whole host of people to edit and manage one website to benefit the group is a really clever idea.  I investigated many wikis through this week’s discovery exercise, and I found some neat things.

Great Debate 2008 – Being married to a “political junkie,” I can appreciate an online forum for discussion and debate about political ideas.  Anything that keeps CNN and CSPAN off my TV for two minutes is fantastic!  In all seriousness, I love that this wiki gives sutdents the ability to debate ideas and present both sides of an argument.  I noticed that several of the students provided thorough bibliographies for the information they included, but others did not.  This wiki did a great job of imbedding videos.

Kindergarten Counting Book – I don’t teach kindergarten (and hopefully never will), but I couldn’t resist the temptation to see how in the world 5-year-olds would participate in a wiki.  This is the cutest idea, using photos instead of written words to express ideas and understanding.  I would be curious to know if the students contributed to the wiki in the classroom or at home.  And, were they able to do it alone or with the assistance of an adult?

Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio – I teach in a private school, so I am not held to the strict QCC/GPS nightmare I spent so many months learning about in college; however, I understand and appreciate the need to set standards that your students should achieve by the end of a lesson, unit, and school year.  What this wiki does so well is get the students involved in explaining those standards.  In mathematics in particular, it is very important that students learn to summarize their learning.  Mathematics is a tricky language to learn, and this wiki provides a great environment for expressing it.  By turning the wiki into a collaborative project, the students summarized what they learned in a creative, safe environment.  I also like that the teacher commented on the students’ submissions and created a “Hall of Fame,” where he picked the best of the best entires.

Room 15 Wiki – I like how this wiki combines everything related to the classroom (homework assignments, student work, class expectations, brain teasers, etc.) in one place.  It makes it easy for the students and parents to find what they need.

Small Stones - This wiki is incredible (It’s also very easy to navigate)!  It’s the best example of incorporating Web 2.0 tools into the math classroom that I’ve seen to date. What a fantastic idea to take the day’s lesson, summarize it in an easy-to-navigate format, and archive it for students to access at any time.  One thing – I couldn’t figure out who created the daily entires, the students or teacher.  If I were to create a wiki like this, I think it would be neat to have the students create the entries, reflecting on what was introduced in class each day, explaining the new concepts, making connections to old material, etc.  After seeing this wiki, I am very optimistic about being able to use one in my own classroom!