Reflections of a Techie

Dust off Donald, Let's see the Magic in the Golden Ratio

I'm old so I remember the glory days of Disney.  I have to admit that this little jewel had slipped my memory, but when we dusted it off and used it with our students....wow....the power of Disney to make something interesting came to life.

Donald in MathMagic Land does many great things.  We are in the process of studying ratios, specifically the golden ratio.  This is the perfect movie to show them.  I think one of the most amazing parts of the movie is where Donald shows how this ratio comes into play with musical instruments...ha!  get the pun?  (We have an old VCR copy of the movie, but you'll get the idea from this YouTube clip.)

Well, we tried it.  Some of the strings students went and dragged their instruments into our classroom.  At first we couldn't stretch the string tight enough to just do as in the movie.  But eventually we were able to replicate Donald's experience.

Students at this time of the year are darn hard to engage nevermind impress.  This old, old movie did it.  Now the kids are totally pumped to learn about the 2nd most famous irrational number.  In our class opinion, pi takes 1st place and phi takes 2nd place.

It will be fun to see what kinds of drawings they are able to make of the nautilus shell.  The best part of all this is that learning is fun and it is setting them up for their next unit at the start of 7th grade.

First of several Pi or Pie Days

With only 3 days left before spring break, we thought it perfect time to celebrate math.  Heck we've been toiling away in test prep and they've gone about as "fer" as they can go. 

Our 6th graders teamed up today with 8th grade partners to explore that mysterious ratio of pi.  We started off by reading aloud from Sir Circumference....moaning at all the puns and enjoying the language.   Then we saranaded them (yes, lots of rolling eyes but when we realized we weren't quitting we were encouraged to sing verse 2) with Oh Number Pi . 

Next we looked at the phenonmenon by having them use 5 different sizes of cylinders and lids...cutting bits of string for the circumference and the diameter.  Comparing how many diameters it took to make one circumference.  Here was a place the 8th graders could help get things taped into their math journals.  Download circumference_activity.doc

Then we worked with Sticky Pi.  It's a very cool activity.  You get rolls of 1centimeter graph paper...so the paper is about 3 feet wide.  They create the independent axis by tracing the diameters of many containers.  Then the dependent variable, circumference, goes on the y axis.  Students showed circumference by taking masking tape and cutting a piece of tape that fit around the container...then they aligned that tape with the end of their diameter.  Amazingly, they showed a linear relationship...lining up.  This activity was fabulous because the 6th graders could benefit from seeing how it worked everytime and the 8th graders appreciated the nuance of the fact that the rate of change was about 3+ everytime.

The 43 minutes was far too short.

I liked collaborative 8th grade partners.  They really pitched in and helped our 6th graders...and I wasn't sure how that would go with almost 150 kids in the cafeteria all working on the same activity.  It was great.

Tomorrow is PIE day.  That will be great, too....much less waist friendly...but fun nevertheless.  We saved the rest of the read aloud to eat with our pie.

Dynamic feedback loops OR Formative Assessment in Math & Test Prep

Having spent weeks on reviewing Number Sense, it was time to see how much students knew in a simulated testing situation.  I created a series of 3 - 10 question formatives which covered rational numbers.  I needed that dynamic situation for independent practice...something where I could watch all of them do their problem set but without interacting with them.

Today we dragged the mobile carts into the pod and got started.  As they took their quizzes, I would watch their questions stream into my grid.

"OK, Bill...be sure to check #2 again"....squint a bit more at the screen and realize that everyone was missing #9.  Buggers that means I really need to do more with teaching estimating with percents.  New numbers would post to my screen and I could tell the 2 kids in the back of the room where messing around, clicking through and not showing me what they knew/didn't know.  I walked back there and set them straight...by the time I returned to monitoring my screen they were in "review" mode and changing their answers.

Here is proof to me that dynamic test results can be powerful.  All the groundwork I had invested in teaching the concepts, having them drill on the concepts, allow a little time to go by and let it sink into long term memory (or escape) and blam.  See what they remembered and what they could still do.  The capability to watch their scores pour in, question by question, is remarkable.

I thought they were getting messed up on estimation problems.  Turns out I was all wrong.  They were missing the multi-step problems.  Without instant results, I would have operated from the wrong assumption and addressed a need they didn't have.  This is powerful stuff.  It is a feedback loop that can change how kids feel about math...

If I know what they "get" and "don't get", I have a much better chance at helping them learn the tough stuff.

It will be interesting to compare tomorrow's results with today's.  I will be watching to see if they soar and falter in the same places they did today.  Whatever the outcome, it will inform my decision about what to teach the next day.  That's just cool and humbles me to think about the potential we have together because of the leveraged knowledge I have with technology.

Incorporating 21st Century Skills in Science Class Research

I decided I had to branch out beyond the typical lesson and incorporate more tools.  Yet I didn't really know how I was going to do that given that my students don't have much tech training.  Our school receives students from two feeder elementary schools...one of which doesn't little to nothing with tech and the other where the teachers do the tech and the kids watch.

So I decided to create a Powerpoint shell that gave the directions on each slide.  Then they had to fill in the slide with their research information.  I knew that would be solid enough to get them headed in the right direction.  Then I broke them into 5 subgroups and they each had to do their own research.

Here's one example.

| View | Upload your own

She's done a fantastic job of taking the topics and making them come alive for our classmates.

Another student, who is more adventuresome and has a few more techie skills, decided to create some animations within PowerPoint.  Oh, if we'd only had access to MicroWorlds the things he could have done.  Still all in all, it's a great presentation of the information.

I'll have to come back and post that in a bit.

We learned quite a bit.  I got everyone up to speed on PowerPoint, how to scan pictures, and using Citation Machine to give credit for the things they used in their research.  Almost everyone learned how to do Google Earth.  We'll take our next big step in the next project as soon as I learn how!!!!

Wild, Wacky Weathering Stories

From signposts to tricycles to Pepsi cans, my science students rocked it with this assessment.  I asked them to write a creative story about an object's journey through the weathering process (it had to have 3 different types, show the progression of the object's demise, and be illustrated).  We used three of the 6-traits of writing (ideas and content, organization---for the sequence of weathering, and word choice).

I have already mentioned this dilemma in a previous post and I was apprehensive that I could find an engaging way in which to have my students use a mandatory writing assignment in science.  I worry no more.

They loved this assignment and worked hard.  I think over 88% of my 60 students earned a B+ or better on this final assessment. I knew they totally owned the curriculum concepts for which I am responsible and that they'd be able to nail the state-tested items.  I loved reading them, they loved writing them and it wasn't the same, old science summative assessment.

Space weather...use NASA images to stimulate digital kids' interests.

NASA's website is the biggest locker of unexplored treasures I can imagine.  Just happened to find this unbelieveable image of how the Sun's atmostphere impacts the Earth...showing the magnetic field of the Earth flowing out towards the Sun.  We'd just talked about it class two days ago.

I was able to bring this picture into my class and show them space weather.  That totally had them jazzed up to understand way more than I am prepared to explain...way more than I understand.  But I felt like I was working with that raw enthusiasm that only the younger grade level teachers see.  My middle schoolers were begging me to tell them more and they were hungry for knowledge.  All because of this picture and lots of wondering!!!!

I would just love to find a class that helped me have a more systematic way of finding everything.  NASA's site feels a lot like the American Memories collection at the Library of Congress.  enough material to fill a lifetime of teaching moments...but so little able to find it and process it and use it.  I sort of feel sick when I really delve into the website.  Then I turn it around because I typically find something that I don't think I can help but share with my students.  I know they grow weary of...."You won't believe what I found while surfing around at NASA last night".  And I know they think I need to get a life if what I do at night is NASA surf...but this is really one of the best uses of tax dollars I know of.  and I thankful for those moments of discovery.

My first audio file project of a teacher meeting--using Audacity and uploading audio to Typepad

Well, I've finished my first attempt at producing some kind of reflective audio file of teacher's deliberating about curriculum design.  I think I found myself too absorbed in the most interesting parts of the conversation and then worrying about how to operate my iPod.  But I did manage to gather a couple of audio voice notes into Audacity.

It wasn't as easy to edit the audio as I remember GarageBand being, though.  I couldn't figure out how to position the playheads at the just the right place.  So I'm not very happy with some of  it and I would have included more little bits and pieces of other people's voices had I known how to do this...

Download 08012005meeting.mp3

But it's a start and I felt like I needed to get going with my experiments.  People were very happy to accomodate my efforts for the most part.  I also think that some of what I recorded will be excellent to have when we must present this curriculum to the school board's review committees.  These are authentic teacher voices saying why their work is important, valid and useful.  Hopefully I will get better at editing and can provide a much better set of opinions.

Hopefully I will also gather steam for folks listening to this and leaving their ideas. The notion that these voices are here for people to react to and to stimulate thinking.  WOW.  If that would happen, I'd be thrilled.  We'll see.

Lastly I've never uploaded any content like this onto my blog.  So I'm wasn't sure how this would work...so far so good and it uploads like any other file.  That was probably the easiest part of this effort.

Morphing Podcasts from Talking at You to Talking with You

After listening to Amy's Gahran's podcast about what is podcasting, I'm being to refine my idea of what a podcast needs to be...now I'm coming to understand that they are conversations...they need to be interactive and responsive to the audience. Having listeners respond with comments helps to build the quality of what is said.  So given that I think it might be a fabulous way to engage my students and their parents into coming to understand more about conceptual-based math.  Instead of just sharing and then going onto the new podcast, it would become a "component" or instructional tool.  There's a terrific show at Learning Times Network that has a panel that is exploring this idea.

I think this would best workout if I were to start off a unit with some basic comments...maybe the overview concepts that we will be learning.  Then use my students to elaborate on what I've said and react to it.  Use the blog to house notes/illustrations/diagrams to enhance what is being said.  I can use my voice recorder attached onto my iPod to capture recordings to combine and edit for my information.

IM in the Classroom?? Good idea or Not?

I keep asking myself, "How is this project going...is using IM a flashy gadget or a real instructional tool?"  I still don't know to be honest.  Almost all of my kids have mastered getting onto IM, and focusing their conversations around what must be done to get their projects completed.  A small handful still are struggling with remembering their passwords and so everyday they spend more of the hour worrying about IM than programming.

I've had to struggle with how to allow kids to be kids inside their IM culture and shifting it towards another purpose....learning about programming!!!!  Oh yeah...we had a day when it seemed like the only thing they were doing is sending "Winks" to each other.  I had huge lips popping everywhere!!!  Then there was the day of "Nudges".  Whoa you might have thought we were having an earthquake with all the shaky screens! 

But we persevered.  Then the next IM hurdle was the flirting.  You knew it was going to happen, I just wasn't sure how, when or where.  Well, it did take them a couple of days to get adjusted but now they sort of transitioned through, I think. Interestingly, I had to have "How to Handle yourself in the IM Environment" conversations all over again.  One young boy was totally flustered because his IM partner thought he was cute and was flirting.  He had no idea what to do and told my colleague his girlfriend would be furious.  It only took reminding him that he knew what to do..."tell her you have a girlfriend and stop flirting."  One small sentence.  The flirting stopped and they got back to business!!!!  I just wouldn't have thought these students would be so flustered with stuff I thought they experienced every night at home.

For them, all the expected behavior was in a new form at school and that took adjustment.  Having survived the Winks, Nudges and flirting we're on track to finish the project on time.  Really we only added in 2 days because of IM so I'm fairly pleased that this was a successful venture.  I guess the real test will be when we see the projects in 2 days.

Ta Da To Lists, IM and Creative Projects--Great Combo for 7th graders

I'll freely admit where I'm struggling in class and keeping them all headed in the right direction with enough support is somewhere I am always in search of improving.  Right now we've just started a new MicroWorlds project...one where I've just specified some generic things the program must do and then have left it's implementation form up to the kids.

And we designed this project to incorporate IM.  In pairs sets, students are problem solving all the programming decisions, creating content and exporting turtles to each other via IM.  They are not in the same classroom as their partner.  So it is even more important to be very specific about what you want and how it must be seen in the project.

I spent one class period going over the project To Do list and we filled in some details from the project description.  We marked whether or not each task would require the creation of a new turtle or writing a procedure.  Simply putting a T or P or sometimes a TandP really helped the kids know what they had to do and how it had to take form in the final product. I took one class period to review the project details, using my School Pad to record their comments. What I wish we could do is to download To Do lists into another public place and then add the details on a per pupil basis.  That would be really cool because then they would have a web-based version.  Right now I have that for them, but it is on the printed out copy of the To Do list with pencil scribbles.  And I also have the School Pad notes projected on the front wall. Thank goodness for my trusty little SchoolPad.  It is the best classroom tool I've found to help e.

Yesterday was their first attempt at working with their partner.  We had all sorts of problems getting IM to download because of how the network security permissions are set.  But with that now being taken care of, the kids moved into talking to each other.  Thank goodness for the To Do list.  It shaped their conversations and kept them on topic.  I'll have to admit though I was glad it was a Track Meet day.  Not all of my kids were in class...in fact many are on the Track team and gone.  So it was a good subset of kids to begin the work with.  Today will be the real test of how well this front-loading of tasks needing to be done helps.

They love IM and the To Do lists.  So their programming work is pretty neat because of how well they could talk to each other about their ideas.  I have one pair that is creating a Country/Rap dance!!!  Now would a teacher come up with that combo?  Nope.  I can hardly wait to see how it goes for them to not only make the dancers, but all the supporting turtle robots.