Teaching With Technology

With my very last revision of my classroom activity I have created what I think in my mind to be a well rounded classroom activity for mathematics teachers everywhere. My main target group for this classroom activity are high school students. With the help of my student mentor, Catherine, I have reevaluated my project and now I feel like I have created the best assignment for my future classroom. To view the assignment in its entirety click here

My blogging Experience

Excellent features
I noticed by participating in other classmate’s blogs that things run more smoothly when all the players work together. Some of the blogs that I participated in were the same as mine. The blogs kept me up to date on the assignments that other classmates completed. As a future teacher it’s important to interact with other teachers in everyday life. Commenting on other students blogs allowed more of a connection with my classmates.
Revisions and changes
I would like to see more responsibility on the part of students in my own blog. I know first hand that when other people do not participate it is hard to complete required aspects of assignments. I think that if the time allotted of commenting was stricter it wouldn’t be so hard to comment on time. Commenting on other’s blogs on time is a time management skill that we students need to adjust for ourselves. I would like to see a change in responding to comments. When a person comments on another person’s blog they do not respond to the comments that you may leave.
Belonging and blogs
I believe that a blog is a forum that is open for any type of discussion and/or posting. For this blog I think that since it is created for a teaching and technology class there should be some restrictions. The postings and comments should be related to educational type discussions. Besides the third post which calls for personal experiences I think that our blogs should pertain to integrating technology into education.
Enhanced
Although I think that the blogs are good for their targeted content there are a few things that can enhance the quality of the blogs. One thing that could be added are customized templates. The limited options of templates will cause no originality. I think that if people were able to customize the way their blog looked it may be a bit more appealing to others who view the blogs. Another thing that could be added are pictures. Pictures draw attention to blogs, when I see a picture I am more likely to view the content of a blog than a blog without any graphics.

Group Work

This past week in Dr. Baylen's class we students worked on a group project. The project covered different assignments that each person in the group had to accomplish. One of the jobs required that a group member create a board game that covered the topic of Southeast Florida. That part of the project was my responsibility. After the assignment was done Dr. Baylen has us write a reflection on the experience.


Introduction
This past week we students turned in a group assignment. The assignment was to create a webquest internet site in real life. The topics that we had to select from were areas in the state of Florida. The people in my group received the Miami and Key West area. Since we had five people in our group every category was filled. Other groups that had only four members to their groups did not have to complete a section in the assignment.
My WebQuest Job
The part of the project that I had to complete was the game board. My job was to create a game that focused on southeast Florida. I made the game out of an old board game so that it would actually look as if it were a game. I made up a set of rules for the game. With the rules I also created questions that reflected on knowledge of the southeastern part of Florida. This part of the project allowed me to be creative. I didn’t have any restrictions on how to create my game. There were no challenges other than completing the entire board game on time.

To read the rest of the paper click here

Coming A Long Way!

Wow! My classroom activity looks as though it is turning into an assignment fit for any mathematics class. When I first started my project I only thought about the bare minimums. The one thing that I figured to be enough was establishing that I had an activity that students taking a math class in high school could do. My first blog about my activity stated that I wanted to be a math teacher and I wanted my students to take a placement test. After posting my first classroom activity Catherine, my student mentor, asked me to "consider how technology can assist you in reaching your objectives." Upon that thought provoking statement I began to dig a little deeper in my creation of a classroom activity. After determining that I wanted to create a placement test I though of how I could incorporate technology. To my luck Dr. Baylen showed us students how to create a test or game by hyperlinking a PowerPoint presentation. In the next week of blogging I included the PowerPoint presentation as a source of technology. Along with a PowerPoint test I added a blog that the students could go on and discuss any feelings about the class, test, or anything that they did not understand. Just when I though I had done a good job with revising my activity Catherine pointed out to me that not all people know how to create a PowerPoint test by hyperlinking slides. With that comment I began to create a step by step procedure showing other teachers how to make their very own presentation through hyperlinks.
During week five of our blogging experience we were supposed to create a sheet that stated what the assignment was, the objective, how we as teachers were planning on evaluating our students, what feedback we teachers were planning on giving back to our students, etc. My student mentor, Catherine, thought that I had done a good job in explaining exactly what was going on with my classroom activity. Catherine stated that with that post it was a lot easier to understand what my students would be doing. In my last posting of the classroom activity my student mentor said, "In your explanation, I can see that all components of this assignment tie in nicely." so far throughout this blogging experience I feel as though my planning as a prospective teacher has enhanced.

My Life as an Undergrad Student

So, this past week I have finally affirmed what I will do for the rest of my college career. On Friday I went down to my academic advisor. Until then my major was undecided. In my meeting on Friday I moved my major out of the undecided region to the area of athletic training. Because I am an undergraduate I am only in the pre-athletic training part of the program. When I become a junior I will be eligible to apply for the actual athletic training program.
with all of that said one might wonder what I am doing taking an education class. Well, in the beginning of this semester I was not sure what I really wanted to do with my major. My mind was split between Athletic Training and Education. I think that this class has been an experience to say the least. My advisor told me that I could also do one thing along with my major in athletic training. That one thing is minor in education. So that is the reason that I chose to stay in this class. This week has been one crazy time with class scheduling and spring classes. Hopefully all of the classes for next year go as planned!

My Technological Experiences

The first few weeks of this class Dr. Baylen gave us students an assignment. the assignment was to tell our experiences and what we knew about technology. much of my previous experience with technology was from trial and error. if there was a new program that i needed to use i would just mess around and try new things. so a lot of my technological skills have been from just going into a program and doing it myself. here is a small excerpt from my essay that i created for our assignment.

Early experiences with technology
My earliest experience with technology that I can recall came from my older sister. As an infant I can remember sitting and watching her play her Nintendo. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen before, and being a child I let my imagination get the best of me. I would sit and think that she was actually interacting with the characters on the television. Seeing her interacting with the different characters made me want to try and play along. Until I was old enough to understand I used to think that I was actually shooting ducks during my quest with my dog in the game "Duck Hunt". Upon growing a bit older and finding out what was actually happening; I found that many other kids in the neighborhood played the same games. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega along with many other electronics were among the popular devices when I was younger.
To read more of this assignment click here.

An in depth look at My Classroom Activity (Evaluation, Follow up, and Feedback)

Evaluations:
After the test the teacher should be able to see where he/she can begin his/her teaching. By finding a starting point where the students can learn new or review old material the students as well as teachers can benefit from this placement test. A benefit of the test would be having all of your students on the same page so that each student can understand the material better. The teacher should be prepared to cover all of the material that was included in the test. The teacher should always make sure that the students actually understand what was on the test. Some of the material will need no more than 15 minutes to discuss; other material may take more time to go over in order for the students to really grasp the entire concept of the math skills being taught. The purpose of going over all of the material is to make sure that all of the students have the required knowledge to succeed. There may be some students that just got lucky and chose the correct answer, but have no idea how they arrived at that particular answer.
Feedback:
From Teacher:
After assessing the entire test the teacher should take notes on which kids did exceptionally well, which ones did average, and which students were below average. With the ability to see where the class can start learning new material as a whole the teacher with her notes should be prepared to talk to and help those students that did not understand or know the material that was covered on the test.
From Students:
After the test a blog will be setup so that the students can give feedback. Each student is required to post comments, reflections, and/or any response to the test. Each response will not be graded, but only looked at for improvement or ideas on how to get the students to do well, and interact throughout the class. Through this blog the teacher is also welcome to post comments on what they think. The blog is created for the students to say what they are thinking without having to feel that their comments/thoughts are “bad.”
Follow up:
Work throughout the course that is geared toward expanding the knowledge of the students. Because the placement test will cover a variety of math topics the rest of the class assignments will be based upon the results received from the test. For example, if the teacher sees that many of the students are struggling with fractions but, understand clearly how to factor problems, then the next assignments will be focused on fractions. There will be a touch up on factoring, but the assignment will not be as tedious as fractions unless the students prove that they really do not understand factoring as well as they tested on that section.
Maybe further into the semester the teacher can develop a type of midterm just like the placement test. To see how far the students have developed their mathematical skills.

Mind in Overload

Wow, this past week has been pretty crazy. This week my goal was to get all of my work in on time for all of my classes. I am very happy to say that so far I have accomplished my goal. This week's work load was not really different than any other week, but it was very tedious. But hard work just comes with the college territory. What really made this week crazy is my softball team. I coach a softball team at Cypress Lake high school. This week one of my girls decided that she was going to walk off of the team because she didn't want to run sprints. Afterward she tried to ask if she could come back on to the team. The very next day I found out that another one of the girls on my team couldn't play anymore, because her mother was punishing her for something stupid she did. And to top it all off the one girl that works the hardest all of the time and is my only pitcher got injured. She messed up her knee is definitely done for the season. So with that I am left with exactly nine players. So besides school work to worry about I also have to worry if there will be enough girls to finish out the rest of the season. That was my crazy week!

Midterm reflection

Recently, Dr. Baylen had us students write a reflection of the class for our midterm. Throughout this course so far I have learned a lot about myself. I have seen myself grow not only as a student, but as a future teacher as well. The following is an excerpt from my midterm essay. Enjoy!

Introduction
This semester my schedule includes two classes that are geared toward an education major. This Intro to Computers in Education class has been my first experience with education as a career for my future path. Before taking this course I was sure that I would be an Athletic Trainer and work for some kind of sports team. Sports were always apart of my life and still play a huge role in my life today. Even as a kid I knew I wanted to be a sports doctor, but somewhere in the back of my mind I always wondered what it would be like to be a teacher.
Valuable Experience
Wow, well first off I think that everything that we have done so far is valuable experience. As of now in the class we have been focusing more on elementary education. Some of the things that we have done that are geared toward younger kids are certainly applicable to a higher grade level with some modifications done to the assignment syllabus. Although I am focusing more toward high school mathematics education knowledge in other areas are good. Each assignment gives me a chance to think about what I should be doing to prepare my future students in the classroom.

Clicking here will bring you to the rest of the paper.

Classroom activity Week 5

Title:
Testing Your Mathematical Knowledge

Materials:
Computers/computer lab, PowerPoint, paper and pencil, safe and easy blog site.

Setup/Context:
This activity is created for high school math students. Students will be seated at their own computers in order to take the test. The duration of the test should be about 40 to 50 minutes long. Time allotted for the test relies on how long the class period is.

Process:
Step 1. The day before class starts or before class time the teacher should setup the PowerPoint test on each computer him/herself or have the instructor of the computer lab do it for you.
Step 2. Teacher will explain to students the activity through the use of a PowerPoint presentation.
Step 3. Teacher will escort the students to the computer lab where each student will get on their own computer.
Step 4. Each student will be provided a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. With these materials they must provide work for all of the answers that they attempt.
Step 5. After completing the test each student must turn in sheet of paper with all of the problems worked out.
Step 6. The teacher will grade the papers that the students turn in. Grading the papers is actually charting where the students’ previous mathematical knowledge lies.
Step 7. The teacher should set up a private blog that only the students can gain access to.
Step 8. Students must log on to the blog at least once a week to give the teacher and rest of the class feedback about what is going on in the class.
Step 9. Evaluate each test and create lesson plan for next day according to the skills all of the students already have and skills students need to work on.

Outcome:
The outcome of this assignment should be a scale of each student’s strength and weaknesses.

Evaluations:
After the test the teacher should be able to see where he/she can begin his/her teaching. By finding a starting point where the students can learn new or review old material the students as well as teachers can benefit from this placement test. A benefit of the test would be having all of your students on the same page so that each student can understand the material better.

Feedback:
After the test a blog will be setup so that the students can give feedback. Each student is required to post comments, reflections, and/or any response to the test. Each response will not be graded, but only looked at for improvement or ideas on how to get the students to do well, and interact throughout the class. Through this blog the teacher is also welcome to post comments on what they think. The blog is created for the students to say what they are thinking without having to feel that their comments/thoughts are “bad.”

Follow up:
Work throughout the course that is geared toward expanding the knowledge of the students.

Life as an Undergraduate

Two weeks ago we FGCU students had our spring break. I spent most of my time working and going to the beach with my friends. During spring break I finally had a chance to sit back and relax. I wasn't held accountable to finish anything for classes. Spring break for me was a great time to just forget about school for one week. Now that classes have resumed I feel as though I have been energized. I feel as though I have a fresh start. With this fresh start I am going to try and keep all of my assignments up to date and as complete according to guidelines as possible.

Progress of my blog!

Wow, this week has been pretty hectic. Throughout this past week I have tried to catch up in the classes that I have fallen behind in. In this class I have been trying to keep my blog updated. In past weeks I haven't been able to comment on other student's blogs much less make any postings. This week I have made a point to post comments and assignments so that others can view the things that I have done. I've really realized that I am not the only person affected by not creating posts. Other students who have to make their comments cannot if there is nothing to comment on. I am going to make it a point from here on out to make my postings and comments on time so that my peers and I can benefit.

My Five Significant Educational Experiences

This past blog I was unable to post due to plans of going out of town for spring break. This week I will create two postings to try and keep my blog up to date. Here is a small excerpt from my assignment:
Introduction to Significant Experiences
My educational experiences start from home and extend to a social and scholastic area. The events that have been passed in my life have all been of some education to me. Having to limit my choices to five experiences was hard. The five that I chose were home educational experiences, three different scholastic events, and one social matter. Each educational experience has played a different but intricate role in my education.

In this assignment Dr. Baylen asked us students to choose five significant educational events in our lives. When I looked back in my life to figure out what experiences and events helped shape my life it was very easy. Having to actually sit and write the paper seemed a bit tedious and repetitive. Although it was easy for me to determine what was significant to my education I feel as though each experience has given me a knowledge that the previous has built upon. All in all this was a good assignment in self evaluating where we as students lie in our educational values.

To read more of this paper click here!

My Flat Stanley Reflection

Introduction
Before starting this flat Stanley project I felt that I would have no idea what to do. I knew that we had to write a story for students in the third grade. How was I going to come up with a story that a third grader would like? After we downloaded the pictures both classes took from around campus it became a bit easier. Most of the pictures that were taken helped form the story line.
What stood out?
During the flat Stanley project I thought that having Stanley in every picture really stood out. The fact that I was creating a story for each of the pictures I had allowed there to be more information about a lot of different things about FGCU. Many things that stood out in the project were the artifacts that we took pictures of. All four of the groups that created a book for Francisco took some of the same pictures. A couple of us took pictures of the alligator signs, and some took pictures of the emergency signs. It was cool to see the similar pictures being taken even though the pictures were taken separately.

This excerpt is from a reflection that I did after completing the "Flat Stanley" project. The Flat Stanley project was an assignment given to us that dealt with creating a story book for third graders in California. The assignment was to first take different digital images with a picture of cartoon man named Flat Stanley that the students from California colored. After taking the pictures of Stanley we were supposed to make up a story about the travels of Flat Stanley. The following link will take you to the entire essay.

More Revisions for My First Classroom Activity.

As I have tried to find ways to incorporate technology with my classroom activity I continually run into problems. Hopefully this week I can provide more clarity to my activity that is geared toward high school math students. In my previous post I stated that the placement test that I would give would be taken by the students on a PowerPoint application. A couple of weeks ago in Dr. Baylen's class he taught us how to hyperlink our PowerPoint presentations so that we as teachers can provide another option for taking a test. Most of the test I took when I was in high school were paper test. I can only remember a few that were computerized. Using the PowerPoint system would give the students a change they can enjoy. Now I will show a step by step process on how to create your very own PowerPoint presentation.
the first thing a teacher needs to obtain in order to have a successful PowerPoint test in the actual PowerPoint application. Many school computers are equipped with Microsoft office. Microsoft office is a software that contains PowerPoint. If the computers that will be utilized do not have the PowerPoint application it is easily purchased through the internet, or at your local electronic store. A manual is included with the application so downloading the application is an easy step by step process.
after the teacher establishes that he/she has access to a PowerPoint application he/she is ready to begin creating the test. First you will open a new and blank PowerPoint page. The first thing that I would do is create my test on paper and list four different answers with only one answer being the absolute correct answer. Teachers you can place as many wrong answers as you see fit. After I have established all of the questions and answers that I will use I will begin creating my PowerPoint test. The first page that you will create is a cover page. My cover page would contain the math class, date, my name, and the name of the test. After the cover page the next slide would be the first question. I would place the first question at the top of the slide and four answers along the left side underneath the question. After making the first question and set of answers, make two more slides. The first slide that I would make is a correct slide. This slide will be reached only if the student chooses the right answer. The second slide would be the incorrect slide. This slide will be accessed upon clicking on the wrong answer. Once these slides have been made you can create the second question with a list of answers. The next two slides will be the correct and incorrect slides. To speed the process I would just copy and paste the two previous correct/incorrect slides after every question. After you have made all of the slides you need it is time to hyperlink.
now to hyperlink the answers you must first highlight one answer at a time. After highlighting right click on what you have highlighted. A list of options should appear. Click on the option that says "hyperlink". Next an information box should appear and have more options to choose from. You will first click on the button that says "place in this document". Then click on the slide that the particular answer corresponds to. If it is incorrect then link it to the incorrect slide. If the answer is correct link the response to the correct slide. (for each question the answers should be linked to the correct/incorrect slides that follow that question slide.)

when you choose the link select the "ok" button. After that the answer that you have selected will be colored and underlined. Do this to the entire document for each and every answer. After every question slide has an answer that is hyperlinked to a correct/incorrect slide go back to the first correct/incorrect slides. On these slides you will add an action button. These buttons are located on the toolbar that is on the bottom of the screen. Click on "Autoshapes" and a list of options will appear with the option of action buttons. Highlight the "action buttons" option. Then you can choose either button that suggests the test taker to go forward to the next slide. After selecting one of the buttons you will place it anywhere you would like on the test by clicking your mouse in the position desired. I prefer to place my icon in the lower right corner of the slide. After choosing a spot for your icon an information box will automatically appear. Choose the option of "hyperlink to". Then click on the down arrow from the scroll menu and choose the "next slide" option. Then select "ok". Do this to every correct/incorrect slide. After you have completed all of these tasks you are ready to view your test. Press the F5 button to start your PowerPoint. You can go through the PowerPoint to make sure that everything is in the order that you want. This will also allow you to see if there are any mistakes that you need to fix.

each of my students will be taking this placement test individually in the computer lab. On my own time I will make a copy of the test on a disk and install the PowerPoint to every computer that will be utilized for the test. As stated before I will have the students engage in a blog that I will create for everyone to use. The blog will only be open and available to my students to view and comment on. I would encourage each student to discuss their thoughts and feelings of the test. Each student would have a week to post comments, thoughts, or any other kind of response that they have. I would have the students create a user name. Each student will need to post at least one type of response every week about the class. These postings will have to be made on their own time. I know that there are some students that may not have access to a computer with internet capabilities. In the case that a student cannot use internet at their home I will tell those students to go to the school library and make their comment there. These are a few revisions of my classroom activity.

Revision of my classroom activity

For my first classroom activity I wanted to give a placement test to my students. The targeted student level and subject are high school students in mathematics. After reading the comments that were posted to me, I figured that I would change the way that I could give the test. Just this past week in our intro to computers in education class we have learned how to hyperlink and create test on a power point program. What I would do is set up the test in such a way that the first answer the student produces will be the final product for that one question. That is how each student will move throughout the test. Afterward I would encourage each student to discuss their thoughts and feelings of the test. Each student would have a week to post comments, thoughts, or any other kind of response that they have in a posting room that I create for the class to utilize. The posting room would be a kind of blog such as this one. I would have the students create a user name. Each student will need to post at least one type of response every week about the class. These postings will have to be made on their own time. I know that there are some students that may not have access to a computer with internet capabilities. In the case that a student cannot use internet at their home I will tell those students to go to the school library and make their comment there. These are a few ways that I intend to incorporate technology with my classroom activity.

Classroom Assignment

For my first assignment I would assign a mathematical placement test. Because I am wanting to teach high school mathematics I know that it is a necessity to have all of your students on the same page. The beginning of the assessment would include basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Then it would progressively get harder going into fractions, then touch on factoring with algebra and trigonometry. The grades that I am looking forward to teaching are tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. After collecting and reviewing the assessment as a teacher I would find common ground within the students. After establishing the areas that need more focus and attention, I will set up assignments that will aid in the understanding and improvement of mathematical skills.

Welcome

Welcome to Music and Math Building Blocks! This blog is geared toward students and teachers of adult and high school education. The subject material that will be covered will focus on various activities and resources that will aid learning. Throughout the blog there will be links to different articles and information that will help in planning activities in the classroom. We hope that we are able to bring a good collective resource that you can utilize while planning!