How I Recieved Free Technology Devices for my Classroom

For several years, I have dreamed of getting an IPad 2 and  hand-held mobile interactive whiteboards  for my classroom (http://www.einstruction.com/products/mobile-interactive-whiteboards )  This year my dream became a reality. I have known about www.donorschoose.org  for several years but I never realized how easy it was to post a project and get it funded.

Just prior to school ending last year, I wrote the first project,  E-instruction mobile interactive whiteboards. After writing the project, I sent emails to all my students parents asking for donations. The greatest thing about the process is during the first week, all your donations are matched dollar for dollar up to $100! This promotion only lasted for the first 7 days of the project and during that time I asked everyone I knew for a donation. Most of this project was funded within 7 days.

 A few weeks later, during my summer vacation, I wrote the second project for the IPad 2. I have always desired to explore how to engage students by using this technology. It took about six weeks to fund this project and for the first seven days the donations were matched dollar for dollar up to $100!

 In funding these projects, I let everyone know what I was doing and asked for donations. I started with parents of former students and this is where I received  most of the support. I also asked family members and people I attended church with. I posted to my Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In pages; however, I only received one donation from social media connections. If I had not gotten funded after asking friends, family, and parents, I would have started approaching businesses because the donations are completely tax deductible. 

Within 4 months of getting and using my devices, I am required to submit a thank you package to www.donorschoose.org . This package consists of pictures and thank you notes written by the students. By completing this task, I will earn points to use in writing another project. You need points to be able to write projects and you earn points by correctly submitting projects, following all guidelines, and meeting all deadlines.

Currently, I do not have Wi-Fi in my classroom, but the IPad 2 is still quite useful. I use the Ipad 2 for taking pictures, creating videos of students presenting concepts, and the Educreations app for students to use as scratch paper. Some students have also recorded their notes.  Many times when I have students come to afterschool tutorials, they write notes using the Ipad 2 and this really engages them. I plan to find more apps to use and even though I only have one IPad 2 and no Wi-Fi, this technology is quite useful for my reluctant students.

My students use the Einstruction mobi to show and explain math problems. Two students can be working at the same time and each student in the class can see the work they are doing. I engage the rest of the class but allowing them to use mini white boards and dry eraser markers.  My classes do not use the devices every day but on average about 2-3 times a week.

The use of  these technology tools is not the formula for the "perfect class", but they are very helpful resources.

Technology Use VS Student Growth and Achievement

Throughout this summer, I've grown very excited about the many technological advances I have discovered through conferences and web browsing .   I have attended many conferences and search on the Internet trying to find the perfect new technology to bring to my classroom. I am fortunate to have access to an iPad to use next year and E-instructions Mobi's; however I find myself spinning my wheels hours and hours researching and learning about other tools I can use in my classroom this year . Today I realize I need to focus on content and technology will take care of itself. My new focus is on student achievement using the technology to bring  the lessons to life.

 

There's only a few more days left before I will be back in school so today I am focusing on how the content is to be presented or introduced in order to achieve my goal. Not to say that I have given up on technology but I will incorporate it with my focus  on achievement .  How can I better motivate the child to learn with or without technology? Does it really matter what tools I use to get this across? Practice is essential, projects are crucial and technology is the vehicle to make learning engaging.

 

I am attaching a document with the technology resources I plan to use primarily in class next year. I may add to them or take away but will commit not to loose my focus.  It is not about the mere tools in the toolkit, but the ability to get the job done.  

 My perception has changed!! Allow students to build and let them choose the tools.

  

 

Staying Focused In the Midst of Distractions

 

 

What a wonderful day it is to be a Math teacher. The Internet is full of resources and I discover more and more resources each day. Many times I find myself overwhelmed with the decision what to learn first? Once I start learning about something before I finish  there is something else presented that interests me to learn.

 Many times I find myself both excited and indecisive.   

 

During  this  blog,  I will share with you some of the most exciting resources that I have found and the order I plan to tackle them. 

1.  www.Duolingo.com. I have always wanted to learn Spanish and this website not only enables me to learn Spanish but to make a difference in the world at the same time. Whoever thought that my learning Spanish would enable me to help translate the World Wide Web into a different language.  

 

2. iTunes University has a Calculus class that is very interesting and intriguing.  It is from Ohio State and it is a complete calculus class with powerful instructors.  Even though I am not currently teaching calculus, I would love to complete this class during the summer 

 

3. Another task that I have is to create  an updated YouTube video about www.ck12.org  I will present  at  a Region 4 conference about  this wonderful resource. They recently updated their website and there are a lot of cool new features. Next year I plan to have my students create their own interactive textbook resource. 

 

4. Next I am excited about creating a tutorial for Harris County Department of education of a lesson that I have  implemented. Of course I have not yet started creating that lesson  because of the many distractions. 

 

5. I would like to also check out more resources concerning classroom management. Many times I struggle in that area however I will promise myself not to focus on my weaknesses but to be empowered by my strengths. 

 

6. I recently found a brand-new app that is just  fun!  It is called chirp. What is neat about the app is that it sends information to your phone by the use of sound. I am not sure how or if I will use it in the classroom and I welcome any ideas of how I can use it to inspire and motivate students. 

 

That is all I have for today. I will commit to remain focused and complete all these tasks; However it will be quite difficult with the Google search staring  me in the face.  

Planning For a New Year

The past year has been quite exciting and I look forward with excitement to another year. I feel overwhelmed with all the resources so readily at my finger tips so I decided to make a list of only 10 new resources that I will use during the upcoming year. That, in itself, will be quite difficult because there is always something new and interesting online. I will make an attempt to use only 10 and try and use them to the best of my ability. I will focus on my strengths this year. I want my classes to be technology rich, active, and full of positive energy.  The first hardware resource I will add for next year is the E-instruction mobi that was donated through a project I wrote on www.donorschoose.org/gladys.scott . I would recommend that if you need any additions to your classes, check out this resource. I will have 2 mobis and one teacher mobi and my students will be able to interact real-time on the data projector. Will be great to use for competitions, projects, etc. I have just written through donors choose for an Ipad 2 for my students to create a video library of content covered during class. I will also be incorporating some of the many apps available to me through the I Pad 2.

As for as the web resources I will use, they are as follows:
1. Will investigate http://www.explorelearning.com -I did use this last year but not sure if the district is going to purchase it this year.
2. Very excited about using https://www.edmodo.com/ this year. I  will be attending training for this in Aug.
3. Will be using http://www.discoveryeducation.com/ for lesson planning, videos, and to create a class within the site. Lots of features here
4. http://www.ck12.org/student/  just keeps getting better!! now you can us it in different languages. I may have my students create an online portfolio through this site
5. http://braingenie.ck12.org is a great resource for students to practice and compete with other students to get badges
6. http://www.sophia.org/home-teacher Now this is a brand new resource. You can get teacher training, there are videos and lessons within the site. Very excited about it.
7. I do want to focus on STEM activities and this resource will help-http://edtechreview.in/index.php/news/news/e-learning/200-free-21st-century-learning-sites
8. I will use a test generator to create test. Test Gen usually comes with textbooks but I have never really investigated it. This resource will enable me to create several versions of test to make the assessment creditable.

I will leave myself 2 more to add when I post again.
I am networking with many great Math teachers through https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/GlobalMathDept/bulletin They have online webinars a bulletin board where math teachers can network with each other.  Post a comment if you use any of these resources and let me know how it goes.

Change is Exciting!!

It is midway through the school year and time for me to evaluate and reflect. I have made many changes and many times fear has accompanied change but no one said it would be easy. As I reflect upon the first semester, I find that I have really learned  a lot and have required project and lessons that engaged my class.
Last semester my best projects included the water park project (I found this project online) and the geometry shapes project (for this project, students found a shape of something on a photo graph and defined the shape and created a problem based on the difinition.)  I was very impressed with some of the work and creativity of the students. I feel that it really helped for students to not only understand the work, but connect the work to a real world situation.

My goals for this semester is to create assessments that require more thought and process. I have several online resouces that will enable me to achieve this goal. The include--share my lesson, teacher pay teacher, ti resources, and gizmos.

I have found other resources that are very engaging and I will be posting video tutorials on the use of this sites--http://www.ck12.org and http://braingenie.ck12.org/
I will be presenting a lesson to teachers at a local conference  about  a free online resource that will enable them to Create and Customize thier Own Textbook (Flexbook)

I am anticipating that 2013 will bring challenges and growth for me as a teacher. My goals this year are to continue to learn new things and upon learning them to put them in practice.