Advanced Help

We are on the downhill slope.... I can't believe how fast this year is going. Since winter break I have made a few instructional changes and adjustments in my classroom. One thing that I am focusing on and requesting help with is continuing to challenge my advanced math group. It's not that I don't know how to challenge them, but I am struggling with doing so within the standards and objectives that I need to follow. Any suggestions or comments on how to be more successful at this? I have reached out the the GT coordinator for the district and she gave me some resource books to use, but I am still feeling like I need more.

Other than this, I am feeling hopeful that we will have a good CSAP year and our students are continuing to make great gains!

Another wonderful math website

Hey all -

Here is another wonderful math website that I use almost daily with my math kids. In fact, they ask all the time if we can play the games on the Smart Board.... very engaging for them!

www.multiplication.com

On another note, my team members and I level our math groups... and I have the highest (which is a blast). Here is the problem I am having: after trying multiple methods I still have a large handful of students that just don't get rounding. Any suggestions on how I can pull these final students to proficiency with this? Thanks for the help!

Elementary Smart Board Lesson on Place Value

Here's a lesson I created for math last week:

Grade Level Essential Target:
1.1c Use objects and pictures to represent whole numbers including odds and evens from 0 to 1000
1.2.c Group objects by ones, tens and hundreds according to place value (for example: given 9 ones, 5 tens and 4 hundreds the student can write the number 459; given the number 459, the student can show 4 hundreds, 5 tens and 9 ones)
ISTE NETS Standard 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments (2a: design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity)

Student friendly objective: We will use objects to show numbers up to 1,000. We can use place value to help us group and count large numbers of objects.
Language Objective: We will use language that helps us work as a team. We will use writing and speaking with math words and numbers to show our answers.

Resources needed: Smart board, straws, rubber bands.

Open the lesson by reviewing counting by tens.
Begin by telling students that when we get a lot of things to count we need a good way of counting. Bring a bag of M&Ms, a deck of cards and some other items that contain many objects. Ask the students to discuss with their elbow partner something that contains a lot of objects. Give students a sentence starter: One thing that contains a lot of items is…. Put students into groups of five and dump a bag full of straws (at least 50) on the table. Tell them they will need to use complete sentences to ask questions and to help them work as a team. (“I have x straws. How many do you have?”) Ask them to work together to count the straws. Observe how the students work together and praise any examples of teamwork. After a few minutes, bring the students back together and tell them that if you have numerous objects it is easiest to count them in groups rather than one by one.
Now break out some rubber bands and start to group the straws into bundles of ten. Ask students to use polite language such as “Could you please pass me a rubber band? I need five more straws. Could we share to make a bundle?” Show the students that we will group exactly ten straws for each bundle, and then we can count by tens. Leftover straws do not get bundled. Let the students return to their groups and circulate to check with students as they proceed.

After the students have counted write the numbers for each group while counting the bundles. Review the concepts of tens and ones with students. Tell the students that if we want to count all the straws from each table group together we might even want to put together 10 bundles to form groups of 100. Use the Smart board to show place value boxes. Practice writing a variety of two and three digit numbers and call on students to identify the number of ones, tens, and hundreds. Have students use precise math terms such as, “There are x hundreds, x tens and x ones.”
Then use the blank base ten chart in the place value folder of smart board under “Mathematics”, then “Number Concepts and Operations” or search by keyword. Type in labels for the chart then from the Place Value folder use the ones, tens, and hundreds blocks to represent various numbers and have the students write the numeric value for the blocks chosen on white boards. I posted a video to show how to set the lesson up on the Smart Board: http://mrfishergloballearner.blogspot.com/2009/09/second-grade-lesson-on-teaching-place.html

Differentiation: The lesson offers tactile and visual forms of learning. Because of the ease of manipulating the smart board manipulatives the number of place values being taught and assessed can be increased or decreased to work within a variety of zones of proximal development.

An additional lesson based on counting candy can be found here.

http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/depts/tandl/mted/faculty/Mted3250/HtmlPapers/Diane%20&%20Michael.html

Crossposted to http://MrFisherGlobalLearner@blogspot.com

More on Livescribe

Ok so I went out and bought one for myself. The pen is actually called a Pulse Smartpen. It comes in two sizes (memory). 1GB cost $149.00 and the 2GB cost $199.00at Target. The software that is used with it is called Livescribe.

My goal was to be able to solve math problems as I would at a whiteboard or Smartboard in front of class but have the ability to save my work go and back to it with a narration of what I am thinking at each particular step. I found the Smartboard record tool not up to the task. For some reason the audio could never be captured completely and the Smartboard lacked the precision I needed for some tasks. It seemed to always need to be realigned.

I hope to build a bank of worked out problems that students can access from any internet source at any time. I also want to train students to use the tool and have them contribute to the problem bank on a regular basis. So far the pen seems to be just what I was looking for.

Here is my second try at uploading a link to my "pencast". This time with audio attached. Please click on the link below to see it and let me know what you think.

TDeaguero

Line tangent to a curve 1
brought to you by Livescribe

Probability Bar Graph Voicethread

This is a voicethread my students have been commenting on. The process was as follows:

• Together, we filled out a 6 x 6 table showing all the possible combinations that can be rolled with two dice. We then created a bar graph showing the probability of rolling a 2, 3, 4 etc. all the way to 12. They discovered that the probability of rolling a 7 was much greater than rolling a 2 or a 12.
• Students worked in pairs to roll two dice 50 times and tally the results.
• They used the laptops to visit National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and created a bar graph showing their results.
• I screencaptured their graphs using the PrtSc/SysReq button on the computers because their wasn't a screencapture program installed on all the computers.
• I uploaded the pictures to box.net which now has a feature where you can easily edit the pictures using picnik I cropped the screenshots down to show just the graphs.
• I imported the pictures to Voicethread along with instructions on how students should comment.
• Here's the SIOP lesson plan.
  

Students are choosing to comment using voice and text. I instructed them on how to choose their own "identity" icon before commenting although sometimes they are forgetting to do so. We began this process before spring break and before the blizzard so unfortunately we didn't finish then like I had planned. After the break, we worked on it again and honestly, I am disappointed with the results. I thought my instructions were explicit enough, but my students' comments seemed really surface-level and didn't reflect the deep level of understanding I was looking for. Other comments are very stilted and are read right from their worksheet without much thought to the meaning of the words they were saying.

Finally, I had major technical problems with Voicethread. First, my mics weren't working on any of my desktops. I tested them through the control panel and they worked fine. Then in Voicethread they didn't work. Then I did a test comment as a demonstration for my class and it worked on my laptop. When we went to the desktop later to listen to it on VT, it wasn't there. Other students have reported disappearing comments. It was so frustrating and brought everything to a standstill. I would like kids to go in and continue commenting, but I am bagging it at this point. Has anyone else experienced problems with VT? Voicethread is a tool with great potential and I was excited about using it, but I am really disappointed. We have another project happening next week where students will be publishing their work as a VoiceThread. I will publish it here and let you know how it turns out.

First Grade Virtual Manipulatives on the Smart Board

This evening we just had a great skype chat on Using the SmartBoard in the standards-based classroom. The focus was on what was working well and we talked about engagement, math, and literacy. The consensus was that there was a need for more training or refresher courses. Some ideas where bandied about regarding students teaching other students or creating short training sessions in peer to peer learning. I like the idea and I'm going to share some screen capture tips in one of my subsequent postings. Much of the focus was on math and so I'd like to show a short clip of some place value work we did this week using the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives at http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vLibrary.html.


Specifically we are using base blocks to represent place value. This address the Grade Level Essential Target of 1.2C: c) Uses objects to show meanings of = ,<, >, from 0 to 100. e) Uses multiple models to develop initial understanding of place value of ones and tens (base ten blocks, abacus, computer, manips). This is a great place to differentiate because while all first graders need to represent up to 100, many of my students can use blocks to show numbers in the thousands. (Please note this website is available in Spanish as well) What I like about the base blocks virtual manipulatives is that they are easy to move around, you get immediate corrective feedback from the number counter, and it is a fast way to demonstrate mastery of a difficult concept.
Here is a short video of my class doing some base block exercises. In the first two segments I am filming but for most of the class work my students film everything and do all the documenting with the digital cameras. Each week I assign a class photographer who take all the pictures and videos. They are filming the third segment. As you can see, it is a bit shaky (Note to self "Get tripod"). Mildly reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project.

Click this link to view the video.

Cross posted on Mr. Fisher's Global Learner Blog.

Google Reader Publish to Share

Regina Stewart recently mentioned that she was looking for some good math blogs. Several comments mentioned blogs or websites that were relevant. This got me thinking: if a student was interested in a topic how do we best feed that student's interest? How do we use modern technology to do this?

I decided to create a published webpage of blog entries using Google Reader and method Will Richardson teaches and John Albright has blogged about. Google Reader allows you to "share" any entry in the Reader bin. Once the blog entry or other content is "shared" a static webpage is create with the content. The content can then be viewed like a webpage. A button for this shared content can also be placed on your website, blog, or wiki.

Here is an example using math blog content. The person publishing the content through Google Reader (me in this case) reads through the blog readers and then decides which entries are worth sharing (and presses the share button). Those shareable are automatically published to the shared website. This could be really useful for a principal or department chair to quickly and easily share relevant and previewed content with colleagues. It could also be a cool way for teachers to create shared content for students.

Screencast with SmartBoard

On May 17, 2007 a screencast of Google.com math features was created during the Global Learners Professional Development. The screencast was captured within SmartBoard software and then uploaded to youtube. I have embedded the video here as an example of how this can be done. The video could be improved by using better examples. However, I can see the value to our students of screencasts just like this. Imagine a scenario where a student missed class or just didn't follow what your explanation of an Algebra problem. If the screencast of the problem being worked were captured and loaded to a class blog the student could go back at any time and review. Anyone interested in trying this? If you are post the result on this blog.

Global Competitiveness Discussed at National Governor's Initiative Meeting

Today at a National Governor's Association meeting in Cupertino, California governors, their representatives, and experts in the field of technology discussed how education can adapt to prepare students for the workplace of the future. Discussants at the event, sponsored by Symantec, concluded that an increased emphasis on innovation, math, science, and technology in America's public schools was the only way to stay competitive in the future. Janet Napolitano, the current chair of the National Governors Association, Napolitano established the "Innovation America" initiative. Innovation America's goal is to come up with a list of strategies to enhance innovation and global competition by each state.

Napolitano suggested it was time for a change stating that the content of courses and method for teaching has not changed since she was in school. Do you believe that math and science are the focus that can maintain America's competitive edge in the global economy? Do you believe it is time for shift in teaching strategy? What do you think should be the focus of K-12 education? What strategies do you believe should be introduced into teaching to the K-12 student?

Developing Expert Voices--Involving Students in Setting High Expectations

Darren Kuropatwa over at the A Difference blog has created an assignment challenging his math students to summarize their learning and create a real-world product. The students are to create four (new) problems that demonstrate what they have learned. Not only that, they are to publish the result of their work on the Internet. They can publish to youtube.com, slideshare.net, bubbleshare, or any other location that allows wide distribution. (Potentially 1 billion people that have access to the Internet)

Here is what is really cool about this assignment, the students were also heavily involved in creating the rubric for evaluating the presentations. Read the posts where the students are discussing the weighting of particular dimensions. These students are thoughtful and involved in their own learning. They OWN their learning.

Read this post from John Albright and read the rubric and assignment from Darren Kuropatwa's students. Also check out this assignment (the "un-project") from Sargent Park School.

Are the students provided an opportunity to demonstrate the skills that the Denver-metro business leaders mentioned at the CTE advisory meeting (effective, communication, critical thinking, multi-tasking, teamwork, tech-savvy, work ethic, trustworthiness, trainability, cultural awareness)? Do you have ideas how we might create more opportunities like this for students?

Global Learners in High School Math

Darren Kuropatwa is by far one of the most prolific and creative teachers that is generating usable online content and testing emerging technology (and integration ideas). Mr. Kuropatwa is a high school math teacher in Canada that is widely known for his various math blogs. Last year I read the now defunct Ellie's 7th grade math blog (I assume because Ellie has moved to 8th grade). Mr. Kuropatwa used this blog to help teach his niece math. The blog included innovative lessons and opportunities for Ellie to practice skills. A Difference is the blog where Mr. Kuropatwa reflects on his practice and talks about strategies that he is trying with his students. I am blown away and humbled by this individual's extraordinary efforts. He uses wikis, blogs (checkout today's post on probability), vaestro (checkout the thread with the EFL students from China...talk about Global Learners), SmartBoards, slideshare, and any other technology he can get his hands on to reach his students and find ways for more effective learning. My hat is off to Mr. Kuropatwa...thanks for providing a shining light.