Technology Newsletter

I was presented with the idea the other day by a co-worker (Mr. Lowry), to create a monthly technology district electronic newsletter.

Mr. Lowry researched and heard in a presentation of another district that created a newsletter which ended up being very effective for teachers to stay informed and feel empowered of new applications and resources, etc.

I think it is a great idea and am looking forward into dabbling in it. Is there anyone else out there interested in creating one together so we can make it ultimately extra good? I was planning to save them to my wiki then email out the links to everyone possibly.

Any ideas, suggestions, experience is greatly appreciated!

What Do Teachers Make?

Jerrell Jobe commented on an earlier post of mine referring me to this video. It explores the question, "What do teachers make...." Check it out and thanks Jerrell!

Classroom Procedures & Management

If you had to choose 1 procedure and 1 classroom management tip/idea/recommendation with another teacher, what would it be?

I am anxious to hear everyone's feedback. It is amazing, all the ideas that everyone has and uses that are all so different but yet so similar. The smallest little tweek in a policy, etc can make a huge difference in the outcome.

My biggest classroom management tip (which I admit, I need to work on) is to be and stay consistent. I know there are times, when we just get sick of or fed up and slack off on our rules and policies. This will have a trickle down effect on many other aspects of the classroom then as well. I am sure there are many other tips that other have to share.

My biggest classroom procedure tip/idea is to practice procedures EVERY single day for the first few weeks until they are engraved in the kids heads. Practice and actually assigning students to take turns showing and "skitting" examples of a good way to raise their hand versus a bad way to raise their hand or skit w/a partner how a good way is to enter the classroom and then show a not good way to enter the classroom. I did this for a few procedures last year, but this year, I will be doing them for EVERY single procedure for the kids to how to write their name on their paper etc.

I heard a quote once... "We must act as if they know nothing, and teach and reinforce every single procedure, in order for our classroom to run smoothly and make sure kids truly understand what is expected of them."

First few days of school

So, everyone has their own ideas and keys for the success for the school year. I think we all know that we need to be specific and consistent especially the first few days of school in order to have a good rest of the year. Well, I have been to many trainings and been thinking more lately as to what the MOST important things are to do and not do the first few days/weeks of school. I am trying to prepare and compile my thoughts. Does anyone have any ideas of recommendations?

Year Long Project Ideas and Classroom Themes

So I have been thinking -for a long time- how it would be so great and real world for the students if we had a more problem based curriculum. Everytime I begin to think of projects to create that make math real life for the students, I get so excited and fired up. Then when it actually comes to putting them down on paper and outlining them, getting the templates, forms, instructions down on paper or computer; then that is where I run into issues and get held up. The amount of time that it takes to prepare a successful project for a classroom is extraneous. It is very well worth it though.

In my ideal classroom, I would have a year long project that incorporated every single TEK to make the class "understandable" to the kids. This, I guess you could say is my overall goal. I want to have a year long project or one per six weeks, but they all have to relate and work together and flow from one to another and all overall form the big picture of the 6th grade math question, "Why do I need to know this stuff anyways?" I am determined this year to make it happen with the help from my EDTC6341 FACTS Design model class. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations to help me through a LONG year of LONG planning but will make it so worth it?

So far, I want them to create a house for the geometry section and all TEKS from geometry and measurement will be included.

I want them to compare and contrast jobs and choose their job they will be working for in school... answering why they have to go to school now anyways.

I want to create a project where they have to make a budget and have a spending allowance of some sort.

There are many other options as well, but if anyone has any ideas as to how to best go about this that would be great.

I am also debating on decorating my class with college gear and posters or pictures of different types of jobs that use math and having a room theme of -WHY? Basically making them comfortable with asking why and answering why and getting used to me always asking them why. In addition the theme of "why" will allow them to realize I am proving year long "why" they are in school and learning math in my classroom.

Teachers are the key!

Today, I attended a session at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching (CAMT) in San Antonio, Texas. I chose to attend a session labeled "My role in preparing teachers to teach mathematics with technology." So I don't want to give much more information than that, but it did seem to obviously be about integration of technology in education.... correct? Well, I was wrong, at least for the first 30 or more minutes. It was an hour session. The presenter did have a great program/software it appeared that he was going to present but for the first 30 minutes I witnessed what we saw in the "What not to do Powerpoint" videos. I witnessed - death by powerpoint - first hand in a technology session! Powerpoint with a gazilion words and reading directly from the screen sentence after sentence. Now, I have to admit, I left early so maybe things changed after that and I am not intending to bash anyone inparticular here.

The above post is to make us ponder and learn to...
1- NOT perform death by powerpoint
2- Make a technology session if you are presenting fun and interactive or at least do not read slides one after another.

So moral of the story... we need to not do this to our kids. We need to be the ones who implement the changes we know we need. If higher ups and presenters at state conferences are promoting technology, we need to make sure we are doing so effectively because others may not be.

So, I did have many other successful sesions today.

Attitude

This is a video of a fish market in Seattle Washington. I just saw a 10 minute video earlier today at this math conference I am at that was focusing on motivation. The main idea was E + R = O. (Experiences in our life + our reaction to them = outcome).

Quote - Problems in life are not the problems. The problems in life are our reaction to the problems.

We create our own attitude.

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