Reflection of my Digital Learning Hub

ED 720 Learning Hub Reflection

This not only a reflection but also a release or  initial announcement for my learning hub. I have been working on the design and understanding of how to create it  for about a month and a half now but felt I needed to really delve into it before I posted. Initially I tried to set up my professional website on a few different sites but came back to google sites because it just seemed easier to be able to access all my google drive documents, pictures, uploads, downloads, etc. from one site. During the past two weeks I have really spent a lot of time figuring out how to add and delete on my website as it was not as simple as working in google docs. I have created links, added youtube videos, images, and all that good stuff that goes into designing a website. I found the most time consuming work to be adding links to all the resources and materials I used in my unit, however those will be very helpful to other math teachers and coaches if they wish to use my Geometry Unit.

My initial intent was to keep it simple and add more bells and whistles to my site as I became more comfortable and experienced working within that medium. My intended audience is teachers and other professionals interested in teaching STEM related material. I have perused many other teacher created websites and found many of them to be very impressive. I plan on trying to make mine have a professional look and provide my audience with helpful information and ideas. Although I am in the beginning stages of creating and designing my digital learning hub I hope it still provides some useful material to educators. I welcome any feedback you think might help to make my site better. In the meantime I hope you like my initial work.

Please visit My Website

Grade 6 Geometry Unit Feedback

Geometry Unit Feedback

I received some very helpful feedback last night  from my classmates regarding my Geometry Unit for Grade 6.   I  also had a few question that I posed as well and now believe I have a clear direction of the student objectives and how the students are going to achieve them.   The first thing I am going to modify or revise is the readiness test that I created in order to see if the students have mastered the Geometry Common Core Standards from Grade 5. If mastered then we will be able to continue into the geometry unit with little review. My feedback was to shorten the length of the test and focus more on the concepts of geometry versus the technical vocabulary or names of the shapes such as identifying particular triangles - isosceles, scalene or right.  Because I was not quite comfortable with the thought of putting less emphasis  on vocabulary, it was proposed that I include a word bank for those who need it. So I am going to proceed with this modification . If the goal is to have students use geometric concepts and skills to solve real-world problems then it may just be enough to initially include the word bank.

Another aspect of the unit that was discussed was, “ who are the students I should pull to work on the unit?”.  Seeing that I  am a math coach and do not have a classroom I will be pulling a small  group of 6th grade students to teach the unit. I decided I would pull the students who perform the highest on the readiness test versus a range of levels to teach. I feel that way, I will be able to dive into the unit with little review/reteach. This will allow me to give better feedback regarding the lessons and students performance due to the fact that it is based on Common Core Standards versus the CMT standards that the students are accustomed to.

Lastly, at least for now, I feel that the materials/resources that I chose for the unit were appropriate and were received with approval from my team of classmates during our feedback session. The materials include, but are not limited to: Geometer's Sketchpad, Shooloo, Lessons from LearnZillion and Illuminations. I also accounted for back-up materials such as protractors, compasses, patterns blocks, geoboards & graph paper, as well as Tangrams; all in preparation for those technological PITA issues that I may encounter.

I plan to start the unit next week and will post the progress and monitoring on my blog.

“Geometry is fun,

technology is cool

and that’s how I,

get my students to love school ! "

Here is just a sneak peak at the Geometry Unit I will be working on for my IT & Digital Media Literacy Program. But aside from being fun and cool there are other reasons why I chose to create a Geometry Unit using technology. The first is that I find math to be one of the most engaging units among students as well as a favorite of mine. Another reason is that I find that Geometry lends itself to not only the left-brain but also right brain thinker so those students those who may not typically excel will show their knowledge and understanding in this branch of mathematics. Its really exciting to see students use what they learn about 2 & 3 dimensional shapes, visual and spatial relationships and make connections between geometry and the real world. And lastly, Geometry is one of the areas of the Common Core that I have not delved into as much as I have with Operations & Algebraic Thinking and Numbers & Operations. So this will help me to better support teachers and students as math coach.

This Geometry unit is geared towards students in Grade 6. The focus of the unit will not only be on teaching the Grade 6 Common Core Standards through technology but will also focus on the 8 Mathematical  Practices and Real Word Problem Solving. Students will first be introduced to the Unit. This will be followed by a readiness test which will assess students prior knowledge of Geometry up to grade 5. Review and or reteach of any previously learned skills and concepts based on the readiness test will be addressed as needed. During this unit of study students will use a variety of materials & resources that will include: Course 1 Glencoe textbook, worksheets, virtual manipulatives, geometry software programs and websites such as Geometer's SketchPad and Shooloo. Students will also use a variety of hands on materials and manipulatives. I would like to assess what the students have learned throughout the unit in various ways such as: open-ended or constructed response items, performance-based items, tasks or event answers, and projects or demonstrations. I am really looking forward to creating this exciting unit and will keep you posted through my blog.

ED 720

My Digital Learning Hub

I think creating a digital learning hub is important for teachers especially because we tend to be creatures who love to share and receive new ideas and thoughts about education. We like to take those ideas and thoughts and then modify them in a  way so that they work for us in our own classrooms. As teachers we still see ourselves as learners and having a digital learning hub is a great way to learn and communicate with other educators.

In one of my assignments on Professional Learning Networks I reflected upon how my online and offline identities would feed or support each other. In that reflection I touched upon what my  online identity might look like, using what I included on my Padlet page and my mind map. My Padlet page was designed for the purpose of having the teachers at my school be introduced to and have access to resources  links that support our Singapore Math Program called Math In Focus. My  mind map was more of a S.T.E.M based design. In combining what I included in both these designs I might use Google as that was recommended. My Learning hub would include information and links to the following:

Math in Focus Program

Connecticut Science Center

Singapore Math Strategies

Youtube Tutorials and model Lessons

Kahn Academy

My Blog Page

Engineering is Elementary (EIE) - Boston Science Museum

Common Core Standards

SBAC Practice Test

NHPS Math In Focus Facebook Page

I believe my next step would be to explore Google and figure out how to set this all up.

ED 714 Reflection: Comparing PLE Diagrams and Plans

As I looked through the various mind maps of my classmates I came across one that really peaked my interest and that was Catherine’s. Seeing that I spent a lot of time in hangouts last week for one of my assignments and Catherine's map was based on hangouts I decided to look into hers a little further . What interested me was that her map outlined the different ways she could use Google hangouts within her school and among both students and staff. At the center was the word Google Hangout and on the left stemmed student activities with hangouts and on the right teacher hangouts. Students could use hangouts as a way to have book chats, ask for homework help, engage in discourse and collaboration. Teachers could use hangouts for professional development, which is where our district also wants to move towards. They  could also engage in book studies, curriculum, and relevant circles through Google hangouts. The fact that you can record hangouts would allow for teachers and students to access or refer to the information that was talked about whenever they needed it. I think this was a very effective and powerful way of showing how she plans to implement hangouts in her school.

My map differed in that I centered my networking around a S.T.E.M theme and addressed how I networked with teachers, students, math coaches and administration whether it be digitally or through other venues. My goal is to expand upon my digital footprint and am thinking about how I could implement hangouts effectively in my school or district as well.

ED 714 Shooloo Tutorial using screencast

My tutorial is on math website that I came across during this summer's IT & Digital Media Program. The name of the site  is called Shooloo. It serves as a forum for math students and teachers to create and post word problems. I like that the sight lets students be creative in that they write their own problem and attach a picture along with it. What is really engaging for students is that it combines math and social media in that it has them follow other students and comment or rate (like) their word problem posts. Although there a variety of things to do within the site my tutorial focuses on how to create and post a word problem. I think you will agree that this could be a very valuable tool in the math classroom. Please view the tutorial below:

My Network Learning Project - Final Post

How to Sell on eBay

This network project taught me a lot. Not only did I learn how to post an item on eBay, but I became more familiar with the functions on my chrome book especially with the uploading, renaming and editing of photos. My initial goal was to do everything using my Chromebook, if possible. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in that goal and spent A LOT of time trying to videotape my network learning project using a power point in Google hang-outs. You may have even seen my testing videos or randomly have been invited to a hang-out! And I thank Amy for posting a video on how to go about doing that but it just didn't work out for me. I did however learn more about hang-outs on air and would love to use that feature in the future.  My final project was done using screen cast-o-matic along with my power point. It was my first time using a screen cast program. Please view below the steps I took in learning about my project.

Now that I know the process I plan to post more items on ebay and hopefully make a small profit!