Kimberly's+Reflections

=Kimberly's Reflections =

**07/07/08** What are some effective methods of using the Internet in your classroom?
I think that the internet has a lot of great resources for high school students taking a math class - everything from tutorials, interactive videos to sites with additional practice problems that give immediate feedback. One effective method of using the internet in the classroom is to give students time to work through additional problems at the level they are at or review tutorials on material with which they are still struggling. I am still wondering about how to exploit the interactive nature of wikies and how to use it for more than a way to provide links to internet resources to students in a single location. (I'm done.)

Reflect upon the process of learning and using the web as a classroom tool.
I think the internet, like all other forms of technology, has the potential to be very useful mediums that have the potential to engage students and deepen their level of understanding. However, they also have the potential to be used to the detriment of the students - whether it is having students use online calculators or solvers instead of learning how to do it on their own or allowing the students to roam the internet freely instead of giving them a focused assignment. I think that teachers will begin to incorporate the internet into their instruction more as computers and the internet becomes available to everyone, especially since students are already quite familiar with this medium. As schools become wireless and more computer labs are available, I can see the internet becoming a great resource for students and an important classroom tool. (the end)


 * 07/14/08**

What are some effective methods of using the Microsoft Office Suite in your classroom?
There are many effective uses of excel in the high school mathematics classroom, such as having students work math problems that involve a lot of repetitive computation in excel and then using the data to create a graph. Using excel in this way allows students to bypass some of the mindless computation (after they have learned how to do it the hard way!) and quickly generate a list of data that they can manipulate or graph. Excel is also helpful when you want to explore functions (lines on a graph) and what happens to the graph and numbers when you change the function in a particular way. Essentially, excel allows for students to explore certain topics in mathematics in a shorter period of time because it automatically performs the basic (or not so basic) calculations.

Microsoft Office can be used by teachers as a teaching tool since it is so readily available (in some form) on computers. Last semester, I observed a math teacher who occasionally used powerpoint in class as a way of keeping the students' attention and slowing down his writing so that the kids had time to follow the material. While I thought this was certainly an interesting concept, I think that teachers should be conscientious to make sure that they do not use technology solely as a means of entertainment/keeping students' attention.

On a side note - I tried working on the formula for my test randomizer tonight, but I discovered that microsoft changed some of their functions in the 2007 version (I called it quits once I realized that LIST was no longer an option)... Looks like i'm going to be stuck using a school computer to complete that portion of the project! I hope I haven't confused too many people in the class with my more technical excel questions.... THANK YOU for making this class project/independent study based... (Wasn't really looking forward to the class because I figured I would know how to do a lot of it already)... Oh- and you should show people how to hide columns/rows in excel - a very useful capability when you're dealing with a large document and only want to look at certain parts of it! (I'll stop now).


 * 07/20/08**

Reflect upon the process of learning and using Microsoft Office as an effective tool.
For me, this week was not so much about me learning how to use Microsoft Office as it was for me to explore one of the programs (Excel) deeper and create something time consuming and complicated that will serve as an excellent template for the future. While I seriously doubt I would have undergone this project next year while I'm teaching, I think that I will use it now that most of the hard work has already been done. I had never used Mail Merge before completing this project - but now that I have used it, I can see how it could be very useful. This project also taught me that Mail merge is very picky and does not like to take data from Excel in a way that seems logical to write it... I can see myself using mail merge as a way to create "personalized" letters to parents, since I would like to establish contact with them but will not have time to write each one individually. I think it goes without saying that Office is an effective tool for survival, especially now that we have become dependent on computers and like to type all of our documents. I plan on doing a lot of my lesson plans on the computer so that I will have an easy way to access them years later and can reduce the amount of papers I have to keep track of. (P.S. my photoshop project is looking pretty awesome already - the main thing I will need help with in order to finish the project is to figure out how to scale the pictures... I look forward to showing you what I have done so far!!!) (finished)


 * 07/22/08**

What are some effective methods of using digital imagery and video in your classroom?
I personally do not envision myself using digital imagery or video in my classroom on a regular basis - mostly because it takes a long time to create something using digital imagery and video and i do not think (for the most part) that the benefits of using these mediums override the time factor. One way that I do see myself incorporating video is to tape myself teaching. I know that I will be doing this as a part of my fellowship (KSTF - see homepage for info!) - we use video there to compensate for the fact that the fellowship members live all over the US and can not easily watch each other teach. I think this is an effective method of using video, as it is an easy way to learn about your own teaching and be able to more "objectively" reflect on how a lesson went (and remember what happened!). I'm also a fan of letting kids use whatever medium they want to get material across- I know I have put more energy and time into projects that were done through a medium I enjoyed

Do I need to do the reflection for Wednesday's class even though I won't be there? Just let me know! John and I got all of our video taped today, so we should be good to go as far as that project is concerned... At some point, I would like to know how to transfer video from the tape to the computer - we tried to figure it out (by plugging the camera into the computer) but nothing happened... Also, I decided to just go with the one project for this week's deadline, given the insanity of my schedule... However, there's a very good chance I will finish the Eiffel Tower one to my satisfaction before the summer's over so that I can actually use it later. (Oh, and why did the link to my webpage suddenly jump to the top of the list on the personal pages?) Thanks for your help! (complete)


 * 7/27/08**

Reflect upon the process of learning digital imagery and video.
For me personally, learning how to use digital imagery and video isn't hard conceptually, it just takes a LOT amount of time to produce anything that's quality. I personally really enjoy using Photoshop because there's so much that you can do to manipulate, enhance and create pictures through that program! I also think it's hard to know when to finish "editing" and refining video or photoshop documents - it seems like there's always something else that you can do to make it better... (that's all i've got).


 * 7/29/08**

Brainstorm other effective uses of technology not discussed thus far in class.
There are a lot of effective, and just as many ineffective, uses of technology that we have not discussed in class. Largely, I have found that any given form of technology can be used effectively/ineffectively depending on the way in which you incorporate it into your class. Graphing calculators are effectively used when they help students see graphs and explore the relationship between algebraic equations and graphs... On the other hand, incorporating a graphing calculator by allowing students to multiply or perform other basic calculations is an INEFFECTIVE method because it takes the place of thinking. Geometer's sketchpad can be incorporated effectively to help students visualize a geometric concept, explore theorems dynamically and so forth... It can also be used ineffectively when you use it **solely** to grab the students attention (the wow factor) or does not encourage the students to think more deeply about the subject... Please see the below handout that I wrote for a round table discussion I led on Thursday for more effective uses of technology and questions a math teacher should consider when incorporating technology in the classroom. [|Roundtable Handout.doc] (fin)

Reflect upon this class, its effectiveness, its content, and your place in it.
This class was awesome, mostly because we got to create projects that we might actually use later instead of spend time on stuff that we don't see as useful - I also liked how we could work at whatever level of proficiency we are at with the given technology instead of all having to be at the same place. I'm not sure if this class was effective, mostly because I don't know the overall goals/objectives for the course. Is it to make sure that all vandy pre-service teachers graduate knowing how to use basic computer technology? If this is the case, then there should be some sort of low level proficiency test that everyone must pass (can you create a word document, powerpoint presentation, use excel to do a basic gradebook, perform basic searches on the internet, etc)... If you know the true objective of the class, let me know - because I honestly don't see how a 1 hr class can help someone become proficient on the computer if they weren't already. I thought the content was appropriate overall, although i really don't see why they have us do Photoshop, since that's not a piece of technology that most schools or teachers have access to. I personally think we should also have at least seen a demonstration using a smart board (since they're becoming more common in K12 schools), how to create a website (not on wikispaces) or use an online grade book, and other more teachery stuff like creating a transparancy on the computer or using an Elmo. As far as my place in the class, I had a lot of fun but don't think I would have been any worse of a teacher had I not taken the course (not your fault). I would love to know why they don't let people take a test and exempt this course, especially for people like me who have had a number of technology based classes already (including programming!). Overall, I think you made the most of the class and it was a very enjoyable experience. (goodbye)


 * 7/30/08**

Pacing was good to slow (but i'm sure others in the class would disagree with me). Given the nature of a summer course, I think it was appropriate. I would change it (go through some more technology, break up Office into separate pieces, etc) to allow for a little more content during a fall or spring course.
 * 1. How would you change the pacing of the course?**

Again, given the fact that it's a 4 week class, this schedule worked fine. I don't think I understood completely the point of the "internet" week - really? Pick a few parts of the internet (such as creating a webpage, wikispace, etc) and focus in on that. I'd guess it's pretty safe to say that all pre-service teachers have used the internet, at least for email and basic google searches.
 * 2. How would you change the basic schedule of the course (one software idea a week, with one day for instruction and one for work)?**

Smart boards. Obviously we couldn't all create something to put into our portfolio, but I could see exposure to one being very useful as more of them get put into schools. Exploring online gradebooks (especially if you could figure out what Metro schools use) would also be useful, since lots of school systems require teachers to use a specific one.
 * 3. What material should have been included, but wasn't?**

Photoshop... .very fun, but how many people actually have access to this outside of a university campus? Stick with materials that teachers are actually going to have a decent shot of being able to use! I think it would have been fun to explore non-traditional uses of Office stuff more than we did, especially since Office is loaded on pretty much every school computer.
 * 4. What material do you think was unnecessary?**


 * 5. How would you have taught the material itself differently?**Put the key how-to points on the wikispace for those who need refreshing. Pushed students a little more to explore more complex stuff (not just the overachievers). Done some sort of pre-assessment to see how much (or little) people actually know or can easily figure out.

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