Separating Prime Cuts of Educational Technology from Common “Mystery Meat”
I will be presenting this summer at the Summer Institute in Olympia, WA. During my session, Math & Technology in Today’s Classroom, I’ll show how I use technology such as the electronic whiteboard, student response systems, software, mathcasts and video projects to promote student learning and achievement and for assessment (both formative and summative).
I use Examview to create practice quizzes for my students. Here is Practice Test 7.1-7.4 that works with ExamView Test Player; I’ve used dynamic questions so that students get a new version of each question every time. ExamView Test Player is available as a free download so students can take practice tests at home.
Here’s the info you will need to access the practice quiz:
Password: imamathwiz
Name: Please just use your own name. If you are not one of my math students and want to take the quiz just for fun (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t?), just enter “guest”.
ID: not necessary
If you are a student in my Advanced Algebra class and wish to retake Quiz 7.1-7.4, you must take this practice quiz and score at least 80% before you can schedule your retake. You are able to take this practice quiz multiple times (it’ll change the numbers in the problems each time you open it). When you are finished, please print your results when you finish the practice quiz and bring it to me along with your original quiz corrections.
For those who want to learn more about mathcasts, I’m pleased to announce that Tim Fahlberg along with a wonderful team of partners (including yours truly 
) will be conducting a session at NECC entitled Mathcast Spaces: Thinking, Doing, and Sharing Mathematics Out Loud.
Pre Calculus students have finished their mathcasts of trigonometry involving right triangles.
Projects are now posted at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn: Mathcasts under Pre Calculus, Periods 2 and 5, Ch 6 Triangle Trigonometry. Their next task is to evaluate their own movie using this checklist and feedback form and to get at least one other person (adult or student who is not a group member) to give them feedback.
My students would appreciate your feedback! Please send feedback to 
Students were randomly placed in groups using the “pick a student” feature in CPS and were then given a problem having to do with polynomials from an ExamView problem bank. Each group or pair then created a mathcast of their solution and their reasoning. Some groups still have to finish up tomorrow but several are now posted at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn: Mathcasts under Periods 1 and 6, Ch 6 Polynomials. Their next task is to evaluate their own movie using this checklist and feedback form and to get at least one other person (adult or student who is not a group member) to give them feedback.
My students would appreciate your feedback! Please send feedback to
After our study of composition of ordinates and harmonic analysis, my Pre Calculus students were given the task of creating a picture drawn completely with equations. Their project had to include at least one sinusoid with a variable axis and at least one with a variable amplitude, and they had to include any necessary domain restrictions. Here are some of this year’s projects:
They used TI Connect software to download their graphs from their graphing calculators and then edited/colored them in Paint.
Another student used WinPlot software (a free download) to create his project:
Here are some more projects from previous years:
Next year I will have the opportunity to teach one section of mathematics as an online course. I’m working with one of our English teachers right now to develop our “wish list” if features that we would like to have for our online class. Here are some things I am considering:
The mathcasts, forum and assignments/assessments will be easy enough since I’m already using these with my regular classes, but I’m not sure how exactly to accomplish the chat. However, I have the privilege of working with a fantastic tech department here in Woodland School District that has worked very hard in the past to make my wish lists become reality, so I’m sure they’ll find a way to pull it off. However, I am taking over some homemade chocolate chip cookies today; never hurts to sweeten the deal. 
I’ve been using Hot Potatoes from Half-Baked Software to create whiteboard activities for my students. We are currently learning about trigonometric properties and identities (proofs) in Pre Calculus, and students need to memorize these properties. To help with this, we practice using Hot Potatoes drag-and-drop quizzes or electronic flash cards on our Hitachi Starboard. Here are two examples:
Trig Properties Matching Activity is a great class activity for the electronic whiteboard
Trig Properties Flashcards allow students to quiz themselves on the computer
My quizzes are hosted on our school server so that students can access them from home as well as school, but you could simply run them from your harddrive. You can also upload and host 5 quizzes at a time for free directly through the Hot Potatoes software. If you’ve never used Hot Potatoes, check it out - it’s awesome and FREE.
My students have published their first round of mathcasts this year. My Algebra 2 classes recorded portions of their cup lab in which they find a linear function that approximates the height of stacked cups, and our Pre Calculus mathcasts show and explain how to graph a sinusoid. You can view these projects at our school site under Mathcasts at http://www.woodlandschools.org/index.php?q=node/741 .
I have been using CPS clickers by eInstruction for the past two years and can’t imagine class without them now. We use our clickers almost daily and have even begun incorporating them into our “live” class mathcasts; you can view an example here.
Here are some online resources that will help you get started with clickers or use them more effectively:
Hosted by Edublogs.
