Patty Papers

It was a long process last year (and what felt like an even longer wait) but I found out this morning that I have successfully earned my National Board Certification in AYA Math. I felt pretty confident but since I had done this process entirely on my own, I didn’t want to kid myself either. But the results are in and I passed with flying colors!

There’s gonna be some celebrating this weekend in the O’Flynn household.

I’m getting ready for the new school year that begins next Tuesday  and as usual, I have several projects in the works this year:

• I’m installing Geogebra as I type. I haven’t used this software much yet and am looking forward to digging in.
• Our school has a site license for Apex Learning math courses. This should be a  great resource and supplement for my face-to-face classes.
• Of course, I’ll be focusing on getting more teachers in our district to begin using Moodle!

More to come, stay tuned…

I had the opportunity on May 27th to talk with Jeff Patterson, IT Director for Great Falls Public Schools, and teachers in that district about the ways I use Moodle in my math classes. Using Adobe ConnectNow, I was able to take them on a virtual tour of my Moodle sites and show the activities my students have participated in this year such as our choices activities, glossary, Hot Potatoes quizzes, ExamView assessments, and other tasks.

As I look at ways to improve my use of Moodle next year, I’m inspired by this article at the New York Times. Here’s an excerpt:

• Math students in this high-performing school district used to rush through their Algebra I textbooks only to spend the first few months of Algebra II relearning everything they forgot or failed to grasp the first time. So the district’s frustrated math teachers decided to rewrite the algebra curriculum, limiting it to about half of the 90 concepts typically covered in a high school course in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of key topics. Last year, they began replacing 1,000-plus-page math textbooks with their own custom-designed online curriculum…

I will be teaching three sections of Algebra-Geometry 2 next year and think this may be perfect! I guess now I have my summer project.

This has been quite a year, but I submitted my portfolio during spring break and took my AYA-Math exam last Friday. Now it’s out of my hands!

Eleven-year-old published author and seasoned teacher Adora Svitak gives teachers “a kid’s eye view of the innovative classroom” in this Elluminate presentation. Using examples, anecdotes, and engaging activities, Adora humorously and honestly shares strategies educators can use in their classrooms to get kids excited and passionate about learning. She encourages the use of interactive writing activities and demonstrates use of innovative strategies in learning and teaching. Her goal is to encourage other students to become passionate and serious about learning, and in this session she works with teachers to reach that goal.

You will learn:

Because Adora is both a teacher and a student, she has a uniquely comprehensive grasp of today’s educational landscape- her vision for the future is innovative yet realistic. She advocates for technology and inquiry-based learning while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of delivering classical knowledge in a captivating context.

For more info about Adora, please visit her website and interviews from UK Telegraph, Chicago Tribune and CNN news.
Adlora Svitak’s Website:www.adorasvitak.com
UK Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/9setz6
Chicago Tribune:http://tinyurl.com/dlr3yp
CNN News:http://tinyurl.com/dyn7fu

Darren Kuropatwa at A Difference has posted a keynote speech, Games as Innovative Teaching, given by Rick Van Eck at the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Conference. I really enjoyed this presentation; it certainly should make educators think about the ways we educate students today and how to engage students in learning. Please click here to view a video of this presentation as well as the slideshow.

You can also hear the audio of Van Eck’s breakout session on Games Based Learning and view his slideshow here. This session is full of very practical ideas for how to incorporate using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games in teaching a variety of subjects in the K-12 curriculum.

During our study of polynomials, I used Hot Potatoes software to create several drag&drop quizzes for my students. I love using these activities with the digital whiteboard as a whole class activity and then I can also make them available to students to use as a self assessment. If you’d like to view our quizzes, just click on the image at the right and look for the files titled Polynomial Graphs under Ch. 6

If you have no special equipment or software, here is an example of a mathcast of Euler’s Formula created using LaTex and CamStudio, both of which are free. LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system that includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. CamStudio is free screen recording software with audio. If you would like to begin creating mathcasts but don’t have any special equipment, these are definitely two tools to check out!

It’s been a while since my last update between school, the holidays, our snowfall and power outages (due to the snowfall). As you can see, I am not really going anywhere.

Wishing you happy holidays with family and friends, and a wonderful new year!

I explored Squidoo a bit this morning. If you are interested in learning more about creating mathcasts and whiteboard movies in your own classroom, I found a Screencasting lens with good resources. It explains a bit about screencasting and includes comparisons of various software, definitely worth a look if you’d like to learn more.