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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).
At InterMath: Constructionary, users can obtain a list of constructions in Geometer’s Sketchpad. Clicking on a letter of the alphabet gives a list of constructions for that letter. When you chose a construction, clicking on the numbers shows the steps for that construction. Clicking on “Notes” at each step will give a brief description, and I do mean brief, so newbies may need additional help. This is not a stand-alone tutorial but definitely makes a great resource.
I’m at the OSPI winter conference in Spokane, attending a class that I thought would help me learn more about designing my own online course that I’ll be teaching next year but am disappointed that it is really a sales pitch for THEIR online course offerings. Not what I had in mind. It wasn’t a total loss though since I did pick up a few resources in the process. Here they are, in no particular order:
- www.iacademy.org/waslmath/ is a site that students, teachers and parents can use in preparation for our state-mandated testing in WA state.
- www.gomath.com - love this site! It’s a great math resource.
- http://mathnexus.wwu.edu by the Whatcom and Skagit Math Partnership here in WA state provides resources to increase the effectiveness of secondary school mathematics teachers.
My classroom was featured in a recent article by Tamar Snyder entitled Social Networking: TheirSpace at Edutopia.org.
Please visit the link above to view the full article. You can also read the article in Edutopia Magazine.
Presenting at EduComm this year was a great experience but didn’t really allow time in my schedule to attend any sessions. Well, here is a page of 2007 EduComm Post-Event Conference Material with links to handouts and videos of sessions so now I can watch them. And so can you. 
If you currently use blogs or are thinking of implementing them this year, here’s a great overview of blogging in the classroom at Remote Access.
http://www.explorelearning.com features interactive Gizmos which look like great tools for modeling math concepts on the interactive whiteboard. Gizmos are available for Grades 6 - 12 as well as College Algebra and Pre Calculus. The calculus teacher in me loved the Riemann Sum Gizmo although I was disappointed to see a lack of other calculus gizmos available.
I liked the Modeling and Solving Two-Step Equations Gizmo because it requires students to create a model of the problem and then actively work to solve it. The gizmo also paused at key steps which provides the opportunity for students to hypothesize and discuss the mathematics before the gizmo continues and shows the answer. I didn’t care for this Adding and Subtracting Integers Gizmo as much because it seemed to spit out answer the answer before the student had the chance to think about it; I preferred the Adding and Subtracting Integers with Chips Gizmo that was more interactive and required students to actively model the problem and provide the answer themselves.
Gizmos can be used for 5 minutes at a time for free; longer sessions require a subscription. I did find it annoying that no price list is available online 
but they do supply a phone number and contact form.
I spent last week at the AP Calculus Summer Institute in Vancouver, WA. I took the AP Calculus AB (experienced) session with instructor Sharon Cade. I was glad to have her as an instructor again; I took a week-long workshop from her a few years ago at PLU and learned so much. I gained a lot of insight during this session into the reading and scoring of the AP exam which will definitely help me better prepare my students next year. Besides the calculus, I also love her team-building activities and definitely plan to use them this year. I think they get kids in the right frame of mind, and they are fun. I know I learn more if I’m having a little fun. :) The experienced session was also great because I got great ideas for lessons and incorporating technology from the other teachers in my session.
Here are a few math and tech highlights from the week:
- We worked with programs for the TI-83/84 and TI-89 graphing calculators. I especially liked the programs in Work Smarter, Not Harder by Venture Publishing, available for the TI-83/84 and the TI-89. More programs can be found at the TI Download Center and at http://www.ticalc.org .
- A fantastic FREE graphing program is Winplot. You’ll find this and other free software on the Peanuts Software Homepage at Phillips Exeter Academy. Did I mention that it’s FREE? Free is good. :)
- For those who use Geometer Sketchpad 4, a great resource is the Calculus In Motion by Audrey Weeks.
- TI conducted a session on the new TI-Nspire which was interesting. We also received CDs for a 30-day trial of TI SmartView. I am currently using Virtual TI (another freebie) and will continue using it since I have the TI-89 rather than the 83/84, but the advantage of SmartView is that it records your key strokes which is a definite bonus when a kid gets 3 steps behind. If they create SmartView for the 89, I’ll be first in line.
- We looked at some great resources from Stu Schwartz at http://www.mastermathmentor.com/ including his Clue game. I like games.
- I like to use some of the activities from A Watched Cup Never Cools by Key Curriculum Press.
- Sharon shared OES’s curriculum map for AP Calculus AB. You can also view curriculum maps for other courses at OES here.
- For students that need tutoring, consider http://www.aleks.com .
- We looked at lots of calculus questions. Here are some sites we looked at as well as some from Sharon’s resource list and others that I personally use:
- If you want a class website that is easy to build and maintain, consider www.eboard.com . I have used eBoard for the past two years and found it to be extremely easy to use, although now my site is hosted by our district. Thanks to Wendy Droke for showing us around her own eBoard.
skrbl is a free web-based whiteboard. All you have to do is start skrbl and give out your URL ( here’s one of mine: http://www.skrbl.com/49043427) in order to instantly begin sharing your board online. What a great collaboration tool!
If students purchased a Wacom tablet for home use (a 4×5 is under $100), I could see real possibilities next school year for homework collaboration and online study sessions online. My students use an electronic whiteboard or graphics tablet in class to create their own mathcasts, so they already know how to use this technology.
