Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Diigo Updates (weekly)
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Free Technology for Teachers: Nine Survey Tools for Teachers and Students
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nrich.maths.org :: Mathematics Enrichment :: Current Posters
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School Clip Art for Teachers and Kids - Free Clipart for Educational Purposes
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Free Technology for Teachers: Slide Six - Easily Add Narration to Slide Shows
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Getting Ready
My kids are spending the weekend with my folks, so I've actually been able to sit and do some work for the past hour or so! (Hubby's out at Home Depot, so it looks like I'll still have a few hours to myself.... does everyone take this long at Home Depot?)
While running this morning I was thinking of what I'd like to do with that dreaded first day of school. I definitely want to get some math in, but I know I'll have to spend time on names and a seating chart (yuck) and the basic rules of how things are going to run. I thought it might be more interesting to put together a power-point for the procedures part of it, but then reconsidered. Power-point? Seriously? Geesh. Here's the prezi I did instead.
I've played with prezi a little bit before, but this is the first complete one that I've really done. It's pretty cool and it didn't take too long to figure out. I actually offered it as an option to my precalc kids this past year - it's amazing how quickly they can figure stuff like this out!
While running this morning I was thinking of what I'd like to do with that dreaded first day of school. I definitely want to get some math in, but I know I'll have to spend time on names and a seating chart (yuck) and the basic rules of how things are going to run. I thought it might be more interesting to put together a power-point for the procedures part of it, but then reconsidered. Power-point? Seriously? Geesh. Here's the prezi I did instead.
I've played with prezi a little bit before, but this is the first complete one that I've really done. It's pretty cool and it didn't take too long to figure out. I actually offered it as an option to my precalc kids this past year - it's amazing how quickly they can figure stuff like this out!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Decisions for the new year...
We're back from the white sand beaches of Panama City, Florida. Luckily, they were non-oilly and beautiful!
So now that vacation's over, I feel like the work must begin. I spent some time today getting assignment sheets ready for my Algebra 1 class (here's an example of one) in the hopes of keeping them on track and organized. I haven't taught low-level freshmen since my first year of teaching (a lifetime ago!) and I'm a little worried about it all but hopefully if I start tough and show them that I expect a lot out of them they'll respond accordingly. It's the tough part that's going to be the hardest - it's just not in my personality. :)
I was considering for a while before I went on vacation to try the Standards Based Grading idea that has been floating around twitter lately. I think the notion has a lot of merit and would be a great way to keep focused on making sure the kids are learning what they need to be learning (and not just going for the grades) but I don't think I'll try it this year. I am planning on breaking down my tests/quizzes into different core topics and try and keep more of a focus that way. Then I will be able to tell if re-teaching/testing is needed either on an individual or class basis from there.
One new thing that's coming this school year is a change in the district grading scale.We're going to a +/- scale that is more generous than our last one. The lowest F moves to a 65% from a 70%, which I'm sure the kids will enjoy but makes me feel like I'm going to have to be more rigorous in my grading so I don't feel like I'm just "giving" the points away. Here's the new one (it's the College Board scale):
One thing that I've done for the past 5 or so years is a problem of the week, for which I gave 3 (and changed to 2 this past year) extra credit points. The majority of the kids who did the problems enjoyed the extra challenge and there were kids with high A's doing the problems every week for fun. I hate to take that away, but I really don't want to pad grades with the extra leeway they've already been given. My most recent thought was to use some of my problems as warm-ups. These interspersed with regular warm-up type problems might keep things unpredictable. Any thoughts?
So now that vacation's over, I feel like the work must begin. I spent some time today getting assignment sheets ready for my Algebra 1 class (here's an example of one) in the hopes of keeping them on track and organized. I haven't taught low-level freshmen since my first year of teaching (a lifetime ago!) and I'm a little worried about it all but hopefully if I start tough and show them that I expect a lot out of them they'll respond accordingly. It's the tough part that's going to be the hardest - it's just not in my personality. :)
I was considering for a while before I went on vacation to try the Standards Based Grading idea that has been floating around twitter lately. I think the notion has a lot of merit and would be a great way to keep focused on making sure the kids are learning what they need to be learning (and not just going for the grades) but I don't think I'll try it this year. I am planning on breaking down my tests/quizzes into different core topics and try and keep more of a focus that way. Then I will be able to tell if re-teaching/testing is needed either on an individual or class basis from there.
One new thing that's coming this school year is a change in the district grading scale.We're going to a +/- scale that is more generous than our last one. The lowest F moves to a 65% from a 70%, which I'm sure the kids will enjoy but makes me feel like I'm going to have to be more rigorous in my grading so I don't feel like I'm just "giving" the points away. Here's the new one (it's the College Board scale):
A+ 97 -100
A 93 - 96
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89
B 83 - 86
B- 80 - 82
C+ 77 - 79
C 73 - 76
C- 70 – 72
D+ 67 – 69
D 65 - 66
F Below 65
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89
B 83 - 86
B- 80 - 82
C+ 77 - 79
C 73 - 76
C- 70 – 72
D+ 67 – 69
D 65 - 66
F Below 65
One thing that I've done for the past 5 or so years is a problem of the week, for which I gave 3 (and changed to 2 this past year) extra credit points. The majority of the kids who did the problems enjoyed the extra challenge and there were kids with high A's doing the problems every week for fun. I hate to take that away, but I really don't want to pad grades with the extra leeway they've already been given. My most recent thought was to use some of my problems as warm-ups. These interspersed with regular warm-up type problems might keep things unpredictable. Any thoughts?
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
I'm heading to Florida tomorrow with the family (and some extended family) so I'll be in and out of touch for the next 8 or 9 days. I haven't decided if I'll take my laptop or not - last year my brother-in-law took his so mine wasn't necessary. I'm thinking that I'll leave it at home (I can always tweet and facebook from my phone!).So I hope everybody has a nice week and don't let me miss too much on twitter! :)
(Picture courtesy of flickr user tanjila)
Monday, July 5, 2010
It was fun to meet for the first time a friend from twitter!
(I'm the short one.)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Diigo Updates (weekly)
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Teaching Statistics: Every answer leads to more questions...
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Flexagons – your flexible friend « Lessons taught; Lessons learnt
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I Want to Teach Forever: Ten Cheap Lessons: Downloads and Extras!
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Department Wide Standards-Based Grading Year 1 « Team Alzen!
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Screenr - Create screencasts and screen recordings the easy way
- "Instant screencasts for Twitter." - post by Graham Perrin
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Quips From 114: How I Graded (SBG Part 2, among other things) - The Regrets & Reflections
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Take algebra? Why? I'll never use it in real life! | Ocala.com
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MeTA musings: Making sense of standards-based grading with parents
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An "Old Math Dog" Learning New Tricks: A Very Tentative SBG Plan?
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MeTA musings: Standards-based grading & student information systems: The beginning
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Always Formative: SBG Implementation: Setting up the Gradebook
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The Teaching Cipher: My New (Mostly Robbed) Assessment System
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TechSmith | Screencast.com, online video sharing, 2009-09-17_0950
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Classroom in the Cloud: How to Register Multiple Users to One Email Address
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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