I just read my newest assignment from the online class that I'm taking. The assignment was to create a weekly post sharing 3 meaningful posts that I've read (from my "newly-set up" RSS Reader... which I've had for a while now!). The kicker was that it was supposed to be just like the post I did last week. Oops. Guess I missed that! (But the thing is, I'm working a week ahead because we're going on vacation Saturday... so I'm really not late! Just doing two at once.)

So now to find 3 good posts that I've read this week... (or 6!)
1. A post about Google Sketch-Up from Simon Job - looks interesting! I'll need to play with it some to figure out what I can do with it.
2. A post from Classroom 2.0 listing a number of web 2.0 tools that the author came across at NECC (man, I wish I'd been there!). I have the Classroom 2.0 forum posts fed into my reader. Every once in a while I come across a good one!
3. A short-but-sweet post from Darren Kuropatwa's blog with a link to a TED talk. I've seen a lot of discussion lately (I think a lot of it stemming from the video that he embedded) about gearing the math curriculum more towards a statistics emphasis than a calculus one. I still need to watch the video.
4. This is a post on 360 about dealing with homework in class. I've been thinking lately about re-doing how I assign/deal with homework. I'm trying to gather all of the ideas that I can!
5. I really like this post from Jeff Trevaskis listing his top 10 math blogs. Ok, I didn't make it ;) but I love seeing what other people are reading and what I might be missing out on!
6. Last but not least... a neat puzzle that had me puzzling from Dave Richeson.

I'm not sure how tech-y this will be, but it's something I've been pondering (with thanks to Sam Shah, who ran a survey earlier this summer). With our new precalc and algebra 2 books this year, I'm thinking about changing up how I "do" homework.

Precalc old way

• Give 20 - 30 problems a night, some odds, some evens
• Walk around to check for completion the next day while projecting even answers to check
  
• Go over questions as a class

Does it work? Yeah, maybe. But I know there's copying that goes on and the time that they're supposed to be checking their answers is usually "catch up with my neighbor" time.

Precalc new way (?)

• Give 10 problems a night, all odds
• Have 3 options for checking the next day: walk around & check for work/completion, collect and grade work on 3 - 5 problems, or no points assigned
• Go over questions as a class
• Give 4-question quiz (which would be graded and I could include some review problems, too, which I really like)... or I could pass this out as they walk in the door and they complete it then. Can't decide.
  

I think this would de-emphasize the importance of doing the homework just to get the points (or copying the homework!).


I don't know if this would work for my Algebra 2 classes. The Precalc is an honors-level class and the kids typically care more and want to learn. The Algebra 2 is college prep and you've got a wide range of dedication and abilities. I definitely like the idea of the 3-choice homework option (should I make a spinner? should I find one online and use it? there's one here and in my smart notebook too) but giving only odds could be somewhat iffy, especially when there's not much work involved.

Any thoughts?

A couple of things today. . .

I just saw that the Math Smart Notebook software has been released in its beta version. I'm currently uploading it to try it out! I don't use Smart Notebook much (when you write on it with the tablet it doesn't look very nice and I tend to be needlessly picky about that) but I might be persuaded to change my mind if there's some cool stuff!

There was a spammy e-mail sent to my school account about a Master's program in Education Design & Technology. Because I have nothing better to do (ha! There's a load of unfolded laundry sitting at my feet in a house that desperately needs vacuumed.) I clicked on it. It looks like a neat program (though I already have my master's) but do I really need a whole program? I think I'll try to be smart about it and just look for individual classes/seminars/conferences that interest me.

I just searched Flickr for a good picture of a laundry basket to put above. . . it's amazing how many cats and kids like to play/sleep in the baskets.

I haven't done much educationally in the past week (since getting out of school). Any time spent on the computer was me wasting time on facebook (probably playing Bejeweled Blitz, which I am unfortunately addicted to, or Chain Rxn) or checking e-mail. I keep thinking about school and what I would like to do before school starts but I've decided to give myself (and my kids!) some time off before I start tackling it all. And yet my new precalc materials are sitting in a chair in the corner of the kitchen tempting me! My 5 year old son is spending next week with my folks and I have a feeling that I'll pull out that stuff during my 2 year old's afternoon nap time.

I signed up to go to a tech workshop in August (Will Richardson will be speaking) that I'm looking forward to. Not necessarily for Will, but because there looks like there's going to be some good tablet-related presentations (and non-tablet ones, too). I expressed my interest in the 1-semester hour course that was offered... looks like we'll be reading through Will's book and trying some stuff out related to what the chapter was about. Hopefully I'll learn some new ways to do stuff (and hopefully it'll be an easy hour earned!).

I'm at the point now where credit hours don't do anything for me in terms of my salary, but unfortunately it's a necessary evil to be able to renew my license! And when they come cheap and interesting it's even better.

So until I delve into the fascinating world of precalculus, my time will be spent taking the kids swimming, to the zoo, to King's Island, to the library, cleaning, cooking, reading (hopefully), playing games on facebook, occasionally checking twitter, encouraging my little one to go potty (today was our first panties-wearing excursion!), and e-mailing. I think that'll do for a while!

Life

Life is a little busy right now. We're having a department meeting today to figure out how our loss of one teacher will affect what we do next year, then I pick up the kids, get back to school for the annual teacher/student wiffleball game, then I take my son to t-ball practice, then I go with my hubby to see The Chorus Line tonight. Phew.

Nine more days of school (which is surprising, but not in a bad way!).

_Then_ I might be able to keep up with this thing. Maybe.

Our school levy failed yesterday - 53% to 47% (actually, it was 55% to 45% - edited 5/10). The district had already cut 12 million from the budget, and both teachers and administrators agreed to a 1-year pay freeze. I wonder what will happen now!

I'm thankful that I've been here for 8 years (well, almost - will be 8 years on June 8!) and therefore don't have to worry about my job security (a continuing contract helps some, too). We haven't heard what will happen with possible teacher cuts, but I'm sure our new hires for this year have reason to worry.

Technology was supposed to be a big part of the levy monies, too, so there's another issue up in the air. This district has been so good with supporting the use of technology (especially with the tablet project and our inclusion in the PLP cohort) that I'd hate to see them pull back now.

Stay tuned. . .

We're heading back to Chicago on Thursday for our second f2f PLP meeting - it's hard to believe that the year is just about over now! I forget how many school days we're actually down to. . . 25? (Which still sounds like a lot because today is May 2nd - we have to go until June 8th because of an extra snow day off!)

Our PLP project is the construction of a wiki: Out of the Box We're hoping that we can get other teachers involved to show how they are thinking "out of the box" in their classrooms!

I met with a few other teachers at school on Wednesday to talk about cell phones in the classroom and how we could utilize them. Face it - all of the kids have them (some are much more visible than others!) so it would be nice if we could actually use them for good. Tonya led the meeting - we talked about texting Chacha and Google, using polling websites (like Polleverywhere) for kids to text into, and we also talked a little bit about how we could "police" the kids and make sure they were using their phones for only the task at hand (not texting their buddy). Hmm.

I like the idea of being able to text the kids with any information that I need them to know - whether a test or quiz date has been changed, a reminder of something they need to study, or even a daily assignment. I don't have unlimited texting on my phone (though it would only be $4.99 a month) so I've been checking out the possibilities of using the web to send out mass e-mails to kids (like setting up groups of classes and doing it that way). I thought I'd found a good free option, Tatango, but then I finally got logged in tonight (after a stupid mistake on my part - duh) and they've changed it from a free service to a subscription service. I'm going to keep looking, but everything else I've seen also involves fees. I'd like to avoid that if possible, even if I end up paying the $5 a month and get unlimited texting on my phone. Oh well - that gives me something to play with this summer!