Final CEDO 525 Reflections

As a seasoned teacher, I have used and continue to use many of the learning strategies presented in this course. However, through this course I have learned how to enhance them. I feel that I now have some strategies for approaching various problems I’ve encountered as a math teacher. Some of these include:
-improper note-taking
-groups that become social outlets
-assignments not done properly
-students staring at me as I lecture but really being off in their own thoughts
-lack of critical thinking skills as well as the ability to synthesize learning
New to me is the creation and use of graphic organizers. What a great way to set the tone of a unit and keep students on track. These organizers also serve as a reference guide for students throughout a unit. Though I’ve always known about rubrics, I’ve never used with my students. With rubrics, students will know exactly what’s expected of them. They can also use them for self evaluation. With the use of Cornell note-taking templates and a discussion on how to use them, students can learn how to properly take notes. Additional nonlinguistic activities can serve to get students more involved in their learning—keep them awake!
Using the discussion and blogging tools included in the BlackBoard Learning System can serve to get students from the mechanical mode of math to the thinking mode. These tools also provide an outlet for collaboration. Including writing assignments in a math course for promoting critical thinking and as a form of mathematical written expression is important. Google Docs is a good tool for this exercise since it lends itself so well to collaboration. Since the presence of technology tools in MATC classrooms is lacking, any computer work would have to be done independently by students in one of the computer labs or on their home computers. This poses a problem since there are different levels of student computer literacy. But forcing students to use computers also forces them to prepare for today’s technological world. Finally, this course and all previous courses in this program have opened doors of exploration to me as an instructor. I am now aware of many wonderful sites to research and get ideas from so that I can continue to grow as a math teacher.

A Review of Three Mind Mapping Sites

I reviewed Bubbl.us, Education Oases, and ExploraTree. All three sites are free which is a plus. All three sites deal with mind maps or organizers.
Bubble.us is the most basic of the three. There is a starting parent bubble and by clicking or tabbing on the bubble or any resulting bubble, sibling or child bubbles can be formed and connected to the other bubbles. Bubbles can be different colors, text can be added to bubbles, bubbles can be moved, and as the mouse falls on different features contained in a bubble, the feature is explained. The mind maps can be saved as an image and printed, e-mailed, embedded in a website or blog, and shared. One other feature Bubble.us has is multi-lingual support. I think this is a fun and easy to use site students can use to create their own mind maps.
Education Oases is a website that has 58 ready made graphic organizers. All of the organizers are in PDF format and therefore require Adobe Reader to view and print them. There are five categories of organizers and some of them allow text entry. I liked the organizers that I reviewed. I was not able to find one that I could edit and I was able to add text to only a couple that I reviewed. I suppose this could be a limitation. All in all I consider this to be a very useful and easy to use site for instructors.
Exploratree is a website that contains a variety of ready made thinking guides that can be easily and broadly edited to meet your needs. If desired, you can also create your own guide. To use this site Flash must be installed on your computer. There is a wonderful help tool included as well as how-to videos. When working with a template, there are three different modes you can work in—the Create mode, the Do It mode, and the Show It mode. Comments can be added to a guide, a guide can be sequenced, guides can be shared and the site supports collaboration. Of the three sites, I liked this one the best. It’s easy to use and has a lot to offer.

Feedback and Student Response

The article “Feedback that fits” was very informative and filled with common sense. I have always found that giving correct and positive feedback requires patience, tact, insight, maturity, and at times compassion—even if as a teacher you are having a bad day. The article points out that giving feedback is a craft that is learned over time. This is indeed true and it’s important to note that wrong or negative feedback can be damaging.

After reviewing two articles on electronic student response tools (Clickers: A classroom innovation by D. Buff and What I learned from using a personal response system by M. Butler) I’ve learned that clickers promote active participation, engagement, and discussion among all students, even those who might not participate in typical class-wide discussions. I’ve also learned that clickers can be assessment tools, providing students with useful and motivational feedback on their own learning while providing instructors with information about student learning that helps them respond to immediate student learning needs. I checked out two systems online: I>Clicker and Qwizdom Action Point. I>Clicker seems to be the easier of the two to use and questions can be written using any application. Qwizdom is only compatible with PowerPoint. Both packages have a “Questions on the Fly” option but I>Click can work with a large selection of textbooks. I>Clicker has a remote which is well-suited for students with disabilities. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Qwizdom. Students and direct purchasers pay one price for the I>Clicker remote and can use it repeatedly with no additional costs, ever. I>Clicker is very reliable and has a very small defective rate. It uses AAA batteries and users will not encounter any problems with wireless interference. Data from I>Clicker can be exported into HTML reports. Qwizdom users have the option of choosing different styles of remotes, they can discreetly ask for assistance, and they’re instantly provided with right/wrong feedback. Qwizdom also has interactive learning games. I did not see any prices but I’m assuming that Qwizdom is the more expensive of the two (just a guess). The only con I can see with clickers is one caused by the economy. I don’t see my institution investing in any new technology for a while. The math classrooms at my institution are not equipped with computers (student or instructor). This raises another problem. I personally would like to see clickers in action somewhere—especially in a math classroom. I’m sure they add a missing piece to student involvement.

Not the Ideal Students!

As a seasoned teacher, reading through Theory Based Principles of Learning really did not give me many new insights. It seems that in my earlier teaching years, these issues were easier to address. However in the last four years, the student body at MATC has changed significantly. 90% of incoming students are under prepared learners with almost non-existent study skills. They range in age from 22 to 49, are single parents, and are trying to shuffle school with jobs and child care. Their main goal is to finish courses quickly and in the easiest manner possible. Attendance is problematic, state curriculum demands are unreasonable, and the feeling of many of my math colleagues is that we are doing a job that should have been done during the first 12 years of our students’ schooling. Thus, we are presented with many issues to try to overcome.
We presently gather prior knowledge of our students through placement tests given day one of the courses we teach. These tests consist of a series of math problems from General Math through Intermediate Algebra. What is measured is tool use—not critical thinking or application of knowledge.
I believe it’s important to present learning objectives and goals, give feedback continuously, use criteria based rubrics, and use different forms of assessment. Since all instructors have a BlackBoard shell per each course they are teaching, these items can be posted using this learning system. All students also have an MATC gmail account which can be used for instant messaging and e-mail—a good way to get students involved with each other’s learning.
I am constantly harping at the other instructors to meet and go through the course outcome summaries for all of our courses—the courses are presently jam packed with topics and concepts. I look for a general agreement on what should be stressed and what can be touched on. Once this is done, I believe “mastery” is more attainable. I also truly believe that if only certain parts of the curriculum are stressed, there is more time for class discussions, student collaborating, and class projects. This would move the instructor into those different roles of synthesizer, moderator, challenger, and commentator vs constant lecturer.
One of the biggest problems I have encountered is my students’ inability to make connections—to synthesize. They memorize a series of facts and once the unit is over, they don’t see how the previous unit ties in with the new. Technology can be used as an aid in this area—blogs, web sites, applets, etc. I blame this on the frantic pace of our courses but also on the lack of study skills owned by my students.
So, as summer progresses, I will start jotting down new ideas and strategies and look forward to continuously learn.

We Need Balance!

Call me old fashioned—is face-to-face human contact and communication becoming a thing of the past? Is enjoying quiet times or a scenic walk through a park less important than checking text messages or answering a cell call while getting ready to tee off on the 4th hole? Are too many young adults missing out on “best human friends”, parental guidance, reading good books, playing Scrabble or Monopoly, going outside and participating in a baseball game or hopscotch, or just taking a walk because they have become emotionally dependent on online pals, on chat rooms, and now on idealistic avatars? Does getting hooked on playing video games enrich their lives? Life is about relationships and interacting and dealing with people--real people. Technology is here and its uses are ever expanding—but I believe that there needs to be balance in its use. Too much of anything is never good.

Thank You!!

Thank you Jim Kasum for helping me to educate myself on the copyright law! This is one of those items that I knew existed but was never quite sure about all that it involved. At MATC there are all sorts of documents hanging in the copying room about the copyright law but they all use lawyer jargon. Almost everything that has been communicated to me about this law has been in lawyer jargon--I don’t understand the words of lawyers! I now feel more confident about how to use internet sites in my classroom, about what the fine text at the bottom of many web pages means, about what I can copy, download, and upload. When students fail to buy textbooks and ask me to copy parts of the books for them “until they can buy it”, I now know that I am totally on the right and legal track by saying no. I have created online courses never really knowing that I own them and have rights! I have created many worksheets and projects and I am thrilled to know that they are totally and legally mine. Some people may read this and think, “Where have you been??” I think there are many people who are in the same boat that I WAS in. Thanks again!

Seek and You Shall Find?!?

How many times do people hear the statement, “You can find what you’re looking for on the web”. For many people the web, with its seemingly endless amount of information, is intimidating. They know what they want is on the web—but WHERE???? One of the topics covered in my latest class has been a very rewarding indeed. I have been introduced to Google Noodle and through time spent I have discovered a rich array of search engines that deal with specific types of searches. I have also learned about the difference between meta searchers, subject directories, gateways, and subject-specific databases. By using Boolean logic, quotation marks, + and – signs, lower case letters, the * which is the wildcard symbol, I have been able to narrow down my experimental searches and actually get the results I was looking for. All of the information I acquired in this lesson was invaluable and I intend to pass it on to my fellow instructors and to my students. After all, what good is information if you can’t find it????