Using Technology in Classroom

This post is to fulfill a requirement for my EDU 519 class at American University. The assignment asked me to interview or observe someone at my school who uses technology effectively and reflect on it. So, here it goes...

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I've had the pleasure of interviewing and observing Mr. D throughout this year who is very effective in using technology in his classroom. He teaches an Engineering class at our school that uses an AUTOCAD program to teach students how to design and create various objects.

The class is structured to teach students the phases of developing a product from conceptual drawing all that way to actually forming a model of it using a 3-D printer. I took a particular interest in this process since I had to take a technical drawing class in my undergraduate studies, but it was all only done on paper. The only time we ever saw a design formed was when we were to use play-doh to create some of the shapes.

What really struck me was how active the students were in the learning process and how effective the software was in producing visualizations for what the students were creating. I realize that this is the purpose of AUTOCAD, but this was the biggest issue I had with the technical drawing class when I took it. We didn't use AUTOCAD and only did things by hand. I think technology might have been the saving grace for me. I have a hard time visualizing things in 3-D and I learned this about myself in taking this class. I actually asked my professor if I could use play-doh during tests to help me create and visualize the objects.

Observing Mr. D and seeing his students design a puzzle box on paper, produce a drawing of it in AUTOCAD, and then use the 3-D printer to create it has really shown me that I need to focus on getting my students to create products in the classroom. It is easier to do in a hands-on class like the one Mr. D teaches, but I need to create contextualized ways that my students can put their math skills to use and create an individualized product. How can I get my students to create a puzzle box of their own that they can plan, design, and physically create to produce an end product?

Less than 4 weeks to go in my 2nd year...

It's hard to believe how quickly this second year has passed and how much easier it was than last year. I feel like I've been much more effective with instruction and just as ineffective with classroom management. That will be my focus for next year. I had the pleasure of watching one of my lessons recently that was video-taped and it was not only horrifying to see myself, but very eye opening to see my posture and (sometimes lack of) presence in the classroom. I know I'm pretty hard on myself, but I really need to focus on getting some better routines and expectations going.

It really is a struggle at times to make math interesting. It's the subject I teach and I believe it is very valuable for students, but sometimes... I lose sight of that myself. I've got to keep pushing the context aspect of it. I've got to keep finding the things that peak my students interests.

I was reminded of this today as my ESL math class was working on posters to present bar graphs they created from collecting data about the class ("What country are you from?", "What is your favorite color?", "How many people live with you?", etc...). I had a few students look up pictures online to enhance their posters. This led to a full on search of pictures and maps of other countries and finally landed us on maps.google.com so that I could show them overhead satellite images of our school and neighborhood. They were enthralled. It was one of those great teaching moments that can make your day, week, or even month feel worthwhile as a teacher.

Anyways, enough with the babble... I started playing with pages.google.com the other night to figure out how I could quickly create a website for my classes for next year and this is what briefly threw together:
Mr. Hale - Bell Multicultural High School

Oh and regarding my last post, I put the final finishing touches on the project I was working on called "Choose a Function". It will get it's first test run this advisory in a few weeks as an extra credit project for some of my students:
Choose a Function Project for Algebra II


-MF EDOOMCATOR

choose your own function...

As a final project for our Algebra II class, one of our teachers came up with the idea of "Little shop of Functions" which I have been calling "Choose your own function." The idea is that we present our students with various scenarios and they are to choose and develop the appropriate linear, quadratic, cubic, or exponential function to model the scenario and use that equation to help solve a "real-life" problem.

I've been writing up the scenarios and have found the process to be difficult. It is very hard to think of and find scenarios that are interesting and don't require math skills beyond what is acquired in high school.

Anyways, here is a sampling of a few of the scenarios I have come up with so far.*

I remember being very good at Math when I was in high school, but never really saw the value of what I was learning until I took higher level math courses in college and studied physics and electronics. I hope that we are helping our students see the value of functions, graphing, solving equations, etc... by giving them these types of contexualized problems.

*NOTE: The "I" number in the scenario is an individualized integer that each student is assigned to make each problem unique.

-MF EDOOMCATOR