I feel like I've gotten a lot out of this class in such a short time. I loved making an idea for an app. I really got into the design and really wish I could have made it for real! It would be really helpful for my students, but maybe one day I'll actually get to make it! The idea of using a podcast took me a long time to think about but I think I came up a good idea with real potential to continue in the future. To connect math to real world applications helps the students greatly, so I want to continue with them this year. The wiki can be a really cool idea to try in math but I would need to really think about what I would want to have the wiki on. Its great  for the students to work together and to teach them responsibility for their work. The biggest thing though that I will use in this class is the WebQuest. I loved making it and it seems like it has great potential in the classroom. Like I posted before, I want to try to flip the classroom more often and the webquest could be perfect to help me with that. I really enjoyed this class and plan on taking everything I learned into next school year. 

I've set a goal for next school year of using the idea of a flipped classroom on a very regular basis. I recently talked to a teacher that uses a flipped classroom ever day, which I don't think I want to do just yet. However, its a great teaching strategy and I want to use it way more this year. I read this blog post http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-ramsey-musallam and realized I spent too much of class time on lower level thinking and have the students use their higher level thinking at home. I want to switch this because I want to be there to help the students with the more difficult material in class. This is why I have started creating videos for each of my lessons. I don't plan on using the flipped classroom idea everyday but if I have videos for each lesson, I can use them whenever I do decide to flip the class. Then, I can post all the videos too for students to use as review for the assessments. I also found this site that I thought was helpful on how to flip the classroom. http://ctl.utexas.edu/teaching/flipping-a-class/how

I just made my first podcast. I never like listening to myself talk! Its also hard sometimes for me to think about podcasts in the sense of a math class because math is a very visual subject. Normally what I do for my students is record screencast videos for them to watch at home. Then they can see the problem being worked out in front of them instead of me just talking about it. However, after a lot of thinking, I decided to go a different route and not talk about how to do a problem but instead something else I discuss with my students a lot throughout the year, math in real life situations. I find that students have a hard time connecting math into the things they do on an everyday basis, so I decided that I would create a series of podcasts on each of the topics I teach and explain real life applications and careers that use the topic. I know that this is important information for the students to hear. When they can make the connection to something real, the material becomes more than just a lesson into something they actually want to learn. In my Algebra 1 course I teach 8 topics so I plan on making one podcast for each of them to have the student listen to before we start the unit. Then they understand the importance and relevance. 

Here's the podcast if you want to listen!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7x4KPyC7U_V0hqb2s2b241WFE/view?usp=sharing

After attending my conference last week, I've been doing a lot of research on uses of ipads in the classroom. Our school has used ipads for the past two years and there has been mixed reviews from some teachers. I have been skeptical at times as well to if this is really helping them because all the student seem to want to do is play games. At this conference though I heard an analogy that I loved. When you give a child a pencil, they'll scribble until you teach them to write. Now that we are giving students ipads, they are going to play games until we teach them how to use it as a tool. I never thought of it this way. I guess since they grew up with technology, I just assumed they would know how to use it in the educational setting, but how would they unless we teach them. In my research on the topic, I did find something that was pretty helpful too. There's a program called Casper Focus which allows teachers to lock which apps students can access in their class. This is a great idea for when you are teacher students to use their ipads. When they enter as freshman, have them always log into this program. Then, throughout high school have them use it less and less. It will slowly teach them responsibility. It does cost money, but I can see great advantages to it. 

ClassCraft

So now that I'm back home again I wanted to elaborate more on ClassCraft and how this presenter used it in his class. The basic idea is to use it as a behavior management tool. The students are in teams of 5 and each have different roles, like the healer and warrior, which are already programmed into the game. For good behavior the students can receive experience points. With the experience points they can level up and "purchase" different rewards in the game. For example this teacher had it set so that the students can buy the right to use headphones during homework time. The students can earn points different ways like doing all their homework for that week. They also have Quiz Battles on Friday where the students take online quizzes with their teams and the team that gets the most correct answers within the time will win experience points. Students can also lose experience points for different things like talking out, being late, or my personal favorite going to the bathroom. If they don't have enough points they can borrow points from others in their group. Now the game itself has some basic information like this but most of the information I just mention was added in by the teacher I saw at this conference. The biggest con he mentioned was the time it took to set up, but he said the student reaction has been amazing in his class. The students are really into the game and motivated by it. He did mention that they have tried it in a few classes and there have been different responses. The freshman and sophomore classes really enjoy it and juniors and seniors didn't get involved that much. I'm really excited and plan on setting it up soon for next year. 

So I haven't posted yet this week because I am  at a conference in Scranton, PA. We have a group of 50 or so private schools around the country here and we discuss our common goals because we are all the same type of private catholic school. One topic that keeps getting brought up here is the idea of one to one technology. Most of the schools here are in the first few years of going one to one, as is my school, and its really great to hear about how other schools are using the technology in their classes. I have able to find new apps and math applications of technology that I would not have found on my own. In one session, I learned about a site called ClassCraft. This is an online "game" for students that is really a behavior management tool for the classroom. If any of you are classroom teachers with one to one technology, I would encourage you to look into it. The teacher giving the presentation talked about how much it has changed his class. Another site I learned about is Educannon. I haven't explored it myself yet, but from what I was told, the website has students watch youtube videos, stops at certain points to ask the students questions, and will not allow the students to fast-forward the video. That can be really useful in a class setting. I can't wait to try out some of this in my class next year!

I just finished my WebQuest! I had my students plan a road trip, while keeping in mind budgeting for gas, lodging and food. Check it out at https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/road-trip/. One of the ideas I use in the WebQuest that I like to do a lot with my students is to have them write out an explanation of their reasoning. In this, I have them write a paragraph about their reasoning for their choices to stay in budget and what strategies they used. To have students write out their thought process can really help a teacher to understand if they understand, not just the process, but the reasons to complete the process the way we do. One of the hardest parts about math for students I always find is that they might understand how to complete a problem the exact way you teach it, but if the situation changes at all, they don't understand what to do. If you have students explain the reasoning in words, they start to really understand the processes more in depth and are able to adapt to different situations better. Another part of this WebQuest that I try to incorporate with my students is to show them real life applications of Algebra. Many of the students would go through this without realizing they are using algebra to solve the issue of staying within budget. Its a way to show them that they use algebra all the time without even realizing it! Hope you like the WebQuest!