Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Weekly App Practical- Classroom Management

This week I am looking into ClassDojo for Classroom Management. I chose this app/website because it has many features. The main feature is that it tracks behavior. You can reward points for good behavior, and deduct points for undesirable behavior. You can decide how many points a behavior is worth. Students and parents have access to this information as well so they can track data too.

Another feature is you can assign students into groups if you need. When in group mode, you can reward an individual student or the whole group.

Teachers can also send out messages to parents or students if needed, reminding them of tests, end of term, conferences, etc.

In portfolio mode, students share their own work so parents can see it. This feature reminds me of seesaw because it has a picture, video, and drawing mode.

The ONE thing I found I do not like about ClassDojo is that you cannot make a seating chart. I think it would be easier to "find" students if they were in the same layout as my classroom. One teacher recommended putting each row into a group, but I am not sure that makes it any easier to find.

Despite not being able to make a seating chart, ClassDojo is great for teachers who use participation as motivation or a grade. IT is a great way to communicate with parents. It also is nice that students can show off their work to their parents all in one place.

Growth Plan

Here is the link for my growth plan. Enjoy!
Lauren's Growth Plan

Weekly App Practical- The Inclusive Classroom

Through my years I have used the audio enhancer numerous times for students. But other than that, I could not think of an assistive technology that I have used in my class. This year though I have a student who is on an IEP who is allowed to use a laptop for notes, assignments, and even assessments. For a history and english class, this may be fairly normal, but for a math class, this can pose quite a problem. We use a language all our own.

This year my student writes his answers in a google doc and shares it with me. He is able to use math type so he can express answers with exponents, fractions, etc. when needed.

In a Google Doc, you can select insert, and then Equation in order to use a special math font. Right above the document you now have a new menu for math options.

Options are Greek letters, math notation (division, the plus/minus symbol, infinity), inequality signs, radicals, sigma notation, exponents, and fractions.

My student who has a difficult time writing can easily submit his assignments to me by google docs. The equation editor makes it easy to read.

My student also uses these features to take his notes on.

Weekly App Practical- Assessment

For this week we had to look into assessment. I decided to look into Socrative. Socrative is an assessment tool from Mastery Connect. I chose to look at Socrative for this reason, because I am familiar with MasteryConnect and I wanted to see what else they had to offer.

You must open an account with Socrative. There is a free version and a paid version. The free version gives you enough to use, but obviously the paid version gives you more features. One feature is the paid version gives you more "rooms". The unpaid version only allows one "room", so you will want to clear the room at the end of every class to allow your next group of kids to enter.

As a 9th grade math teacher I am aware I should do more quick formatives, not just my homework assignments. I was hoping Socrative could offer this to me.

Once you log in, your website looks like this, where you can "launch" your formative. IF you are launching a quiz, space race, or exit ticket, it must be prepared in advance. Also notice at the top there is a class code, this is the code your students will enter when they log in.

When you create a quiz, you do have the option to format for math, which is imperative for me!

Socrative also gives you the option to add a picture, perhaps a graph, if you need to. 

The space race seems cool as students join teams to compete against each other. 

For the Quick Question though, there is NOT an option for formatting which means you can not do  quick formative on the "fly" if you are doing quadratics or any other math that needs formatting.

When I first logged in and played with this earlier in the week, I was able to create Multiple Choice, True False, or Short answer easily. As I am playing around now, Socrative is not allowing me too.

Teachers need software this is consistent and reliable. For this reason, and the formatting, are reasons I would probably NOT use this in class. I would prefer to be able to do a quick question in class on the fly to make sure students are understanding, but if the software is going to be "buggy", I am not interested.

Troubleshooting

Mrs. Woodcocks Common TI84 Troubleshoot Guide

Issue	Try…
My calculator is “not working”…	·      Check the batteries. Are they in correctly? Are they dead? ·      Check the screen setting. Press 2nd up or down to adjust. Having the screen to light or dark can make it appear to not be on, when it is.
My calculator is giving “weird answers”	·      Reset your calculator so it is working just like Christmas Day when you opened it! Press 2nd, +, 7, 1, 2
My calculator is not showing the correlation coefficient.	·      Turn your Diagnostics ON! Press 2nd, 0, scroll to DiagnosticOn, press enter.
My calculator says ERR:SYNTAX	·      Press Quit if you know what you did, or press Goto, and calculator will find the error. ·      Most common error? Using the negative sign and subtraction sign incorrectly.
My calculator says a negative number squared is a negative. Why is it lying to me??	·      Order of Operations my friends! Put ( ) around your negative numbers!
Help! I deleted my L1, L2, etc…	·      To prevent this, when your List is highlighted, click CLEAR, NOT DELETE. ·      To fix, press STAT, 5, ENTER. Your missing Lists will reappear

Weekly App Practical- Students as Global Citizens

This reading and discussion hit me hard because I always felt I was a good teacher, but doing the reading I realized I am in my little bubble. When November brought up the American Revolution and how England has a completely different point of view, I realized I have never questioned what my teachers have presented to me. I just take things for fact and do not consider another's point of view!

To be a global citizen students need to understand the world outside their little bubble. They need to see what is not familiar to them. This is what I want for my students.

Although I present different ways to solve the same problem, I do not present different point of views, such as for word problems. When first reading this section, I myself, was stuck in my little bubble and thought, "There is no way to incorporate being a global citizen into a 9th Grade Algebra Class. Of course I have proved myself wrong by doing a quick search and being open minded.

Why should students be global citizens in math class?

Students will...

• Be more likely to accept diversity.
• Have a greater understanding of how the world works and what their role is in it.
• Take responsibility for their actions.
• Participate more within the community.
• Work to make the world more equitable.

How can it being a global citizen be incorporated into a math class?

• Use data in word problems such as a populations access to water, education, electricity, life expectancy, mortality rate, etc. and compare it to your community.
• Compare wages and populations.
• Look at country's sizes and populations. (population density)
• Compare government spending on different things--military, education, health care, etc.

What can go wrong?

I actually do not forsee any major issues with changing how I teach. The hardest part will be to go back and change word problems to incorporate these ideas and researching to find accurate data. I suppose some students may say "I don't care about other people" or "This doesn't apply to me", but those are the students I am hoping to reach.