On Friday Sept. 21 I visited with David Coupland at Kensington Woods High School in Howell, MI. This charter school seems to be well equipped with technology items for instructor use. David is a former MACer who worked in industry before becoming a teacher, he developed and ran an after-school program with robotics and encourages students to learn about technology. Another interesting coincidence is that he did his MAC student teaching at Wayne Memorial HS with Scott Simons, who is a teacher that I've been observing this fall as well. It's a small world as they say!
During my visit I observed in David's classroom for the morning(he taught Geometry, Algebra, Physical Science and Physics). The school day on Fridays at Kensington is only a half day for students, so each class period is 40 min long. In David's room I saw him using CPS (Classroom Performance System)to review (and grade) math homework. CPS is a Jeopardy-type game with individual clickers that students use to "ring in" on multiple choice questions. He used this system to review about 8 out of 40 math homework questions; students would ring in their answers and if there were incorrect answers chosen, he would explain the correct answer as well as the reason the other answers were wrong. Some students seemed to enjoy this method of homework review. Some students that had not even completed the homework were answering by clicker and getting most answers correct. David told me that he uses the student's scores along with the physical homework page turned in to grade the homework, and that this speeds up his ability to grade homework.
During David's Physical Science class, he was covering science and religion. He used a downloaded audio clip from a Creationism website for the students to listen to so that they could interpret whether Creationism overlaps with science. David was excited about this lesson and was hoping to really engage the students with the audio clip. From my perspective, the audio clip was long-winded and complicated; it seemed to me that the students were zoning out during the audio. The graphic organizer that David had provided for the project remained mostly empty for the students. I guess to me this shows that a well planned lesson may not really engage your students. It's a tough thing to be a teacher!
I very briefly visited a second math classroom at Kensington, which has a brand new SmartBoard and TI-84 calculators that hook into the SmartBoard and the teacher's calculator. I hope to visit this second classroom along with David's room during my upcoming visits to learn more about these fancy new-fangled contraptions!
During my upcoming internship visits, I would like to get an "inventory" of technology tools available to teachers, and ask students which of these really help their learning - in particular with the SmartBoard. I would like to find out from David and other teachers which tools are most effective for their teaching practice and which require perhaps more work than the results payoff. I also think it will be fascinating to contrast the technology uses in this charter school vs. the public school system in Wayne-Westland.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Fall begins...Ready, Set, RUN!
Hello SMACers & Other Friends!
The fall term at U of M has begun, and although this campus is not nearly as lovely as that other campus in East Lansing... It is quite lovely, and it's excellent to be in a atmosphere of "collegiate" vs. "corporate"! Too bad about the U of M football record though.
I must say that this program is a LOT of work! The fall so far is much more intense than the summer. The learning is great - all those buzz words... relevant, scaffolded, engaging, literate, comprehensive, etc. I especially like the Science Methods class on Monday nights (and not just for the pizza) - we have already discussed behavior control plans, positive environments, and we got to interrupt our classmates trying to teach a class!
The big thing about FALL is being in my placement at Wayne Memorial HS. I'm with Tom Morgan in several Chemistry classes, he also teaches Anatomy. I also sit in on a 9th grade class with Scott Simons. I have had a couple of brushes with "technology" in the classroom; CPS and Remark testing software.
The CPS (stands for Classroom Performance System) is a Jeopardy-like game where multiple choice questions are input into the software and students can "buzz in" with individual clickers to choose the answer. I have seen similar entertainment systems in Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. Mr. Morgan used this system as a fun way of reviewing test items before his 1st Anatomy test. Other than the buzzer batteries being low, the technology worked well and was engaging to the students. If I were running the game, I would have put slightly more structure in place, for example having students read the questions aloud or choosing an "Alex Trebcek" from the students to run the show. It was a fun alternative way of reviewing info before a text - it especially fit well with Anatomy based (terminology) info.
The Remark testing software is an alternate to Scantron testing sheets. You make up your own testing template using "bubble" font and use the software to correct tests. The software is able to correct tests very quickly and then spit out test analysis data (by question / student, etc) which could be useful for teachers to understand how the students performed on the test. I worked with Alexandria S-M on this project - her mentor and mine were testing on the same unit. Unfortunately, the teachers in our area were "self-trained" on how to use the software (and my mentor is a bit technology-adverse),so far, we have not been able to correct the test yet (almost 4 days later...). We are hopeful that we figured it out today and will be using it for future testing in the classes. It will be interesting to see which cuts of the data are useful to us in our teaching as we move forward.
On a semi-technology note, despite my concern that PBS videos may not be the best use of Grad tuition $, I did enjoy the 'School" series shown in Potter's class. I was really moved by the video and disturbed some of the images. It is amazing to me how recent the racial struggles in our country are: I don't think that the high school students today really understand how recently in our history these events took place. I think the generation of women in our MAC cohort (not me & Tammy - you younger ones) are so amazing and really reflect the gains made by Title 9. I was also stunned to learn the when I was graduating from high school (1984), Alexandria was just born... and on that note, I will be adding my 1984 prom photo to these blog photos soon! HA!
More later...
****Liz had her baby! Megan Elizabeth is lovely and this must be the quickest email birth announcement ever!!!!*****
The fall term at U of M has begun, and although this campus is not nearly as lovely as that other campus in East Lansing... It is quite lovely, and it's excellent to be in a atmosphere of "collegiate" vs. "corporate"! Too bad about the U of M football record though.
I must say that this program is a LOT of work! The fall so far is much more intense than the summer. The learning is great - all those buzz words... relevant, scaffolded, engaging, literate, comprehensive, etc. I especially like the Science Methods class on Monday nights (and not just for the pizza) - we have already discussed behavior control plans, positive environments, and we got to interrupt our classmates trying to teach a class!
The big thing about FALL is being in my placement at Wayne Memorial HS. I'm with Tom Morgan in several Chemistry classes, he also teaches Anatomy. I also sit in on a 9th grade class with Scott Simons. I have had a couple of brushes with "technology" in the classroom; CPS and Remark testing software.
The CPS (stands for Classroom Performance System) is a Jeopardy-like game where multiple choice questions are input into the software and students can "buzz in" with individual clickers to choose the answer. I have seen similar entertainment systems in Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. Mr. Morgan used this system as a fun way of reviewing test items before his 1st Anatomy test. Other than the buzzer batteries being low, the technology worked well and was engaging to the students. If I were running the game, I would have put slightly more structure in place, for example having students read the questions aloud or choosing an "Alex Trebcek" from the students to run the show. It was a fun alternative way of reviewing info before a text - it especially fit well with Anatomy based (terminology) info.
The Remark testing software is an alternate to Scantron testing sheets. You make up your own testing template using "bubble" font and use the software to correct tests. The software is able to correct tests very quickly and then spit out test analysis data (by question / student, etc) which could be useful for teachers to understand how the students performed on the test. I worked with Alexandria S-M on this project - her mentor and mine were testing on the same unit. Unfortunately, the teachers in our area were "self-trained" on how to use the software (and my mentor is a bit technology-adverse),so far, we have not been able to correct the test yet (almost 4 days later...). We are hopeful that we figured it out today and will be using it for future testing in the classes. It will be interesting to see which cuts of the data are useful to us in our teaching as we move forward.
On a semi-technology note, despite my concern that PBS videos may not be the best use of Grad tuition $, I did enjoy the 'School" series shown in Potter's class. I was really moved by the video and disturbed some of the images. It is amazing to me how recent the racial struggles in our country are: I don't think that the high school students today really understand how recently in our history these events took place. I think the generation of women in our MAC cohort (not me & Tammy - you younger ones) are so amazing and really reflect the gains made by Title 9. I was also stunned to learn the when I was graduating from high school (1984), Alexandria was just born... and on that note, I will be adding my 1984 prom photo to these blog photos soon! HA!
More later...
****Liz had her baby! Megan Elizabeth is lovely and this must be the quickest email birth announcement ever!!!!*****
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Fall Begins!
Well, here I am in my student teaching classroom! I will be working with Mr. Morgan at Wayne Memorial High School teaching Chemistry. So far, there is little "technology" being used in this classroom - we are sticking to tried and true overhead projector, chalkboard and the teacher does have a computer (mostly being used outside of classtime for attendance, email, etc.). I will also be observing in a 9th grade Science class with Mr. Simon. In this class, they did go to the library today so that students could se the internet to find science related articles. Every week, the 9th graders in his class will be turning in a SAR (Science Article Review) from some media source - in the future they will be doing this on their own time (not in class). I am counting this as my #1 observation of "Technology in Education". Hopefully more will be following!
I must say that this SMAC one-to-one laptop is the greatest! I am already an Apple fan (although not too skillful) and love my new camera (see photo of my classroom here)! I hope to use these little "gifts" for recording my records of practice.
We have also been using them well to develop our 504 Social Networking presentation (which will be awesome by the way!). One of the more interesting sources of information is the Nation School Board Assn. report on Internet use by students. It will be very interesting to see where the "offical" debate and guidelines (or legislation?) for internet use and Social Networking move during my upcoming teaching career.
I must say that this SMAC one-to-one laptop is the greatest! I am already an Apple fan (although not too skillful) and love my new camera (see photo of my classroom here)! I hope to use these little "gifts" for recording my records of practice.
We have also been using them well to develop our 504 Social Networking presentation (which will be awesome by the way!). One of the more interesting sources of information is the Nation School Board Assn. report on Internet use by students. It will be very interesting to see where the "offical" debate and guidelines (or legislation?) for internet use and Social Networking move during my upcoming teaching career.
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