Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Let's go!

I am your Self-Appointed blog leader. Not really, but I wanted to have a spot that is slightly more focused than the global learner blog for the high school math technology gurus. I want to have a spot to shout-out any cool resources and links, what works and forseeable problems, when good stuff is added (by you or me) to google docs, etc.

For example,
Tom D. set up a common account for IntelTools. See him for log-in and passwords. There are three interesting and interactive tools that range from a simple "put things in order and rationalize your reasons for ordering" and more complicated tools that I probably can't describe well.

So please check here regularly and add often to start a really powerful collaboration site.

6 comments:

TDeaguero said...

This blog is a good idea. I am going to need help keeping all of the "stuff" we are learning organized. I appreciate the advice Dave gave us on the first day, "Don't try to do it all at once,..., choose one or two strategies to focus on at first then build more after you get comfortable with those..."
First I plan to finish building my website, so that I can interact with my students and post important information for them. Hopefully it will become a place for my students to share their work with others. Next I plan to become an expert on SmartBoard strategies. I believe the SmartBoard, along with Geometers Sketchpad, can be one of the most powerful tools for a math teacher to have. By the end of the year I hope for my students to be able to create a multimedia research project and share it on my website.
Anybody else care to share their priorities?

Joseph Miller said...

Regina,

I applaud the initiative. The list of resources is impressive...I am glad I have this blog in my roll.

Joe

Protsman said...

So I'm still waiting on an invitation to be an author to this blog...meanwhile how do keep the ourselves and other teachers updated on the unit exams that have been developed, tweeked, and redeveloped over the last few years?

Stewart said...

I don't know if my invitations went through to be an author. Protsman, I'll try you again and let me know if it works. Which unit exams do you mean? I have been working for the past week on the common assessments with Stephanie and I'm not sure if she will be making them public on starnet or another website or if they will go to the department as hardcopies. Currently we are using the McGraw-Hill test generating software (licensed from '94-04) so the older program has its challenges. I have started a push to use the latest exam viewer through CPS to use these tests that we have created with clickers. We will probably have one or two pilot teachers testing this way this year while the rest use the scantron sheets that were part of the original plan and work directly with the McGraw-Hill program. The catch will be to see if the exam viewer in CPS will allow us to report the scores by standards. I know CPS questions can be linked to standards but I'm not sure how the exam viewer communicates with the CPS and generates reports.
It also may be worthwile to have a separate drive on the server that the math teachers have access to where we can store worksheets (like from the discovering software), clicker programs, and other documents that don't fit well into google docs. That way, we can still all access them.

Mr. Tomas said...

Got the invitation, great Idea Regina, I hope everyone is enjoying summer!

Jennifer Skrobela said...

Regina, thanks for keeping us all organized. I will be asking all of you for help with technology and math throughout the year.

I would like to comment on the common assessments and one of our main goals this year. We will be spending the majority of our PD time becoming true Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), as such, every department will be expected to give the unit/common assessments within a small window of time. We will be reviewing all assessment data and examples of student work in our PLCs on a regular basis. In addition, teachers will be discussing curriculum, the goal is that everyone is clear on what students should be learning. I know these discussions may make some of us uncomfortable at first, however working together and learning from one another will help increase student learning.
Just my two cents!