Assessing Meaningful Learning

This week topic is about assessing meaningful learning. The resources that I learned about this week was a resource called the quizzer tool. This tools allow teacher to create a power point over the topic area that they are going over. This can be used as a review assessment and also a way for the student to interact with in the classroom. The way that this works is that a student is able to use their phone, tablet while in the classroom. The teacher may display a question in the board and it’s up to the teacher on how they would like for them to answer it. Once the question is pop up. This allows student to send a simple text with their answer to the designated number. Then teacher can see the results from what the students answered. The other tool that we discussed was the Inspiration/Kidspiration Software. This software allow for students to brainstorm their ideas in whatever way works for them. It also allows them to organize it once they put all their ideas into a form where the can present this.

Saying this I think that both tools are great tools to use. Though I do not think that I would be using the Inspiration/Kidspariation Software at all because I can see this being use more in a English classroom. When the student struggle to come up with a creative way to start or gather all their ideas to write an essay. Saying that I am sure there are way a teacher can incorporate this into a math class if one tries. The Quizzer tool I really like! I can already think of ways I could incorporate this into a math classroom. I could use this a warm-up or a closure to see if the student understand the topic. It will also allow students to have hands-on with activities with technology. 

Technology Application Standards

§111.39. Algebra I, Adopted 2012 (One Credit).

(a)  General requirements. Students shall be awarded one credit for successful completion of this course. This course is recommended for students in Grade 8 or 9. Prerequisite: Mathematics, Grade 8 or its equivalent.

(b)  Introduction.

(1)  The desire to achieve educational excellence is the driving force behind the Texas essential  knowledge and skills for mathematics, guided by the college and career readiness standards. By embedding statistics, probability, and finance, while focusing on fluency and solid understanding, Texas will lead the way in mathematics education and prepare all Texas students for the challenges they will face in the 21st century.

(2)  The process standards describe ways in which students are expected to engage in the content. The placement of the process standards at the beginning of the knowledge and skills listed for each grade and course is intentional. The process standards weave the other knowledge and skills together so that students may be successful problem solvers and use mathematics efficiently and effectively in daily life. The process standards are integrated at every grade level and course. When possible, students will apply mathematics to problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. Students will use a problem-solving model that incorporates analyzing given information, formulating a plan or strategy, determining a solution, justifying the solution, and evaluating the problem-solving process and the reasonableness of the solution. Students will select appropriate tools such as real objects, manipulatives, paper and pencil, and technology and techniques such as mental math, estimation, and number sense to solve problems. Students will effectively communicate mathematical ideas, reasoning, and their implications using multiple representations such as symbols, diagrams, graphs, and language. Students will use mathematical relationships to generate solutions and make connections and predictions. Students will analyze mathematical relationships to connect and communicate mathematical ideas. Students will display, explain, or justify mathematical ideas and arguments using precise mathematical language in written or oral communication.

(3)  In Algebra I, students will build on the knowledge and skills for mathematics in Grades 6-8, which provide a foundation in linear relationships, number and operations, and proportionality. Students will study linear, quadratic, and exponential functions and their related transformations, equations, and associated solutions. Students will connect functions and their associated solutions in both mathematical and real-world situations. Students will use technology to collect and explore data and analyze statistical relationships. In addition, students will study polynomials of degree one and two, radical expressions, sequences, and laws of exponents. Students will generate and solve linear systems with two equations and two variables and will create new functions through transformations.

(4)  Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.


Though I am not sure exactly yet what area in math I would like to teach I went to look at the TEKS and decided to look at the algebra for the purpose of this week assignment.  After reading the introduction of the TEKS in which gives a brief summary any teacher in Texas is expected to teach student at the appropriate grade level. It helped me understand what exactly the objective I would intend the student to get by the last day that they are in my classroom. Reading this TEKS, can be very useful for teacher especially new teacher to help give a guideline to what is expected to teach. Saying that I plan to use the TEKS for the subject finally decide to teach as guideline, to create a lesson plan for the students. It will help me make sure that i am not having a lesson in which the student will not learn anything from it.

Therefore the TEKS, I would say are very important for a teacher to look at because its a guideline. Reading the TEKS, I thought that most were self explanatory, looking though i was thinking in the perspective of when I was in school and took that subject. Had to go back and read it again but this time through a perspective of a future teacher. As i read this I thought to my self out of all of this which one do I think will be important that i would like my future student to get. Even if the only thing that they get through out the semester or the year. The one that stood out the most to me was the part where it says that student will connect math problem to the real world to draw out solution. I think that this is important because if they can make the connection to the real world then it will be easier for them to understand the subject. It will also make it easier to learn and understand that they are not just memorizing random number for no reason.

Visualizing with Technology

We are currently in week 10 of the this semester and I can't believe that we are almost done with this semester. Like i have briefly mention in some of my post/blogs before, taking this class had help me increase my knowledge and understanding of technology then what i had before. This week topic as you can see by the title of the blog is Visualizing with Technology. I feel that this is an important thing to use when teaching, because it help those student who are more visual learner to see how thing work. I feel that using technology as a visual aid can be very helpful especially in math. As a math major, I don't think i would have made it this far with out having a visual representation as to how to solve a simple algebra problem. It made a lot easier when the teacher would go up to the board or show us a video on how thing or an equation work and what it use for in the real world to understand it. It also made it easier for me to remember it for the test.

There are a lot of impact in the learning process using technology to help visualize. It not also helps those student who are visual learners understand what is going in the class but helps those students who are hands on learned see where they want to get to as they are working through. The impact of this is great because we have students learning by using the technology and seeing it how it would play out. For example, a teacher can teach a student how a function of a graph looks like algebraic (with variables) but it not until the teacher explain how to graph it will the student understand what the graph is doing and how it look like. A good tool most teacher use is a graphing calculator. Student can learn a lot from a function of a graph by plug it in and looking at what the graph is doing

Poscasting

This week discussion is about Podcasting. I learned that Podcasting is essentially and recorded lecture, this is essentially in a form of an audio version. In today world this is a very useful tool. This can go great with classes such as online classes, where the teacher/professor would record themselves giving a lecture so the student can log on an hear the discussion. Podcasting can be a useful tool in the classroom. Such in college when the professor know that they will not be in class due to a meeting or something. They can easily record themselves giving the lecture and making available online for the student in that class to be able to listen it. Podcasting can also be useful in the elementary level, where the teacher can record themselves reading a book to the student.  The student can log on read along with the teacher without having her be there physically. 

Podcasting and Web 2.0 application have some similarity and differences. One similarity of course is that it uses technology. Podcasting is different from Web 2.0 because its normally some type of audio. While Web 2.0 is more like many tools that one can use to interact with one another. In Web 2.0 you have the wiki, social bookmarking , voice threat and many other more tools. One can say that Web 2.0 is more likely aimed for group and allow more interaction. While Poadcasting is more or aiming toward a group as well but there is little interaction in it. For example, in podcasting one can record themselves give a lecture over a certain topic, the only interaction that there will be is that the listener is just listening to the person who recorded the podcast. While in Web 2.0 one can write their ideas that they have and share it with one another and they can give some feedback by simply posting a comment or use a wiki, there are many tools that they can use to get feedback and interaction between one another. Those are some differences between Web 2.0 and Podcasting.

Though I don't like to admit it at time but i can say that i have listen to some podcasting in the past. It made it easier for me to stay connected and be caught up to what is going on. Although i do not have an iPod at the time to be able to listen to my favorite poscast that i use to listen I have recently found other ways to stay connected such as an app in my phone. thinking about buying myself an ipod thought to listen to music. I think using your ipod or MP3 in the classroom can be a good idea depending on the way one uses it. I remember when I was in high school our school would let us use our electronic devices such as ipod to listen to music and our phone in between classes. Our teacher would let us listen to music while we did our work. I think that this is a good ideas because student especially in todayy generation we tend to be more productive when there music around us. Though this may be a good idea i would draw the line. would not let student use there ipod when there a lesson going on. There are advantage and disadvantage when it comes to online communication. one disadvantage is that it if technology fails then so does the communtication. also communicating with oneather is not the same as talking to someone in person. so many problems can get started because of mis interpretation. An advantage of this that they are able to help out with those that are far away from each other such as military family. this is a good way for them to keep in touch with one another. 

Web 2.0 Tools

This week topic is over Web 2.0 Tools. Here I thought that I knew what Web 2.0 meant but it turn out to be completely different from what I thought. I learned many things from just watching the videos, and and reading some of the article that were provided for this week class. After doing so, my understanding of Web 2.0 is that can be use as a good tool with in the classroom. There are many applications that go in to Web 2.0 such as the wiki, social bookmarking, voice threat and many more. This tools can be using when sharing ideas with in a group, in other words this is a tool that would be useful when doing group work. This make it easy for groups that have a hard time meeting phicially on a day or place to put all their ideas together. In other words this is a new way of sharing an interacting with one another. 

Saying that I think that this tool can be useful in the classroom. It can be useful in the classroom because it allow student to interact with one another and it makes it easier for student to share their thoughts and look for information over a subject and allow them to share them with one another. Though I do have my doubt over this. This may be a good way to share with their friends and other, but what would stop student from looking or reading over information that may or may not be true. Also the wrong use of it such as cyberbulling. This places can be an easy target to do this. Though like i said in one of my blog post or comment to one of my classmate that we can help solve this by educating one another over this. Overall i think that this is a great tool espacially in the upper level classes such as college. A great example would be this class. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of us in the class with busy schedule that it would make it hard for all of us to be at one time. This online class allows us to interact with one antoher and share ideas in an easier way then ever before

Copyrights, Fair Use, Cyberbullying and Netiquette

Before reading or looking over this week topic about copyright, fair use, cyberbullying and netiquette. I had some prior knowledge about these topics. Though there always that saying that they say, "You learn something new every day!" While reading this I learned a lot from the copyright. Thanks to having some amazing teachers in high school I was taught that whenever using someone else work, such as quoting them, using there finding and so on, one has to give credit to the source that they found it. Also learned, that there are laws that protect from that to happening. So any time that I was required to do any type of research paper we were required to cite the source. Weather it was a small picture I found off Google. One thing that I learned from this was that when using a video that is copy righted or an audio version the maximum that is allow to play is for 30 seconds. This makes sense, now that I think about it. I now understand why in iTunes when one is deciding to buy a song or anything with audio the video are long. They are really short.

After reading this week’s topic, I felt that there a lot I didn't know about copyright. The only thing I feel about this is that there are a lot of rules and some of them may not be specific. I feel like there are many ways one can be using other people ideas without the intention in doing so. Another topic that I feel strongly about is Cyberbullying. Though I have never experience this type of bullying because I don't get on social media much (other than Facebook, event then I don't post much) and when I do I am aware of what can happen when you write or post something that could harm one reputation or even yourself. Also I have learned that it’s not good to post thing like this because it could hurt one in the future. Cyberbullying, has become a big issue in today society and I think that the best way to solve this at the moment is educating people such as kids about it. Because once, things are post it hard to erase it.

Mapping Information

Before the Mapping Information activity, the way I would conduct research would depend on the type of research I would be doing. Such as if it was for a scholarly purpose, like a research paper. I would use the library data base and look for the information that I would find useful from articles that were provided, or go to the library and look for book pertaining to the topic I will be writing about. There are time that I would use search engine such as Google, to get an idea to what I am looking at. Now if i were to be doing research on my own for fun, such as if were to want to know, if its worth buying a product. I would do my research of the product using search engine (like Google), and look at several links and read what they say. Before doing the activity I felt confident and knew most of the topics that was going to be covered about search engine and search techniques. A reason why, is because I already had this lesson back in high school. Where every year we were required by our English department to write one research paper for the year, some time we were to write 4. Which this included that our teacher had to go over how one can determine if the source that we are looking at is creditable or not. What techniques to use and such.  It was a pain at the time, but I am glad that we did that. Cause it made life much easier my freshman year of college when I had papers due almost every week.

After this activity, I don't think my habits will changing much after this activity. I know that there are a lot of website that brings in with false information, and i should be careful with that. As I mention above in the first paragraph, my habits when determining if a website is creditable is very wise, well when it come to doing scholarly paper. Though there is always room for improvement. In which i would consider changing my habit when doing research for fun. I have realized that i have learned that it would be a wise choice to do, because some of the reviews that i have read would be solely base on someone bias opinion. Learning from this activity i think will affect my teaching by considering if the source is creditable or not. Although i will not be dealing much with having student write a research paper like the English department will. It will be something to be kept in mind in case I want the student to do a research activity. I think it will affect students who are not willing to put in the time to do the research a lot.

In conclusion I found this activity kind of a review. Though I did learned some few things that i didn't know they excited. such as the what .mil , .ac , .sch stand for. I had never seen them before. Its good to know what it means for next time I do a research on something and look at the URL of the site. Although this activity didn't bring much for me to learn from, it will help me to keep in mind of it when working in this class. This activity makes me ponder now, if we will be doing something that will require some research. Like maybe a research paper or something like that? Also also make me wonder if future generation will have creditable sources, that they can use. I feel like something like that will happen soon, especially since now we are living in a generation where were are slowly walking away paper copy to electronic versions

Introduction

Hello my name is Maria Zaldivar. I am a junior at Texas A&M- University-Commerce.In Commerce i am very involved in many thing such as being part of a sorority, Kappa Delta Chi, the Hispanic Student Association, was part of the committee team for Relay for Life (not sure if i want to do it this year cause i have a lot going on), a member of the math club, and a student worker for the math department (a math tutor).  I plan on majoring in mathematics with a minor in education. With this I plan to teach 8-12th grade but mostly high school, not sure what subject in math I would like but for sure not geometry. Teaching has always been a dream of mine in which i got the experience back in high school to be able to teach several time a classroom in the elementary level.

While going through school I was very fortunate to go to a district that had the resources to be able to get new type of technology every almost every year. Sometimes my class got to be the test class to see how the new type of technology worked in the classroom with student our age. I have got to admit I learned many cool thing through it. I din't have much of a difficult learning to use and adjust the technology in the classroom. While teaching a classroom full of elementary student I was able to implement several use of technology in the classroom such as using the Smartboard for fun games, use the computer for a research activity, and many other technology that i really can't remember the names of. I plan to use technology in the classroom to help student learn a topic that would go right for the lesson that i plan to teach. I do not want to really heavily on technology though, because as of right now, in my calculus 3 class all we do is use a program mathematica. I got to admit its a nice program to have but, i do not feel that i am learning in the class, that i would feel ready to take the test. So balancing out the use of technology i feel its important.  

I think taking this class will be interesting and it will be a class that I would enjoy. Through the semester I hope to gain more knowledge of the resources that i am able to access and be able to use some of it or help me bring out other ideas to teach a subject. I do not want to become a boring teacher that student will fall asleep in the classroom or just assigned the busy work all day. Let face it nobody had fun in those classes. In other words what i want to say is that I would like for the student to the get out the most in mathematics, then from what they came in. As for one of my goals beside leaning new ways of teaching is of course succeed in the classroom, by that i will stay active and keep up with my assignments as they are given to me. I hope to learned many things in the class that i didn't know of. Like i am doing right now, I never knew how to create a blog before or ever knew how to get started in it. I might even use this even after this class is over.