Final Days in the Semester

Looking back on this semester I am surprised at how many new tools I have explored and used.  It has been a little frustrating sometimes not having access to the internet at home, but I still got through it.  I think the best part for me was being able to go to work and share some of these tools with my students.  Many of my seniors have no idea about how much educational resources are available online and to me this was great helping them to even just see some of these tools before they get to college.

I actually just used a weebly website with my seniors about digital etiquette which was a lot of fun, even though not part of my math curriculm. The site is pretty basic and just goes through what digital etiquette is and some scenarios.  Feel free to use it if you want!!  The kids really got involved with discussion and then I gave out post-its and we put them on the board in categories for proper and inproper digital etiquette.  I probably would never have been able to do this before this course.  Best of all was when I asked my students how many of them have created a website and noone raised their hand; so I told them this was one of mine and maybe we can try it as a class at the end of the year and they were so impressed that I could make one.  So I'm happy I know how to now!

I also checked out popplet and created a review mini lesson for my freshman.  Check it out below.

I am thinking of possibly using this as a class tool for students to manipulate on the SMARTboard together, but haven't tried it yet.  Overall I think that I have learned lots, but still have lots more exploring to do once I get internet at my house.  I can see trying to truly incorporate technology into classes at least once a week and hopefully have more students working with the technology as well.

Hope you learned alot from this course as well and if you come across any new tools let me know!

Voki

I played around with Voki and really like that I do not need to record myself and match up any recordings.  I can easily type what I want and choose a voice to add to the character.  I can definitely see using these in class, even for the students to create their own avatar and explain a topic.  My voki is below.

Digital Story Final

My overall experience creating this digital story was not bad.  I had a little bit of trouble with the transitions from my audio to the music and there is still some short pauses.  I think this is something I am going to try to do more often and feel my students would love to do as well. 

If you didn't see my first draft, I tried to show my students where math is all around them.  This would be something I might show in the beginning or end of the year for my students just so they realize that even if they are not going into a math field, they are surrounded by math everyday.

Here is the final version.  Let me know what you think.