MathFaery: Making Math Magical

Writing Clicker Questions with the Quadratic Choir

2010-05-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

I am using clickers in my Prealgebra classroom this semester, but have not found a great collection of existing concept questions to use with those clickers. Writing these questions is not a real strong suit of mine, so it's been a bit of a struggle to find/create good questions. This is where the Quadratic Choir, my PLN (Personal Learning Network), comes into play. There are three of us in the Quadratic Choir and we love to work on projects together.

Our name came about because we teach the quadratic formula sung to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel." The three of us have gotten together over the summer for the last couple of years to work on prep for the upcoming semester. We don't always end up working on the same projects, but being with each other allows us to bounce ideas off one another as they come up. I know that I am a more effective teacher because of the Quadratic Choir. We support each other, help each other with ideas, tell each other when we need to say no to a project thrown our way, and just have fun together.

Over spring break, two of us met for a day and a half and were able to build a set of concept questions to use in our Prealgebra classes. It is so much more productive, fun, easy to work with someone else on projects like this. We created the list with a Google Document so that we could both be working on the document at the same time, which helped to streamline the typing. We use Microsoft OneNote 2007 on a Tablet PC to teach our classes, and the 2007 version does not support mathematical expressions (unless they are images). Because of this we did not use an equation editor to write our questions, instead we just used old school equation making with text alone. It worked out reasonably well and now I can just cut and paste the questions I want into my OneNote notebook to use in the classroom.

This summer we plan on writing more clicker questions for Elementary and Intermediate Algebra, bringing in the third member of the Choir. Using Google Docs should be even more useful with the new feature allowing real time co-editing of documents!

Would you like to see our Prealgebra questions or even add to the list? We would love that! The questions are matched up to the sections in Elayn Martin-Gay's Prealgebra 5th and 6th editions and many of the questions came from or were inspired by the text's Concept Questions.

GALE: The Guild for Active Learning and Engagement in Science, Tecnology, Engineering, and Mathematics

2010-03-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

If you want to see a change in the way we teach STEM courses, follow the link and pledge your support for GALE, The Guild for Active Learning and Engagement in STEM. http://bit.ly/GALESTEM

We are STEM education professionals who want to learn about and promote active learning and engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math education. We think that each discipline in STEM can share what we learn with each other, and that we should do more of this.

If GALE reaches 1000 Facebook fans, we will organize as a nonprofit, build a website and social media presence, and elect an advisory board.

The graph below should track changes to the number of Facebook fans as I check in with the group on a day-by-day basis. Check back to watch us grow!

Connections, Concepts, and Clickers

2010-03-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Here goes. Today I give my first presentation at a math conference, CMC³-South. I'm excited and a little nervous, but the run-through I did last night seemed to go well. Here are the slides I will be using.

Connections, Concepts, and Clickers

See more presentations by mathfaery | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Cautious Optimism

2009-09-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a long, long while, I have a group of students in an Elementary Algebra course that are really doing well. Our department changed the cut scores on our assessment test starting this semester, and students seem to be getting placed a little bit more accurately.

Two things made this something to notice. On the first exam, over 25% of the class earned an A! This just never happens, even though the material on the first exam is supposed to be review. Then in class yesterday, we were on one of those class days that historically is really a time crunch. The warmup is one that students tend to struggle over (word problems) and then the topics are not difficult, but jam-packed with ideas. For the first time ever, students finished the warmup within the 20 minutes I was hoping for, I was able to give a break, and we finished 5 minutes early. What the heck?!?!?

I'm hoping that this is truly a sign that I have a group of students who are actually prepared. Hopefully it is not just that I had them so lost that they just didn't say anything in class.

I really am optimistic that things are going well in this class this semester...

Dual Monitor Heaven

2009-09-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Image by OwenBlacker via Flickr

So I have joined the world of people with 2 monitors. I don't think I can ever go back to just 1! I am one of those multitaskers who has so many windows open in the task bar that I drive some people crazy. Of course, I never asked them to look over my shoulder, so oh well. :)

Today, I bought myself an external monitor to attach to my laptop when working at my desk at home. I am in LOVE! I have so much more space to keep track of the things I am working on. If only I'd waited to grade some of the assignments for my hybrid class till now, except that would mean I would have to grade now. Well, it would have made the grading go so much quicker and easier. Instead of switching back and forth from one window to another, I could just look to the side at my new monitor and then back to the laptop screen. This is gonna be cool!

I am also looking into a small USB touchscreen monitor to use in the classroom. My plan is to mirror what I see on the laptop screen to the projector, but extend the desktop to the small screen. There have been quite a few times just over the last two weeks that I wished I had another computer right at my fingertips to allow me to do something that the students couldn't see on the screen. I'm hoping that this setup would allow me to do just that, and not have to change what the students are seeing on the screen. I think I want the touchscreen model so I would not have to have a mouse to navigate on the other screen, but I'm still debating with that idea in my head.

Stay tuned for an update on whether or not that works the way I am hoping.

How I Setup My Toolbars in OneNote

2009-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Whenever I work on a new computer, there are a few things I like to customize in the OneNote Toolbars to make it easier to work in the program. Check out the video to see what customizations I like to make.

If you are viewing this in an RSS reader, you may need to click through to view the videos.

I like to change the 4 thin pens at the top of My Pens Toolbar to be 4 more thick pens in different colors, and I like to change the color of some of the highlighter pens. Watch the next video to see how.

Are there any other things you like to add to or customize on the toolbars? Share in the comments.

My Favorite OneNote Wonders

2009-08-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

I first found Microsoft OneNote on the first laptop I bought, just about 10 years ago. I used it a bit then, but truly fell in love with the program when I started using it with my Tablet PC. One of my most favorite things about OneNote is that it autosaves while you are working. This has been a lifesaving feature in the classroom. At least 3 times last semester, I accidentally hit the power button on my tablet, and restarted the computer in the middle of teaching a class. Now I did have to stall a bit while waiting for the computer to restart, but when I opened OneNote back up, I had only lost maybe the last 60 seconds of my work. Now that is cool!

I also love that I can copy information from anywhere and store it in OneNote. When you copy and paste into OneNote, you will also get a link showing where that information was copied from. This is great if you are researching and collecting ideas from the web, but forgot where you found that awesome thought in your surfing. I like to be able to go back to a website and see if they have any other ideas I might like. It can also be great when you need to cite your references. The paste function puts it right there with the stuff you copied.

You also have an option to print documents to OneNote. This is how I get my "handouts" into OneNote before presenting a lesson in class. I then write all over that document in OneNote just like my students are writing on their copies.

OneNote functions like a 3-ring-binder, but you don't have to have paper or worry about hole punching. This image shows the logic in how OneNote is setup:

I store EVERYTHING in OneNote. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I do have loads of information in my OneNote notebooks.

For school, I have a separate notebook for each class section.
I transfer past semesters from their notebook into my Past Semesters notebook, so I can always look back a what was done in class.
I put receipts in another notebook. Remember, you can print to OneNote? Anytime I make an online purchase, I print the receipt to this notebook. I have a copy that can be printed out on paper if needed, and if not I haven't wasted any paper.
I have another notebook where I take notes in various meeting at school (department, division, committee, etc...)
There is another notebook for conferences. I take my tablet with me to conferences now and take my notes on the tablet in OneNote.

With so much information in my notebooks, sometimes I forget where I put something. No need to fear, there is a wonderful search function. Search for a word and it will look in every notebook, not just in the typed text! It can search for text in images, in your inked work, in audio files that you have recorded in OneNote, basically everywhere!

OneNote notebooks can be shared on multiple computers. The way I use this mostly is that I store my notebooks on a USB flash drive. Once I have opened a notebook from the thumb drive, OneNote creates a backup copy on that computer. Any changes made will be synced back to the original the next time I plug in my USB flash drive. I make sure to do this after I leave school and then when I want to work on my personal Tablet PC, I plug in the USB flash drive. The school changes are then synced to my personal copy at home. Any changes I make here are synced to the drive and back at school once I plug it in there. There are ways to do this online as well, though I haven't tried them out yet.

There is a built in screen-clipping function that comes with OneNote. Just press the Windows key and S and it activates it. Clip what you want and use it, not only in OneNote, but anywhere you can paste an image. I've made some nice training materials using this feature as well as used it to answer student questions. Anything you can view on the computer screen can be clipped and pasted to use elsewhere.

Do you have any other favorite OneNote wonders? Share them in the commments, please!

What I Learned About Learning

2009-08-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

I spent last week with some really amazing math teachers in Muskegon, Michigan for the 2009 MCC Math and Technology Workshop. During some of the sessions, I found myself reflecting on how I learn, being aware of what works for me and what doesn't. For 8+ hours on each of 5 days, I was in the student role. I think all teachers need to be reminded of what it is like to be a student if they really want their students to have the best experience possible in class. Here are some of my thoughts from that week:

If you just talk at me and don't answer my questions, I will ignore you and do something else, which may or may not be related to what you are trying to teach.
I learn from doing, even if it means copying what you just did. If I never get a chance to try what you are teaching, I will not retain it. I will not see the possibilities, and I will problably not care to figure them out.
Webinars can be interesting, but if I don't have a microphone or I am not required to communicate with the instructor/presenter, I will tend to float to the background and get easily distracted. Hold me accountable for speaking and participating, and I'll be forced to pay attention (this can be good or bad).
I learned that I knew a lot more than I had previously given myself credit for. Since I was more advanced than many participants, it was fun to be helping them when I was finished with my work (that's the teacher in me). When I was sitting next to someone who didn't need help, I again found it too easy to float to the background and get distracted.
I read the article "Teaching that Sticks," by the authors of "Made to Stick." I was struck by their idea of the Curse of Knowledge.
"Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create the state of mind of our listeners."
Administrators who no longer teach, forget what it's like to teach. Just as teachers who haven't been students in a long time, forget what it's like to be students.

Why don't we put ourselves back into the shoes we stepped out of on a more regular basis? I am so grateful for the chance to experience, once again, the role of student for a whole week. I know I will be a better teacher having been reminded of life on the other side of the desks.

OneNote Wonders

2009-08-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

At the MCC Math and Technology Workshop this afternoon, I helped to introduce Wacom tablet and PC tablet users to Microsoft OneNote 2007. There was so much information to share that I just couldn't overwhelm everyone with everything. This made up my mind that I need to blog about my experiences using OneNote in my teaching. Keep an eye out for this series to start over the next few days. But now, I really need to get to sleep so I'll be rested for Day 3 of the workshop tomorrow.

:)

Links to Explore (6/16/09)

2009-06-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

LectureTools Could be interesting for students to use their own computer to interact in class. Need to see just how this works to decide if it is worth trying. Looks like you might be able to use as a free LMS?

LectureTools is designed to provide a class experience by:

1. Enabling note-taking synchronized to lecture slides,
2. Providing opportunities to pose questions electronically during lecture,
3. Including a complete personal responder system to participate actively in class activities and
4. Tools for self-assessment of confidence of understanding

Dimdim Free - Dimdim: Web conferencing that just works. I had used Zoho Meetings for this once before, but they now have limited you to just one other person in the meeting. Still useful for computer troubleshooting. This might be more usable for some training sessions for my department.

Dimdim Free. The world’s easiest web conference. With Dimdim Free, people and organizations around the world can now meet freely. And since everyone will spend less time traveling and more time collaborating, this free product can actually help you make money. Take that, economy! Now the world can meet freely with up to 20 people, absolutely free.

OurStory.com - Capture your stories, save them permanently. Not really related to my classrooms (at least not right now), but something I might use for my own personal story. I had started a timeline of my life with another program, that has since disappeared from the net...maybe I'll get one done and archived here?

Make your timeline about anything
Collaborate with family and friends
Share it with whomever you want
Add your timeline to MySpace or your blog

Links to Explore (6/12/09)

2009-06-12T13:56:00.001-07:00

Excel4Math Could provide some interesting links to insert into my hybrid Elementary Algebra course, or even the face-to-face versions. Might even be usable as activities in the classroom.

This site will show you how to unleash the graphing capability of Excel to serve the needs of math students and math educators. . When accompanied by the templates for Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Finances, Calculus, Statistics and Probability, Number Theory and Linear Algebra, Excel is a powerful ally in the effort to teach and learn mathematics.

Graphing Java Applets What a quick way to get nice graphs ready to be placed in a Word document! Seems very easy to use. Also could be good for students to use for projects, homework, asking questions in an online format.

My name is Ian Vogt and I wrote these elementary graphing programs, as Java applets, for my mathematics (MTH/208 and MTH/209) students at the University of Phoenix Online. You are welcome to give them a try and, if you like them, use them for your math assignments or any other non-commercial purposes.

There are three tools: a number line grapher, a grapher for linear equations and inequalities, and a tool for creating graphs of absolute value, quadratic (parabolas), and square root functions. Click here to see examples of the graphs you can create with each tool.

Do you know these Double-click Tricks in Excel? | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Charting & Excel Tips - Chandoo.org Wow! Cool tips that I just KNOW I will be using with my Excel gradebooks.

as part of this installment of spreadcheats we will learn 7 very cool and effective double click tricks in excel.

Links to Explore (6/9/09)

2009-06-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin's Blog recently asked the question, "Why am I here?" It is targeted to people attending meetings and conferences, but could so easily apply to students. I love the end of his post:
If there isn't a good reason, go home. If there is, then do something. Loud, now and memorable. Productive too, please.
"Microsoft SharedView is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate - create, convey, and communicate…across physical boundaries, through firewalls, and down to the smallest details."
Looks like you can share with up to 15 people. And it's free!
Kate at f(t) found a way to make students more likely to actually plot points before they graph a function. It relates to a urinal in the men's bathroom in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. There is a housefly painted on the porcelain, which improves aim and decreases the mess in the bathroom. How does this relate to graphing? Your aim is better if you have something to shoot for. So your graphs will look better if there are some points along the way acting as targets!

W|A Examples/Implications...

2009-06-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Maria at Teaching College Math just posted some examples of using W|A that are interesting and could be of concern. W|A gives you all sorts of information related to the search you enter. This can be great, but could also cause some issues with academic dishonesty, depending on how that information is used.

W|A could be a great place for students to get graphs that they could then post on a Discussion Board, or even to print out as part of an assignment ,not one that is focused on the student creating the graph, but one that is doing a more in-depth analysis of the graph. It is definitely a site that we, as instructors, need to be aware of. I will be interested to see how other instructors decide to use W|A in the classroom. If we are directing the use of the site, students will (hopefully) be using the resource honestly as a supplement in the learning process.

Wolfram|Alpha (Walpha) Wiki

2009-05-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Walpha Wiki
This wiki will be tracking how Walpha might be used by students and as a tool in outside the classroom. As stated in the wiki:

A few of us interested in exploring the implications of Walpha on secondary and undergraduate mathematics education thought it might be useful to have a wiki where math educators could contribute documentation regarding Walpha's use in such teaching contexts. In particular, we're interested in documenting how Walpha can handle or help with handling common problems asked of students in these courses, as well as how Walpha might be used as an instructional tool when teaching students about related content.

It will be interesting to watch this wiki as it changes.

Tablet PC Tips

2009-05-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Endless Scholar (formerly the Student Tablet PC) provides 250 tips for Tablet PCs. I've read the article before (when I first got my tablet) and now need to go back and see if there are any other tips I could use.

Free Technology for Teachers: 8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free

2009-05-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

Free Technology for Teachers: 8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free
I'd like to make the OneNote notebooks I use to present in class available online. Our campus is moving away from a traditional website to one that is easier for them to control, but much less customizable, so I'm hoping to find a free way to do this. This blog post could direct me in that way, hopefully.

Update:

Yola: no bandwidth limits, files up to 15 MB supported, must use their software to create site.
SnapPages: 1GB storage, seems as though you must use their software again.
Hipero: could work for me. Have to create an account to find out if it will let me upload the right kind of files.

Overall, from what I have seen in this article and my own searching, most free websites are geared toward users who don't want to work with code and just want to easily create a site. Bummer.

Links Found Tonight

2009-05-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Wolfram Alpha with Google Firefox Add-in
Display Wolfram Alpha results in Google searches. No need to switch search engines when you can use both at once!
Parade of Games in Powerpoint
I've seen this site before, but not when I was working from a computer with LCD projector every class meeting. Going to have to explore here a little more now to see what is usable in my classes.

Quizzes and Surveys and Polls, Oh My

2009-05-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple of hours or so looking for ways to take my paper and pencil surveys and quizzes that are given to my classes during the first week or two, and convert them into electronic formats. The surveys are a way to get to know my students. Having just had to pack up my school office, I realize just how much space papers can take up. Being able to do this electronically would be wonderful. Quizzes would also be great to have a way to give them easily, where students get their results immediately. I'll be using Blackboard for my Math 120 class and giving reading quizzes there. I can set them to only be available for a certain length of time, so students have to meet deadlines. Downside? Entering questions in Bb can be annoying. Upsides? Students get immediate feedback on their answers, have a place to go back and review their quizzes (for the 2 or so students who will do this), once the quizzes are created, I don't have to do much to maintain them (I'm nearly halfway done entering them already).

Here are some interesting things I've found along the way:

ZohoChallenge
You can login with your Google account (at least that's how I got in). It allows you to create quizzes that are graded automatically. Downside, it looks like you can only have 25 "candidates" to keep records on.
proProfs
Free embeddable quizzes. Not sure how the data is collected for the instructor; will have to check it out later.
Self-grading Google quizzes
Cool way to grade multiple choice quizzes using Google forms. No immediate feedback to students, and not able to be used by students to study from, at least not easily. But, easy to grade once the assignment due date has passed.

So, my summer work begins. I think I'll be using this blog as a way to document what I am doing this summer. It will then hold a history of the interesting (and not so interesting) places I've found on the web.