Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Anita Archer’s

Anita Archer’s a sample of her using teaching skills.



Anita in front of children using good teach practices.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

What is RTI? it stands for Response to Intervention. I first read about RTI about a year ago and now you cann't pickup a trade magizine with out seeing an ad or article about RTI.

Here is a video that shows a school system that uses RTI.

Personal technology devices that create student learning in math

Creating Innovative Uses of Technology:

An Individual Project

http://sharpstfcmu.pbwiki.com/Project-II

Personal technology devices that create student learning in math

By Fred Sharpsteen

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Rationale: This research is on an innovative technology made by Nintendo. It is called the DS Lite. With this device, we are going to be discussing a program that is used with the DS Lite called the Personal Math Trainer. The Nintendo DS Lite is one of the devices that comes to mind when I think about a personal technology device. This device is often already owned by most students, who use it as an electronic entertainment device. We will look at how we can take this device and turn it into a personal learning tool. Also, we will be looking at an educational software tool called the Personal Math Trainer. This software is a 10 x 10 math exercise practice program. The 10 x 10 math exercise has been done with paper and pencil for many years in education. The innovation is that with this method of practice the students get 1.5 to 2.8 more practice exercises in the same amount of time. The Personal Math Trainer has 22 levels of difficulty as the students progress with their skills. This way the students are continually challenged as they achieve higher levels of mastery of the subject content. Also, after the students have performed their daily practices and study, they can then compete with 2 to 15 other students wireless. The way that is accomplished is the Nintendo DS Lites have wireless conductivity built into them. The students can work on mastery of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. As the levels of difficulty increase, the problems move from single digit to two digits and then three digits.

The study referred to in my research was conducted with 3,700 students. It also focused on some other factors that help student learning. One important factor was the amount of student sleep. The study found that students who received 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night had achievement gains as much as 20% over students receiving just more than or less sleep than this.

The original research was completed by Hideo Kageyama at Ritsumeikan University. This method of instruction showed that brain activity after using this method of math practice has dramatic changes in the brain pattern as indicated by monitoring the areas of electrical patterns in the learners’ brains. This study also shows the best gains with students that were close to 10 years old.

As you look through the two lesson plans, you will find them to be very simple exercises that promote cognitive retention with the use of practice exercises instead of pure rote memorization.

I am very impressed with the early results after I purchased a couple copies of the Personal Math Trainer and have been working with my ten-year old daughter. We have not had a chance to check her standardized test scores yet, but we have visually seen her math speed increase dramatically with the daily use of the device. Also, we have turned it into a family activity that has engaged her in further student learning. In addition, I have purchased four of these cartridges for a 3rd grade classroom in our school district to see how well the staff can implement them into the classroom, to see if there are any roadblocks we would need to overcome, and, if so, how to best deal with them. If this project is a success, we will look at ways to build in the purchase of more Nintendo DS Lites for starting out with next year’s 3rd and 4th grades. I could also see using these tools as a Response to Intervention (RTI) for the 20% of the students who may have missed a concept and are now behind. We need to find interventions to help them catch back up with their peer cohort group.

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Lesson One


Rationale: To have the students complete the daily reinforcement of basic math skills; to do the daily activities and compete against themselves, working towards achieving higher levels of math mastery from levels 1 to 22 in skills.



1. A brief description of the lesson plan: Daily practice activity performed by each student to reinforce student mastery of subject. Students will take their Nintendo DS Lite, complete their daily activity, and then have the DS record it in the attendance area of the program.



2. The technology and resources involved (e.g. facility, network, equipment, software, on-line program, website's URL): The technology used will be the Nintendo DS Lite and a program called Personal Math Trainer.



3. What skills, knowledge, and pedagogy are required of teachers?: Some basic understanding of the Nintendo DS Lite program, such as—

How to turn on the unit
How the touch screen works and how to input the numbers on the touch screen.
How to check daily attendance or student days practiced.
After talking with the 3rd - 4th grade split room teacher, she told me that after working on this project she found 50% of her students had a Nintendo DS Lite and that students who had the units helped the students that didn't on how to use the unit. This is a great learning tool by itself because it shows a high level of Blooms Taxonomy as students have to synthesize what they know to teach someone else the skills they have.
Also, the learning curve to implementation was extremely quick for students, even students who had no experience.


4. What prior skills and knowledge are required of students? There are only very basics skills needed of how the Nintendo DS Lite functions. Most students already know how to use these devices so the learning time is very quick.



5. What are students asked to do exactly (product or process)?: The (process) that the students are asked to complete is called a 10 X 10 math practice session. They do a flash card exercise and some basic math problem solving (5+4=x 7-3=x 4x5=x 20/5=x) and the problems get harder as the levels increase from level 1 to level 15.



6. What are the procedures of the project (steps to teach the technology skills)?: Some reinforcement of basic math skills would be helpful before students start to work on the 10 X 10 math problems.


The project procedures would include these items--

Students will bring Nintendo DS Lite with them to school if they have parental approval; if not, the school will provide a unit for the students to use.
School will provide the student with the Personal Trainer Math cartridges.
Students would work on their daily activity, trying to do the practice sessions every day, including Saturday and Sunday. This activity takes approximately 10 minutes a day.
If time allowed, students could challenge each other in group math exercises.
Students as they have extra time also can work on independent practice.
The instructors can monitor progress by the level achieved by the students as they move from level 1 to level 22.
Assessment would be done at the start of the coursework with pre-assessment in AIMS Web and a post-assessment at the end.
All students not achieving adequate progress would be placed in this program to help in a Response to Intervention (RTI) for them.
All other students will work on further mastery of subject content but will not be assessed on a weekly basis.


7. What are the advantages of the project?: It allows students to complete between 1.5 and 2.3 more work because the students get instant feedback without having to wait for the teachers to correct the solutions to the questions. The time saved allows students to complete more questions as in the automated correction of assessments.



8. What are the disadvantages of the project?: I don’t see any disadvantages unless it would be that not all students may have a Nintendo DS Lite but at a cost of $129.00 each, they are very affordable for schools and parents to purchase. This is always a concern when we decide to make assignments based on technology that there is equal access by all students.

9. What type of effective instructional strategies are included?: Math 10 x 10 is a very effective instructional strategy to student mastery of these types of many questions and solutions.



10. What are the possibilities that the innovation can be transferred to other teachers, subject content, and different school settings?: I think this has great potential for transferring to other teachers and different school settings. It most likely will not be as transferable to other content learning areas.
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Lessson Two

Rationale: To have the students complete the daily reinforcement of basic math skills; to do the daily activities and compete against themselves, working towards achieving higher levels of math mastery from levels 1 to 22 in skills.



1. A brief description of the lesson plan: Math reinforcement with 10 X 10 math challenge between 2 and 15 students. This lesson plan takes the built-in wireless capabilities of the Nintendo DS Lite to challenge students in speed math.



2. The technology and resources involved (e.g. facility, network, equipment, software, on-line program, website's URL): The Nintendo DS Lite and Personal Math Trainer.



3. What skills, knowledge, and pedagogy are required of teachers?: The teachers will need basic math skills to help with student learning as they compete with other students.



4. What prior skills and knowledge are required of students? None, as they should have learned the basic skills needed for this exercise with the first lesson plan on daily activities and attendance.



5. What are students asked to do exactly (product or process)?: Students are asked to complete a process with the math calculations in competing with other students. The (process) is the 10 x10 math grid and doing them as fast as the student can with very few errors.



6. What are the procedures of the project (steps to teach the technology skills)?: Basic steps and procedures will have been learned in the first lesson plan. You will go over how the completion would work as it relates to the speed versus error rate the students are expected to do.



7. What are the advantages of the project?: To help students to become more proficient in their math skills without just encouraging rote memorization of the math tables and facts.



8. What are the disadvantages of the project?: Not all students have these units. Students who do not have them would have to check the units out from the library or another location in the school.



9. What type of effective instructional strategies are included?: Instant feedback, healthy student competition with other peer students without everyone else knowing how individual students scored in the group of 2 to 15 students; reinforcement of math tables and math skills being taught at the different grade levels; and the ability of students to use this technique to complete 1.5 to 2.3 more math problems than using traditional math with paper and pencil 10 X 10 block assessments.



10. What are the possibilities that the innovation can be transferred to other teachers, subject content, and different school settings?: Some of the math stimulation may carry over to other content areas but, for the most part, this activity will only transfer to other teachers teaching math and different school settings as far as grade levels.





Standards covered in these lessons


Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations (GLEC)

1st Grade GLEC

Add and subtract whole numbers

N.ME.01.08 List number facts (partners inside of numbers) for 2 through 10, e.g., 8 = 7 + 1 = 6 + 2 = 5 + 3 = 4 + 4; 10 = 8 + 2 = 2 + 8.

N.MR.01.09 Compare two or more sets in terms of the difference in number of elements.

N.MR.01.10 Model addition and subtraction for numbers through 30 for a given contextual situation using objects or pictures; explain in words; record using numbers and symbols; solve.*

N.MR.01.11 Understand the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, e.g., subtraction “undoes” addition: if 3 + 5 = 8, we know that 8 - 3 = 5 and 8 - 5 = 3; recognize that some problems involving combining, “taking away,” or comparing can be solved by either operation.

N.FL.01.12 Know all the addition facts up to 10 + 10, and solve the related subtraction problems fluently.

N.MR.01.13 Apply knowledge of fact families to solve simple open sentences for addition and subtraction, such as: ■ + 2 = 7 and 10 - ■ = 6.

N.FL.01.14 Add three one-digit numbers.

2nd Grade GLEC



Add and subtract whole numbers

N.FL.02.06 Decompose 100 into addition pairs, e.g., 99 + 1, 98 + 2…

N.MR.02.07 Find the distance between numbers on the number line, e.g., how far is 79 from 26?

N.MR.02.08 Find missing values in open sentences, e.g., 42 + ■ = 57; use relationship between addition and subtraction.

N.MR.02.09 Given a contextual situation that involves addition and subtraction using numbers through 99: model using objects or pictures; explain in words; record using numbers and symbols; solve.*

N.FL.02.10 Add fluently two numbers through 99, using strategies including formal algorithms; subtract fluently two numbers through 99.*

N.FL.02.11 Estimate the sum of two numbers with three digits.*

N.FL.02.12 Calculate mentally sums and differences involving: three-digit numbers and ones; three-digit numbers and tens; three-digit numbers and hundreds.



Understand meaning of multiplication and division

N.MR.02.13 Understand multiplication as the result of counting the total number of objects in a set of equal groups, e.g., 3 x 5 gives the number of objects in 3 groups of 5 objects, or 3 x 5 = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15.

N.MR.02.14 Represent multiplication using area and array models.

N.MR.02.15 Understand division (÷) as another way of expressing multiplication, using fact families within the 5 x 5 multiplication table; emphasize that division “undoes” multiplication, e.g., 2 x 3 = 6 can be rewritten as 6 ÷ 2 = 3 or 6 ÷ 3 = 2.

N.MR.02.16 Given a situation involving groups of equal size or of sharing equally, represent with objects, words, and symbols; solve.*

N.MR.02.17 Develop strategies for fluently multiplying numbers up to 5 x 5.*

3rd Grade GLEC



Add and subtract whole numbers

N.FL.03.06 Add and subtract fluently two numbers through 999 with regrouping and through 9,999 without regrouping.*

N.FL.03.08 Use mental strategies to fluently add and subtract two-digit numbers.



Multiply and divide whole numbers

N.MR.03.09 Use multiplication and division fact families to understand the inverse relationship of these two operations, e.g., because 3 x 8 = 24, we know that 24 ÷ 8 = 3 or 24 ÷ 3 = 8; express a multiplication statement as an equivalent division statement.

N.MR.03.10 Recognize situations that can be solved using multiplication and division including finding “How many groups?” and “How many in a group?” and write mathematical statements

to represent those situations.*

N.FL.03.11 Find products fluently up to 10 x 10; find related quotients using multiplication and division relationships.

N.MR.03.12 Find solutions to open sentences, such as 7 x ■ = 42 or 12 ÷ ■ = 4, using the inverse relationship between multiplication and division.

N.FL.03.13 Mentally calculate simple products and quotients up to a three-digit number by a one-digit number involving multiples of 10, e.g., 500 x 6, or 400 ÷ 8.



4th Grade GLCE



Add and subtract whole numbers

N.FL.04.08 Add and subtract whole numbers fluently.



Multiply and divide whole numbers

N.ME.04.09 Multiply two-digit numbers by 2, 3, 4, and 5 using the distributive property, e.g., 21 x 3 = (1 + 20) x 3 = (1 x 3) + (20 x 3) = 3 + 60 = 63.

N.FL.04.10 Multiply fluently any whole number by a one-digit number and a three-digit number by a two-digit number; for a two-digit by one-digit multiplication use distributive property to develop meaning for the algorithm.

N.FL.04.11 Divide numbers up to four-digits by one-digit numbers and by 10.

N.FL.04.12 Find the value of the unknowns in equations such as a ÷ 10 = 25; 125 ÷ b = 25.*

N.MR.04.13 Use the relationship between multiplication and division to simplify computations and check results.

N.MR.04.14 Solve contextual problems involving whole number multiplication and division.*



Resources

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2007/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=39352646&selection_id=41896499&rownumber=1&max=1

http://kageyamahideo.com/method/KageyamaMethod.pdf

http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1164&p=8

http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1172

http://www.drtomorrow.com/lessons/lessons5/08.html

http://www.edutopia.org/start-pyramid?page=3

http://www.edutopia.org/measuring-what-counts-memorization-versus-understanding

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/faculty/Book_CIP_Intro.html

http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html

http://www.technologyquestions.com/technology/tablet-pc-bloggers/126938-practicing-kanji-tablet-pc-umpc.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3556410.ece

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Teacher's Choice Awards to select the Best Content Providers for the 2008-2009 school year

Berrien RESA is hosting Teacher's Choice Awards to select the Best Content Providers for the 2008-2009 school year. Results will be shared via the Berrien RESA VC Content Providers Database and the videoconferencing listservs.

Many of you use the BCISD Videoconference Program Database from one of these websites:
http://www.VCContentProviders.org
TWICE: http://www.twice.cc/fieldtrips.html
or from search boxes on your local distance learning website.

Polycom has chosen to do a drawing for prizes to random participants of the survey to encourage participation. If you wish to be included in the drawing, add your contact information at the end of the survey. Polycom will selecting the winners randomly.

Click this link to take the short survey (or copy the address into your browser):
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22952VSCJBR

You must complete the survey by May 18, 2009 to be included in the drawing.

Please share this announcement with your local videoconferencing colleagues. We welcome entries from teachers, even if they vote in only one category/subject area.

One room schoolhouse vs. industrialized learning

Busy moth of April and May

Well we are winding down another school year here in Michigan. It has been a little hectic here and I have been also tie-up with family, my nephew Nimmer Jabber from Australia and my uncle Don Jagger from California. Also this Friday 5/1/2009 I have my last class in master degree program at Central Michigan University. So was short break from the blog has allowed me to reflect on education and educational technology.
First Nimmer was here and we talked about technology and it effect on society and education. Being a 21 year old he has a much different prospective then uncle Don. My uncle came from a one-room schoolhouse with maybe running water from a hand pump that was outside and the old out house, with no blue water. It has made me think about how we have industrialized education as Henry Ford industrialized auto manufacturing. Is this good for education? Will we look back on history and ask, what was that all about? Only time will tell this story, but I think we need to get back to some basics of education, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. If we instill basic building block for students the rest will start to fall into place. Oh yes please don’t take away the basic of kindergarten mike and cookie for a snack naps in the afternoon and playing with building blocks. These have been foundation-building skill for years let them still be children and not try to make them into little scientist in Pre School. This being said and this message is to my self also, Read to your children early on age one to four. Then help them read for if they find a love for reading this will start the opening of a whole new world for them. Then there are the teachable moments when you can make learning relevant to them and this opens more doors to learning. With good basics and fun learning student will thrive and grow. If we can then just find that little switch of what they love and find interesting they will light up and produce more then we could ever get out of them by forcing them to do activities and learning that is not of there own internal motivation. External motivation as bribery will not work in the long term. So lets bring back some of the one room schoolhouse and integrate it into the technology enriched environment. Technology will not be the difference from a successful student and a struggling student. It will only work to accelerate student learning. But it sure is nice to have in door bathrooms and not the old out house.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Professor Kageyama's Maths Training/Personal Trainer Math Trailer

Math trainer is a research based 10 x 10 or 100 square math training doing addition, subtraction and dviding.

Brain Age TV Commercial for the Nintendo DS

This youtube video show Brain Age an educational tool using a personal learning device called the Nintendo DS lite.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Chuck House 21st Century Skills Stanford University's

Chuck House, executive director of Media X, Stanford University's membership research program on media and technology, talks about the new skills needed for 21st century jobs.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

How can Moodle change a school (Part 1)

First in the series of two clips. Part 1 shows how mostly standard features of Moodle are used by classroom teachers in high school settings. Part 2 shows the changes that establishment of Moodle has sparked, enabled and encouraged around the school.

For more information, suggestions or comments please visit http://human.edublogs.org

How can Moodle change a school (Part 2)

Second in the series of two clips. Part 2 shows the changes that establishment of Moodle has sparked, enabled and encouraged around the school. Part 1 shows how mostly standard features of Moodle are used by classroom teachers in high school settings.

For more information, suggestions or comments please visit http://human.edublogs.org

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Moodle Video by Molly Tipton uses Moodle in her 8th grade social studies class.

Moodle is a tool for Learning Managment System (LMS). It is a great tool to create learning communities in. Moodle provides teachers with a means to create differentiated learning opportunities for students.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

How to make a low cost Wii Interactive remote whiteboard

How to make a Wii remote whiteboard for $50.00 to $75.00 Here is a demo of how it works and it is much cheaper then a $1500.00 whiteboard like the Smart interactive white board.

Why We Need To Teach Technology in School

I believe technology is so important in our schools. Technology prepares students for lives in the future. It also engages students. Students expect to be engaged in education today and we can not put a funel in there ear and dump the information into them with teacher lectures. We must engauge them into there educational experiance.

Education Today and Tomorrow

This video was created by Tom Woodward of Henrico County schools in Virginia. Tom used the work of Karl Fisch from Colorado who created a PPT using various quotes and statistics from "flat world"