tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45432067464845885172024-03-13T11:10:59.443-04:00Just Your Standard DeviationOne teacher among many trying to become better. Talking math and anything else that is of interest.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-52079905146636533862013-08-09T00:22:00.003-04:002013-08-12T10:00:06.111-04:00Using Google to Manage your SBG Workflow - Google Forms Script<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">This is from a </span><a href="http://twittermathcamp.pbworks.com/w/page/67682192/Using%20Google%20to%20Manage%20your%20SBG%20workflow" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">session at TMC13</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> to help you use Google to manage all the tasks that may overwhelm you. Instead of creating my own resource which may quickly go out of date as Google updates their products, you will notice I mainly link you to Google created resources/tutorials.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">We will look at using Google Scripts to automate some functions, specifically a way to have submissions to a Google Form emailed directly to you instead of you having to go to the spreadsheet to view them. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Yep, no more going cross eyed trying to read the submitted responses on a spread sheet. Instead, receive an email with the submitted response that looks like any normal email. You can even reply to the student using that email. See an overview of the process below.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Before I begin, there are a variety of scripts that you really need to check out. The top ones I would recommend you play with are:</span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.gclassfolders.com/home" target="_blank">gClassFolders</a> - Easily and quickly create class folders for you and your students</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.youpd.org/doctopus" target="_blank">Doctopus</a> - Great for organizing/managing student work and projects your students are doing in Google Apps.</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">One of the things that can be most time consuming with Standards Based Grading is reassessments. With my extra duties and the usual items that pop up out of nowhere, it is difficult to find a consistent time I was available for students. At the same time I also did not want reassessments to become somethings students just took at random to "see what happens this time". I needed a way to do the cliche kill two birds with one stone, stay organized and make reassessments meaningful for students. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">My first attempt was to use an email template <a href="http://samjshah.com/2011/06/15/to-reassess-or-how-to-make-more-work-for-me/" target="_blank">created by Sam</a> that students would use to request a reassessment. For some reason many students had trouble figuring out what they needed to copy and paste from the template into the email and what they were supposed to write themselves. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">My next attempt was to use a Google form just like <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/apcalcmrb/reassessment-request" target="_blank">Bowman's</a>. Perfect, now students don't have to do any copying and pasting for an email and just fill out the form. Then I realized I needed to go to the spreadsheet to view the submissions. I did some searching and came <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/" target="_blank">across a script</a> that would do an email merge of Google form submissions. Brilliant, no more having to look at a spreadsheet of form submissions!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Google Form Script How to Guide</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Step 1: Create a Google Form</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Create your Google form. You can use <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/apcalcmrb/reassessment-request" target="_blank">Bowman's</a> as a guide or <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/clarkston.k12.mi.us/forms/d/1MqRhBugJrTwEmlThBHEp4DWjesZeZVZ9tlyxGQ_hXRg/viewform" target="_blank">mine</a>. After creating the form, create the spreadsheet to hold the responses. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Our school district is a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) district. In my form I had an option to force the student to first sign in to their school Google account so that the form would automatically collect their email address. This is nice in that it helps prevent the silly students who have a hard time typing their own email address. If your school is not a GAFE school, make sure you have a field in your form that asks for their email address.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Step 2: Share the form and response spreadsheet with a second Gmail account</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">The best part about the script is that I can reply to the email and it will be sent to the student who submitted the form. However, the reply does not work if you are getting the script emails from the same Gmail account used to set up the script. In other words, I set up the Google form and script using my someone@gmail.com account. I told the script to send the emails to my someone@gmail.com account. When I try to send a reply to the student, the email address that Gmail wants to send it to is incorrect (if interested, you can <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/group?place=msg%2Fformemailer%2FpXFTchdCFaE%2F2_GJ6N-LDR0J" target="_blank">read why</a>). The work around is to share the form and spreadsheet you created with a second Google account and use that account when setting up the script.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">I created the form using my school Google account. I also have a personal Google account but I did not want to use that account. Whatever second Google account you use, that email address will be in the email sent to you by the script. </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">To keep my personal Google account private, I created another generic Google account to use to set up the script.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Step 3: Install the script</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">The script being used is called <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/" target="_blank">FormEmailer</a>. Using your second Google account, open the response spreadsheet. Follow the instructions given by the<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/getstarted#TOC-Install-steps-from-gallery-:" target="_blank"> FormEmailer </a>creator to install the script.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Step 4: Set up the script template</span></div>
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You can choose what data from the form submission to be included in the email sent to you. You can also create a template in the script so that the data is sent to you in a pleasant to read kind of why. I set up my template to make it look like the student was actually sending me an email. If you know some basic html, your template can include bolded text, etc.<br />
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Until I make my own directions to show you my settings, the video below does a decent job of showing you an overview of the process. The first 3 minutes shows you how to install the script. From about the 3 minute mark to about the 5 minute mark, it shows you how to set up the template.<br />
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Step 5: Set up the script trigger<br />
You have two options to make the script run:<br />
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1. Manually run the script - aka you have to open the spreadsheet and tell the script to send out the emails (pffftt)<br />
2. Have the script automatically run - Ding ding ding, we have a winner!<br />
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You can set the script to check for any submissions and send you an email for each of the submissions automatically. You have the option to set the trigger to occur as soon as someone submits a form or be time driven (set it for once a day, once an hour or even once a minute).<br />
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Let's pretend you have it set to once a day. Say you had three students submit a reassessment on a particular day. The script will check the response spreadsheet, see that you have three submissions and then send you each submission in a separate email based on the settings in your template.<br />
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To view how to set up a trigger, see the video below from about 4:40 to 6:05.<br />
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Step 6: Test<br />
Go pretend to be a student and fill out your form. Look at the response spreadsheet to see your pretend responses and to see the script to mark your submission as "Email sent". Note: You will want to change the trigger to something like every minute, otherwise you will be waiting a while. Then go to your email to view it. If you don't like the formatting, go back to the script template in the settings to modify it.<br />
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Once you have it tweaked to your liking, you are ready to go live.<br />
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Optional:<br />
You can send an email to the student as well. You have the email sent to you as you set up using the above instructions, in the script you would set up a second email template that would go to the student (person who submitted the form). Even though a Google form has that confirmation page that appears after the student submits the form, for some reason I have found students are still worried that I saw their submission and will ask in class the next day. When they get a confirmation email, that seems to calm their fears.<br />
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For directions on how to set up a second email, see the video in step 5. Skip to about 3:28 until 4:40.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-73548112537365098902013-08-06T15:01:00.001-04:002013-08-09T00:23:25.841-04:00Using Google to Manage your SBG Workflow - Gmail & CalendarThis is Part 1 of resources from a <a href="http://twittermathcamp.pbworks.com/w/page/67682192/Using%20Google%20to%20Manage%20your%20SBG%20workflow" target="_blank">session at TMC13</a> to help you use Google to manage all the tasks that may overwhelm you. Instead of creating my own resource which may quickly go out of date as Google updates their products, you will notice I mainly link you to Google created resources/tutorials.<br />
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Part 1 Google Resources:<br />
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<td style="width: 50%;"><i>Gmail</i><br />
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<li>labels</li>
<li>filters</li>
<li>canned responses</li>
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<td style="width: 50%;"><i>Calendar</i><br />
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<li>sharing calendars</li>
<li>posting/embedding calendars</li>
<li>view work week/hours only</li>
<li>add event from your email</li>
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<b>Gmail</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvjpzgZkMaodDVInJ6BspKqHeN4VA5tC8BA10opr4mMcvPfA9UyQUujKHXUKOIGW9lpUajTk6FytRXKCWZpQHdV50CH8Ll0grYQx5QlMbI_5Ej5z4IWuC4X64u77-o8wODRUpvsqK5dIf/s1600/label+list.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvjpzgZkMaodDVInJ6BspKqHeN4VA5tC8BA10opr4mMcvPfA9UyQUujKHXUKOIGW9lpUajTk6FytRXKCWZpQHdV50CH8Ll0grYQx5QlMbI_5Ej5z4IWuC4X64u77-o8wODRUpvsqK5dIf/s1600/label+list.jpg" height="320" width="103" /></a>Managing your inbox can be annoying for those of us who like it to be empty and then their are others out there who shall we say their inbox is far from empty. One of the first things you can do is to set up labels (think of them as folders but with special abilities). Instead of one ginormous inbox, sort those emails into various labels. One tip, I have two labels I use often called "parent contact" and "student contact". The labels are sorted alphabetical. I wanted those two labels to be at the top of the list so I added an exclamation point to the label name to make them be at the top. </div>
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Filters are another feature I use. I have many filters set up to put incoming email directly into a specified label and skip the inbox entirely. For example, I subscribe to some of the Smart Briefs by <a href="https://www2.smartbrief.com/signupSystem/subscribe.action?pageSequence=1&briefName=nctm" target="_blank">NCTM</a> and <a href="http://www.ascd.org/ProfileRegistration.aspx?signup=smartbrief" target="_blank">ASCD</a>. Sometimes (often actually) I just don't have the time to even browse through those. Instead of those newsletters cluttering up my inbox, they get sent to one of my labels. Then I don't feel the need to have to read them or do something about them right now. Instead, when I get a chance I click on the label and then browse the newsletters or just decide to delete them. Since our school district uses Google Apps for Education (GAFE), I was also able to easily set up a filter to send emails from students to my !student contact label. </div>
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Another Gmail feature I use a lot is canned responses or email templates. I found myself having to respond to the same type of emails over and over again. Some common ones from parents/students are the "How can I get help" or "Where can I get extra practice" emails. I created a email template that I can easily use to respond to those emails. It is much faster than copying and pasting, it is a reply to option. One tip when creating your template, make sure the body of your message is completely blank. For example, if you have a signature that is automatically added, do not include it in the template otherwise it will appear twice.</div>
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Gmail guides/tutorials:</div>
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<li>The <a href="http://edutraining.googleapps.com/" target="_blank">Google Apps for Education Training Center</a> does a good job of going into detail about the various Google Apps. </li>
<li>To learn about how to use labels and filters (and other organizing tips), you will want to view the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y04EWiupvZey-pUONw4wZ2PLy9IpA2Q_HHj1FUW9-EM/edit" target="_blank">Chapter 4: Store and Organize Mail</a> tutorial. </li>
<li>To learn about using canned responses (email templates), view the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IORmN-dUyHyQr_qzoY5nNGH_ek2F2pOXWl2U0lj9p54/edit#heading=h.uwyfhixsjj9c" target="_blank">Chapter 2: Send and Receive Mail</a> tutorial. </li>
<li>If you want to get super serious and become a Gmail Ninja, view the <a href="http://www.google.com/mail/help/intl/en-GB/tips.html#white" target="_blank">Gmail Ninja guide</a>.</li>
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<b>Calendar</b></div>
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My wife and I are pretty organized. We both have android phones and have a personal Gmail account (along with our work/school account) that we rely on heavily. We have our accounts set up so that we can see each others events (and our kids). No more missed birthdays for me and I easily find out if I can play cards with the guys on a certain night.</div>
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One tip if you keep a personal vs work account, share any calendars from your work account with your personal account but not vice versa. As much as my life revolves around school, they don't need to see what I do when I actually have some free time. By sharing your calendars, you can create events for your work calendar(s) even though you are logged into your personal account. </div>
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I have a calendar for each of my courses. 99% of the time my 1st hour Math 8 class is doing the same thing as my 2nd hour Math 8 class so I just use one calendar called Math 8. I have that calendar embedded on <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/clarkston.k12.mi.us/mr-rykse/math8" target="_blank">my class webpage</a> for students and parents to view. Students and parents with a Gmail account can also easily subscribe to the calendar so it automatically shows up on their Google account calendar. They now do not even have to visit my webpage. Whatever I put on that calendar automatically shows up on their calendar.</div>
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Since your work account probably only deals with Monday through Friday and only certain hours of the day (say 7am to 4pm), you can set up your calendar view to only show those days and times. This gives your screen more space. You can still create events for outside those dates and times, you are just setting up your view to default to a certain time frame.</div>
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One newer feature is the option to add an event to your calendar directly from an email. Say a students emails you asking to meet with you for help. If in their email they included a day/date and/or time, in the email message you will notice that Google makes that a link. If you click on it you can then add it to your calendar without having to manually create the event yourself. </div>
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Google Calendar guides/tutorials:</div>
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<li>To learn how to use Google calendar including the tips I mentioned above, <a href="http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home/module-3u-calendar" target="_blank">view the calendar guide</a> on Google Apps for Education Training Center.</li>
<li>There is not an official "Ninja" guide for calendar created by Google by another user did create one <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/isb.ac.th/ninjatraining/cal-training">here.</a></li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-64563353784970982422013-08-06T00:45:00.002-04:002013-08-06T00:45:39.481-04:00Twitter Math Camp 2013 RecapI am going to have to add <a href="http://www.twittermathcamp.com/" target="_blank">Twitter Math Camp</a> to the "to do" list each summer. This year, it almost did not happen due to some financial challenges. The experience <a href="http://justyourstandarddeviation.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-do-it.html" target="_blank">last year</a> was incredible and I could not stand the thought of not being able to go again. I so wanted to be a part of it I even found a way to be a presenter from home thanks to Ashli. Just as the registration deadline was looming with space filling up, my awesome wife again gave me a shove and we found a way to make it happen.<br />
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Part of the way to making it more affordable was road tripping it. The past year I tried to meet up with <a href="https://twitter.com/lmhenry9" target="_blank">Lisa</a> whose folks live near me. However it seemed every time they were in town, our family was on the other side of the state visiting my relatives. The one time we were both in town, my kids were sick. Lisa and her husband offered me a ride to TMC13. Six hours goes quickly when you have someone fun to chat with. Thank you Lisa and Jason!<br />
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Being an introvert by nature (I would win first prize at Anne's "<a href="http://mathiex.blogspot.com/2013/07/mat-tmc-2013-day-1-reflections.html" target="_blank">shut up and notice</a>", recap via Gregory Taylor) I am glad I went to TMC12. I am not nearly as active on twitter and blogging as many of the folks at TMC12 were. With TMC12 being smaller, it gave me a chance to get to know a smaller group and not allow myself to hide in the background since there really wasn't a background to hide in.<br />
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TMC13 while having a larger group of people still felt the same as TMC12 but better. I had some folks from TMC12 to reconnect with and I got to meet a bunch of new people. It seemed whenever I went out to eat or hang out I was with a mixture of TMC12'ers and new folks. I got to eat gelato for dinner, sing a couple songs in the basement of a bar, eat some interesting concoctions off of food trucks, hang outside the hotel waiting for the fire alarm to end, learn to fold origami (I really wonder what the other guests thought of us in the lobby?), eat some really good food at a restaurant that reminded me of a place near me, and have some pizza and more gelato while serenading (quick Glenn, what were there names?).<br />
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Speaking of the hotel lobby, <a href="https://twitter.com/jaz_math" target="_blank">Jasmine</a> had a good thought while we were chatting. The lobby had the feel of the old college dorm where you could hang out all day and have different conversations with all the random people coming and going.<br />
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I really hope everyone who attended had the opportunity to get that happy "math is awesome, tweeps are awesome" feeling we all had. Looking ahead to TMC14, I think there are some key ingredients that could possible make or break someones TMC experience.<br />
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1. Get on twitter<br />
You don't have to be super active, just look at my number of tweets. Just start at least lurking and jump on a conversation here and there. This would give you the opportunity to have that handful of people to seek out.<br />
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2. Get a roommate<br />
Find someone from #1 above or just ask on the facebook page. Random is fun. I'm not sure if I ever interacted with Justin before TMC but I am glad I had the opportunity to room with him at TMC.<br />
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3. Go eat with someone<br />
See a group going for food, ask to join. The worst that could happen is they say they are going to Taco Bell. That is how I ended up with gelato for dinner, it was a perfect decision.<br />
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4. Go to the planned social event(s)<br />
I did not go to the piano bar which was planned while we were there (I needed some rest time) but I did have fun at trivia and had a blast at karaoke.<br />
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For future TMC's, I really believe having the food trucks for lunch and a planned place to eat/sing/hangout the first full day was key. Everyone had a chance to start to meet someone during the morning sessions and then we all ended up at the food trucks for lunch and then sitting at random tables and grass chatting. I believe this gave us all a chance to bond some. Then for the evening we all had a scheduled place to go to. I think by having some structure on the first day, it allowed us to not have to worry about who do I go to eat with and where. Instead we got to focus on the social aspect of getting to know others who we could then possibly connect with for future food and fun. I think it is possible it could have turned out different for people if we ended up having to split up to go to different restaurants instead for that first lunch. Not every future TMC location will have food trucks, maybe we pitch in a few bucks to have a catered lunch, even if it is just pizza and bread sticks or subs? I highly recommend to future TMC planning groups that all future TMC's are structured on the first full day. I do not remember if I put that thought down on the evaluation or not.<br />
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Thank you TMC13 planning group. Riding with Lisa gave me an opportunity to see all the pros and cons behind every decision they had to face. Pulling off TMC was no walk in the park and you all get a big high five.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-5243436922359635182013-02-16T21:31:00.000-05:002013-02-16T21:31:45.666-05:00TMC13 Session IdeaI have an idea for a session at TMC13 but would like a partner. Oh, and there is a catch, I probably will not be there in person and will skype or gchat in.<br />
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Many of us are using standards based grading, I was thinking of having a session of sharing tips, strategies for dealing with the logistics. Things like handling reassessments (scheduling and creation of), gradebook use, etc.<br />
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I have a strategy about the reassessment process I would like to share with everyone.<br />
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I have gleefully stolen from <a href="http://samjshah.com/2011/06/15/to-reassess-or-how-to-make-more-work-for-me/" target="_blank">Sam</a> and <a href="http://bowmandickson.com/2012/08/23/building-my-course-website-with-google-sites/" target="_blank">Bowman</a> their version of applying for reassessment. I like how the email version Sam uses you can reply to the students. My downfall is my junior high kids for some reason have a hard time figuring silly things out like to erase the [list reasons here] or even where to put their responses. For some reason it confused them, seriously. I then saw Bowman's use of Google form. Our school district is all Google so it would be easy. However as Sam has noted, it can be a pain to go check the spreadsheet and try to read the responses.<br />
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Enter the wonderful world of scripts. I have a Google form set up similar to Bowman. However, the responses from the form are emailed to me. The email looks like a regular email, very easy to read AND I can reply to the email which is sent to the student like normal. But wait there's more, from the email I can then create an event in my Google calendar to help me keep track of who is coming in and for what reason. This has saved me lots of time. So, I would like to share. It would probably take me 20 minutes to do a guided walk through on how to set up the Google form correctly. So, here is where a co-presenter(s) could share their tips/strategies for managing sbg.<br />
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Any takers?<br />
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Ohh yeah, the part about how I will not be there in person. My wife and I had this silly notion this past Thanksgiving of starting to browse for houses so that when we really wanted to start looking in June we would know how the process worked and what we would look for in a house. Well, browsing turned into buying, took only two house. We got a great deal in a location we wanted and in the school district we teach in. I can actually walk to work with my son (his elementary is on the same campus as the junior high). We moved just after the winter break and are now paying two mortgages. Anyone want to move to Michigan and buy a house? Plus we got a great deal because this house needs some improvements, so we probably will not be able to make TMC13. Booo.<br />
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If anyone is interested in co-hosting a session, let me know.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-12206958438021236072013-02-13T21:25:00.000-05:002013-02-13T21:25:29.799-05:00Notice and WonderSomehow I had some free time last night. Well, more like I really miss talking and sharing with everyone so to heck with grading and planning. Plus the topic for #globalmath was of interest to me.<br />
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Our district is big into <a href="http://www.ronritchhart.com/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Cultures of Thinking</a> and held a <a href="http://www.pz.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Project Zero</a> conference earlier this year. One of the thinking routines is "<a href="http://www.old-pz.gse.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html" target="_blank">See, Think, Wonder</a>". I was curious to see more from <a href="http://mathforum.org/blogs/max/" target="_blank">Max</a> and his take on a similar "What do you notice?, What do you Wonder?". I was looking for what might be similar and how he envisioned the process.<br />
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It was refreshing to see everyone. The discussion was well worth it. My take is I like the simplicity of just the notice and wonder. I have used see, think, wonder and students are ok with it. The students did well with the see and wonder part but would get tripped up with the "think". Students would sometimes just skip the think statement. With the notice, wonder question, students are not hesitant. The questions seemed more natural to them. I am wondering if using See, think, wonder applies best in certain situations vs just notice and wonder. I need to look into this some more.<br />
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Now that I got my fix, time to do some planning. We were starting the concept of scatter plots and line of best fit the next day. Seemed like a perfect opportunity. I went looking for some interesting data and came across the <a href="https://share.ehs.uen.org/node/25607" target="_blank">winning Olympic Women's High Jump heights</a>.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Some of our noticings and wonderings. Hmm, time to clean the board.</span></div>
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A little thin. I was trying to use it at the beginning of class and got distracted by student stopping in for a signature for schedule card (we are in the middle of scheduling for next year), another random student needing help, phone call from office, grrr. If I wasn't so tired and I was on top of it, I would have had a student leading the charge instead of waiting for me. </div>
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Loved someone noticed the jump in years. I purposely only showed the 1928 to 1964 data to hopefully make that jump stand out. I asked the person who mentioned the taller people what made her say that. We then got out the general trend of "as the years increase the winning heights increases". Of course there was the discussion of it is not exactly linear. Next up, estimate what might have been the winning height in those missing years (high five to history teachers, they guessed it was because of WWII). We started with just staring at the table, got some different responses and how they came up with them. Asked questions like "how confident are you in your estimate".</div>
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Transition to a scatter plot of the data (I used the . Estimated again, some stuck with their estimations, some modified. Asked the modifiers why they changed. Some great thoughts on trying to make the estimation points "line up" with the rest of the data. I wanted to dig into that "line up" statement and asked them to say more about that. Student went up and drew a line. I wish every day went like this.</div>
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From there the lead in to "best fit" line. I really wanted to use the high jump data with the<a href="http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=146" target="_blank"> Illuminations applet</a> but had the darndest time getting the scale to work with the data. It did not like 1928+. The green dots to move the best fit line were off the screen. We had some data in our textbook that we used instead that was able to fit on the scale. We then played around with trying to get a best fit line and seeing how close we were to the computer fit. After playing we wrote up some guidelines on what to look for when trying to create a line of best fit. </div>
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Tomorrow we get to circle back to that wonder question of "are people taller now so can jump higher". Time to go gather some date, make a scatter plot and see. I have no idea what correlation we might see if any. I will be curious to see how the students react. If there appears to be a correlation will they latch onto that and go with "it must be because we are taller" or will they introduce other variables such as better coaching, equipment, etc.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-38753435275009148952012-08-29T00:42:00.000-04:002012-08-29T00:42:20.121-04:00I do it!<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px;">And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous." - Einstein</span></blockquote>
<a href="http://kevinhoneycutt.org/" target="_blank">Kevin Honeycutt</a> spoke at our district kickoff on Monday. I have seen him at <a href="http://www.macul.org/" target="_blank">MACUL</a> but I do not recall Kevin sharing his background. I think it really helped to frame his message based on some of the feedback I heard from other staff. He encouraged us to not be "that guy" who just dusts off the 3 ring binder of lesson plans each year. Go beyond having kids filling out worksheets with the bold words from the text book or having students write for an audience of one. If a student can Google it, then why are you giving a 50 minute lecture on it? Challenge students to think and create. Do not think of technology as a crutch or "cheat" but as a tool that enables us to focus on thinking and creating. These are messages many of us have heard but it does not hurt to hear it again and again.<br />
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This past summer I had a chance to attend <a href="http://needaredstamp.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Twitter Math Camp</a> (#TMC12). Honeycutt shared the above quote which made me start to reminisce and then realize I did not finish (well, ok start) my post about the experience. You know how so many professional development days you feel like it is just being done to you? As my kids would say when they were younger, "I do it!" That kind of sums it up. Us taking charge or as <a href="http://myweb20journey.blogspot.com/2012/07/tmc12-for-us-by-us.html" target="_blank">Fouss</a> put it, "For Us by Us." For a variety of recaps visit <a href="http://oldmathdognewtricks.blogspot.com/2012/07/best-pd-ever.html" target="_blank">Lisa's post</a> and for some history of how it came to be, visit <a href="http://samjshah.com/2012/07/24/40-choose-2-first-dates-or-initial-impressions-of-tmc12/" target="_blank">Sam Shah's post</a>. There was even some <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/07/the_math_blogotwittosphere_is_the_best_blogotwittosphere.html" target="_blank">debate</a> and <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/07/teacher_led_pd_overturn_the_narrative_create_something_beautiful.html" target="_blank">press</a> in <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html" target="_blank">Education Week</a> about the awesomeness of math teachers taking advantage of social media.<br />
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I can not imagine what it must be like to teach in a school where you might be one of only a couple of math teachers. Even in a larger school like the one I am in, our experiences are limited to just the ten of us. We have our struggles and are always looking to find possible solutions. There are so many others out there who have experiences to share. With social media, it has become much easier to reach out and connect with others.<br />
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If you have ever thought about what this Twitter thing is all about or what are these blogs people say they are reading and/or writing, something was made just for you to get started. <a href="http://mathtwitterblogosphere.weebly.com/" target="_blank">This guide to Twitter and blogs</a> came out of a session by Sam Shah at TMC. I highly recommend anyone interested in using Twitter or blogs for your professional development, even if you just want to peek, go and visit that guide.<br />
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When I first heard TMC was really happening, I was not sure if I should go. I used money as an excuse to cover up some stupid insecurities I had. For some reason I was thinking because I was not that involved last school year on Twitter like I was the prior year, I should not go. I hemmed and hawed about it at home and finally my wife said go. Trying to still use money as an excuse, I conveniently late in the game asked if anyone still needed a roomie. Troy from <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/" target="_blank">TechSmith</a> generously offered for me to stay with him. With the money excuse now pulled out from under me, there was nothing I could do but go. <br />
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I was secretly excited but nervous as hell. Not sure what I was thinking. I should have known after being invited into the stats circle and book talks and being gently <a href="http://justyourstandarddeviation.blogspot.com/2010/10/measures-of-center-in-relation-to-shape.html" target="_blank">nudged into my first post</a> that in person these folks would not be any different. At first, I did my usual wallflower bit but eventually warmed up and felt at home enough to run circles (he he).<br />
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We packed in the days which made my brain hurt but then had great fun in the evening. It was the perfect mix. Big thank you to Lisa and Shelli for putting in the work. The well planned out yet flexibility of the event was appreciated. We even had those little signs outside each room which described the session. Also thank you to <a href="http://www.micds.org/default.aspx" target="_blank">Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School</a> for hosting us.<br />
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I enjoyed the morning work sessions. Not necessarily the <a href="http://www.exeter.edu/academics/6539.aspx" target="_blank">Exeter</a> set itself but the discussions about the math that we had. Then there was the morning we broke out into a spontaneous lesson plan after doing the typical baseball diamond problem.<br />
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Have you ever been to those conferences where you want to be in different sessions but they are happening at the same time so you have to pick? Yeah, me neither. I'm usually happy if I can come home with an idea or two. The afternoon sessions at TMC were hard to choose from. I needed to clone myself so I could be everywhere. I finally got a chance to sit down with <a href="http://geogebra.org/" target="_blank">Geogebra</a>, got some handy tips for batch importing into Google calendar and saw how others use <a href="http://msmathwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/55306129/Google%20Documents%20Lesson" target="_blank">Google apps</a> in the classroom and dove into the world of <a href="http://msmathwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/54604356/Interactive%20Notebooks%20Like%20A%20Pro" target="_blank">interactive notebooks</a>.<br />
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When you hear the phrase "flipped classroom", it can conjure up images of fingernails scrapping across the chalk board to the revolution of math education depending on who you talk to. To me, I had the image of kids watching video on how to solve a system of equations and then coming into class the next day to practice problems. This experience did not make sense to me or match how I thought students learn best. Yet, having the videos available did make sense.<br />
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This was my "a ha" moment and I am glad Troy shared his thoughts. I plan to explore the "<a href="http://www.cyclesoflearning.com/files/0e82357541a89a8888c1a7c498c1c201-4.php" target="_blank">Explore-Flip-Apply</a>" model this year.<br />
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There were other sessions as well that I was able to walk away with to bring back to my students and colleagues. I even got a chance to play a <a href="http://rootsoftheequation.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/totally-radical/" target="_blank">math board game</a>. This was unlike any conference or PD I have ever been at. It felt strange to come home overloaded with ideas and missing all the fellow <strike>attendees</strike> friends at the same time.<br />
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Thank you to the mathtwitterblogosphere for welcoming me with open arms and allowing me to have an incredible experience.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-49660606646299991442012-07-31T19:40:00.000-04:002012-07-31T19:40:04.555-04:00New HomeJust a quick post to mark where I transitioned from wordpress to here. I did not move because wordpress was not user friendly. The move was mainly because my life is all on Google. Hopefully by only being a click away, I will have one less excuse not to get my thoughts down.<br />
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I am working on my post #TMC12 reflection and a more detailed post on how I use Scribblar.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-86815073233827999602012-02-09T16:05:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.866-04:00Rethinking the School DayRecently some staff members have kicked around ideas on how to provide intervention during the school day. We feel our current school day is not meeting the needs of many students. If a student wants help it is before/after school or during lunch if the student has the same lunch as the teacher (and the teacher is available). This works for some but not all students have someone available to provide a ride early or get picked up late. Plus there are the students who shall we say are not inclined to seek help.<br/><br/>Our current set up is a 72 minute 5 period day on trimesters. Most courses are one or two trimesters long. Some students do have a support period (special education mainly) but most do not.<br/><br/>We are thinking of a seminar period (for lack of a better name) where students can get support, enrichment or just plain study hall. The catch is not all students have a choice. If you have a D or E your are automatically placed into a support in that subject (if multiple subjects pick the weakest). If you lowest grade is an A or B you have a choice of an enrichment or study hall. If your lowest grade is a C you have a choice of all 3.<br/><br/>This seminar period would be at the same time of the day so every teacher is involved. The support option would have 15 students with a teacher. The enrichment and study hall options would have 30-35 students with a teacher.<br/><br/>The support option would be the teacher giving specific help, not necessarily just kids sitting there doing (or pretending) to do work. Instead of having 15 students myself, I could see teaming up with another teacher and splitting our kids based on who needs help with what on that day.<br/><br/>The enrichment option would be opportunities for students to investigate something that interests them. I could see a teacher building trebuchets and discussing the science and math behind them. Another teacher might have students who love to read and they do book talks and/or create digital reviews (podcast, glogster, etc.). There could be a student newspaper group or a group to take on responsibility of the school web presence. PE teacher could do sports science (not roll balls out and play but actually talk about and investigate the science of sports). I can see this being opened up to students for what they might be interested in.<br/><br/>The study hall would be plain old study hall but we can do some skill building lessons for study habits.<br/><br/>In order to do this, we would need to cut some time from the other 5 periods to create the seminar period. They would go from 72 to 65 so we would gain a 35 minute seminar period. Is this enough time? Do we do this every day or Tuesday's and Thursday's only? These are questions more staff might have opinions on. Thirty minutes seem short but not sure if 35 minutes would be enough. If we did this every day that would be 35 minutes per week lost in instruction which is about 7 days lost over the course of a trimester. That might be too much for some folks (we already feel rushed in trimesters). On the other hand, if we are getting targeted support to all students who need or wish, would that make it so more could be accomplished?<br/><br/>Our ideas are nothing new or earth shattering. I swear I have read examples of what some other schools are doing but of course I am unable to find that information (must have been pre diigo and Evernote). I am hoping some others can share how their day is structured and any pros/cons.<br/><br/> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-41171789917787120312012-01-16T18:31:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.852-04:00#anyqsSo here is the usual "long time no see." Today I sent out an email to my colleagues and afterwards thought, this could have been a post. Then my wife came home with a message from a colleague saying I needed to start blogging. I guess you can say "I <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwatjHcV1ZM" target="_blank">saw the sign</a>."<br/><br/>Today during our staff development day, a few colleagues shared out what they have learned at their <a href="http://pzweb.harvard.edu/research/CultThink.htm" target="_blank">Cultures of Thinking</a> workshops. It prompted me to send out the email below and to then think it should have been a post.<br/><blockquote>Hey all mathy folk,<br/><br/>Earlier today we chatted about student thinking. Later on at CJHS building activities, Darlene shared out something from cultures of thinking called <a href="http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html" target="_blank">see-think-wonder</a> routine. My first thought while she was talking was "who stole #anyqs?"<br/><br/>For those of you who haven't dipped your toes into reading math teacher blogs or poking around twitter, #anyqs is a hashtag (a way to tag a conversation) that people use when posting (tweeting) something to do with a math topic you see around you. #anyqs is short for "any questions?" Example below:<br/><a href="http://jysd.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mathsfeedbacktweet1-13-121.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-83" title="mathsfeedbacktweet1-13-12" src="http://jysd.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mathsfeedbacktweet1-13-121.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="110" /></a><br/>(<a href="http://mrpiccmath.weebly.com/1/post/2012/01/3-acts-tv-space.html" target="_blank">Here is the link</a> from above if you were curious)<br/><br/>Yup, a whole bunch of math teachers out there just posting up stuff for you to use (of course if you are a nice guy you would go back and comment on the blog letting the person know how it went, what you did differently, etc. That's the idea behind sharing online.)<br/><br/>Want to know/see more? <a href="http://mrmeyer.com/threeacts/watertank/" target="_blank">This is the one</a> that started the whole idea behind #anyqs. <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/clarkston.k12.mi.us/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjIqyKM9d7ZYdEhtR3BJMmdBWnM2YWxWYVM1UWowTEE#gid=0" target="_blank">Here is a spreadsheet</a> (google doc of course) of possible #anyqs created by Dan Meyer (the guy your probably saw <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html" target="_blank">this</a> about. <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=10285" target="_blank">This post</a> describes the three acts of #anyqs. <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?cat=93" target="_blank">Here are some blog</a> posts describing more about the idea behind #anyqs and how you might use it.<br/><br/>If you have twitter, search for the hashtag #anyqs and you will see many more ideas being tossed around that you might use or spark a conversation with. Just to help show what you can do with twitter, <a href="http://storify.com/maxmathforum/the-three-acts-of-an-anyqs" target="_blank">here is an example</a> of some teachers (PS these are 3 teachers on opposite sides of the U.S. who only met through twitter, PSS if you are on twitter you should follow those 3) talking through a lesson plan involving #anyqs.<br/><br/>Cheers,<br/>Jamie</blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-53964991441439664772011-03-12T07:41:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.854-04:00Common Core AssessmentNow that the <a title="Common Core" href="http://www.corestandards.org/" target="_blank">Common Core</a> has been out and we have had some time to digest the new math standards, the next question is, what will the assessment look like? I wanted to share information present to us.<br/><br/>Since the fall, our district has been looking at our current alignment compared to the Common Core. For schools in Michigan, there does not appear to be a lot of changes. We have put together a plan on how to make the changes we need to over the next couple of years. The first Common Core assessment appears to be in the spring of 2015 (2014-15 school year).<br/><br/>So what will the assessment look like? Our state is part of the <a title="SBAC" href="http://www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER/" target="_blank">SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium</a> (SBAC). The other consortium is <a href="http://www.achieve.org/assessments-0" target="_blank">Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers</a> (PARCC). A brief summary of SBAC is <a title="SBAC Summary" href="http://www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER/pubdocs/SBACSummary2010.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. <a title="SBAC and PARCC overview" href="http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/Assessments_for_the_Common_Core_Standards.pdf" target="_blank">This one</a> gives a more in depth overview of both SBAC and PARCC along with a possible timeline. It also goes into more detail on what the tests will look like.<br/><br/>The SBAC assessment will include a substantial percent of performance and constructed response items and they intend to assess understanding, skills and processes. This does not look like the usual state multiple choice test. Some key points:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Use computer adaptive technology that will ask students tailored questions based on their previous answers.</li><br/> <li>Use one test at the end of the year for accountability purposes.</li><br/> <li>Create a series of interim tests used to inform students, parents, and teachers about whether students are on track.</li><br/></ul><br/>We have had some information shared with us on what the end of the year test will look like. It will be adaptive. If you are familiar with <a title="Aleks" href="http://www.aleks.com/k12" target="_blank">Aleks</a> then you have an idea of what adaptive is. Basically, when a student answers a question the next question is chosen based on what happened on the previous question. This means part of the assessment will be on a computer.<br/><br/>A preliminary break down of the item types include: 22% selected response, 41% technology-enhanced constructed-response, 14% traditional constructed response and 23% performance (1-2 class periods).<br/><br/><a title="SBAC Example Items" href="https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D331271_6363429_896578" target="_blank">Here</a> are some example items SBAC had in their grant application. Looking through them you see some of the usual MC questions. What is new are the constructed response (our state dropped constructed response a few years ago due to cost). Some of them involve using an applet. The last example is one for the performance question.<br/><br/>Based on the example constructed response and the performance task some folks are in for big changes. This is not the usual memorize and regurgitate questions. If you have not yet done so, there is going to be some changes in what you ask students to do in your classroom. Educators have talked before on what we ask our students to do vs what other countries ask their students to do. Like many of you, I too went straight to my grade level in the Common Core to see what the standards were. Looks like we need to pause and talk more about the <a title="Common Core Math" href="http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Math%20Standards.pdf" target="_blank">Standards for mathematical Practice</a> starting on page 6.<br/><br/>One question comes to mind, for our school how do we get 1400 kids on computers? It was mentioned the first couple years will be a transition with schools able to choose to go the "paper" route until technology is updated. With states slashing our budget, who is paying for it?<br/><br/>I am curious to see how this plays out.<br/><br/><strong>Update (May 4):</strong><br/>Came across some additional supporting materials at <a title="Tools for the Common Core Standards" href="http://commoncoretools.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">Tools for the Common Core Standards</a>. It has information such as progression of topics through the common core as well as a more interactive display of the common core.<br/><br/><strong>Update (May 5):<br/></strong><a title="NCTM Presedent" href="http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=30009" target="_blank">CCSSM and Curriculum and Assessment: NOT Business as Usual</a> An article from the NCTM president outlining the Common Core.<br/><blockquote><br/><p style="text-align:left;">Furthermore, these standards include both Standards for Mathematical Content and Standards for Mathematical Practice, and students’ mastery of both the content and the practices will be assessed in the designs being created by the two assessment consortia.</p><br/><p style="text-align:right;">NCTM President J. Michael Shaughnessy</p><br/></blockquote><br/>He mentions how many conversations are focusing on the standards themselves when we should be looking at the practices. He includes some additional resources.<br/><ul><br/> <li><a title="Assessment Plans" href="http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=30066" target="_blank">Presentation</a> of assessment plans from both assessment consortia. More detailed info than what I summarized in the post. Also gives some reasoning and explanation.</li><br/> <li><a title="Performance tasks" href="http://map.mathshell.org/materials/" target="_blank">Performance tasks</a> are available to the public from the MAP project on the MARS website and can be downloaded for noncommercial use.</li><br/> <li>Another <a title="collection of assessment tasks" href="http://www.insidemathematics.org/index.php/tools-for-teachers/" target="_blank">collection of assessment tasks</a> from Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative.</li><br/> <li>NCTM assessment resources from the <a title="Assessment Sampler" href="http://www.nctm.org/catalog/productsview.aspx?id=112" target="_self">Assessment Sampler</a> <em></em>series.</li><br/></ul>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-74930877025668815452011-02-05T17:26:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.863-04:00Update to Google Apps RoadblockI <a title="Google Apps Education Road Blocks" href="http://jysd.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/google-apps-education-road-blocks/">previously</a> asked for tips on how to interact with students using Google Apps for Education. The way our district (and maybe some of you) have set up the accounts for teachers and students made interaction between the two groups difficult.<br/><br/>We have teachers/staff set up on a primary domain (@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx) and students set up on a "non-primary" domain (@stu.xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx).<br/><br/>Here is an update from our technology director:<br/><blockquote>In our current Google Apps for Education configuration we have set up students in what is called a "non-primary" domain. This currently causes some limitations due to the way Google Apps handles non-primary domains. The limitations for Google Groups, Google Docs and Google Sites are listed below. I'm still trying to determine whether or not Google may be changing the way they handle non-primary domains or whether we should re-consider how we set up students.</blockquote><br/><strong>Google Groups:</strong><br/><br/><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;line-height:24px;"> </span><br/><ul><br/> <li>You cannot use <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33329" target="_blank">Google Groups</a> to create or manage groups in non-primary domains.</li><br/> <li>Users in domains other than the primary domain do not have access to the Google Groups user interface. These users will still receive messages from groups they belong to.</li><br/></ul><br/><strong>Google Docs:</strong><br/><ul><br/> <li>You cannot share Google Docs documents across domains using "Get the link to share".A user can share a Google Docs document with a user in another domain by clicking Share and inviting the user. However, when a user selects <a href="http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96346" target="_blank">Get the link to share</a>, recipients at other domains cannot use the generated link to access the document.</li><br/> <li>Sharing a document with a group does not work correctly when the group includes users from other domains. When you share a document with a group, Google Docs generates a link for accessing the document that is based on the group's domain. If the group includes users from other domains, the link will not work correctly for them.</li><br/> <li>You cannot restrict sharing to the users in a single domain. <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=60781" target="_blank">Sharing options</a> are based on the organization as a whole, not individual domains. To share a document with the users in a single domain (or any other subset of users), create a Google Group that includes all the users and share the document with that group.</li><br/></ul><br/><strong>Sites:</strong><br/><br/><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;line-height:24px;"> </span><br/><ul><br/> <li>When you share a site with a user from a different domain, the user sees a login screen for your domain. To access the site, the user needs to click Sign in with a different account before entering his or her account information.</li><br/> <li>You can only create a <a href="http://sites.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=99448" target="_blank">custom web address mapping</a> for a site at the primary domain.</li><br/></ul><br/> <br/><br/>While I would rather use a link posted in our class Moodle, for now I can share documents with student accounts by using the share setting where you type in an email address of the person to share with. Yeah I know, I did not want to have to type in 150 addresses either but wait, we are using Google Apps which has a form. I created a form for students to fill in their name, hour and school email. When I need to share I just copy from the form spreadsheet and paste into the share box of a document. The only hangup is students will mistype their address. I make it their responsibility to make sure they are receiving the necessary documents for what we are working on. It works for now but hopefully Google works on making it so the two domains can interact with each other as one. I do not have any tips to share for groups or sites since I have not used those two with students.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-62571882623077333912011-02-03T08:15:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.858-04:00My Life Organized - Final ThoughtsHere is the last of the three posts describing the tools I use to make life easier. In this post I will discuss: Bookmarking but better, Twitter and never reading the same book again (well at least not by accident).<br/><br/><strong><del><a title="Delicious" href="http://www.delicious.com/">Delicious</a></del> <a title="diigo" href="http://www.diigo.com">Diigo</a> - free/$<br/></strong>Both Delicious and Diigo are bookmarking tools. You probably use your web browser (IE, Firefox, chrome) to do the bookmarking for you. You probably have a long list of bookmarks or maybe you created some folders at an attempt to organize them. Remember that awesome idea on graphing quadratic functions you found? I bet you can not find the bookmark within five minutes. With Delicious or Diigo, you could have found it within five seconds. You use a bookmarking tool to obviously bookmark instead of using your browser. When you bookmark a page, you can add a sentence or two or three description to it. How many bookmarks do you have in your list you have no clue what they are for? You also "tag" your bookmark with a keyword or words. To use the graphing quadratic functions idea, I would have tagged using "graph". "quadratic", "function". Diigo will also suggest tags to you based on what other people have used. Later when I want to search my bookmarks I can search by tag. First I can click on the tag "graph". Any bookmark with graph as a tag shows up. Then I click on quadratic. Any bookmark with graph AND quadratic shows up. You can choose your tags in any order. No more remember what folder you put it in. You can also search your bookmarks similar to how you would search using Google. Another benefit to a bookmarking tool is you can search someone else's bookmarks if they made them public. If a person took the time to bookmark a page it must good or you can do what you normally do and search using Google and have to shift through thousands of pages. I switched to Diigo along with many others when it was <a title="Delicious no more?" href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/is-yahoo-shutting-down-del-icio-us/">leaked</a> that Yahoo was looking to get rid of Delicious. I actually like Diigo better. I recently had all 6-12 math teachers in our district create an account and join a group in Diigo. Now when any of us bookmark a page, we can share it to our group.<br/><br/><strong>Seesmic Web/Twitter - free<br/></strong>I know what you are thinking. "Why would I want to read about someone's life? Like I care if they just farted in line at the store." Twitter can be much more. I have met wonderful teachers who are willing to share anything they have as well as help you think through those random ideas you get for a lesson. A teacher on Twitter <a title="Box Plots and Shape" href="http://jysd.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/box-plots-and-shape/">created an applet</a> for me to use in stats. I am currently doing a book chat with a few teachers on twitter (search for #sbarbook on Twitter). I have gotten more out of Twitter than most professional development sessions (except for the math PD at Oakland Schools. Those have helped shape my teaching for the better). Instead of using the actual twitter site I wanted something to use on my computer and Droid. I also did not want to install anything on my computer. I wanted to be able to log in using any computer and get the same experience (set up). It was hard to make the choice. There are some good options out there and each has its own pros/cons. I am using the Seesmic App for Droid and Seesmic Web whenever I am at a computer.<br/><br/><strong><a title="LibraryThing" href="http://www.librarything.com/" target="_blank">LibraryThing</a> - free/$<br/></strong>Ever read a book and about half way through realize that nagging thought in the back of your head was right? You did read this book before. This is another tool where there are many options. I settled on LibraryThing mainly because you get the feeling the owners built this site because they love books, not because they want to make a million dollars. A free account lets you add a certain number of books. You can get a lifetime account for $25. Yes I said lifetime. Any book I have ever read or owned is recorded here, since I signed up that is. Just how many Hardy Boys did I read back in the day? You can look at your books as a list or by covers. You can organize them anyway you want. There is a community forum, book give aways, author chats. You can see recommendations based on what you have in your collection. I also use it to keep track of my kids' books.<br/><br/>Hopefully I was able to help someone out with an idea to make their life easier. Feel free to contact me with questions. I only charge $40 an hour per tech support call, or I like cookies.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-8832751317012961572011-02-03T05:30:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.868-04:00My Life Organized - Part 2In the <a title="My Life Organized – Part 1 of 3" href="http://jysd.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/my-life-organized/">previous post</a> I mentioned a smartphone (Droid) and Google Apps. Next I will introduce a "to do" App, note taker, password manager, and file synchronization.<br/><br/><strong><a title="Remember the Milk" href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/" target="_blank">Remember The Milk</a> -free/$ if you want Droid App<br/></strong>This is a "to do" or task list. There are other sites out there that are cheaper (RTM is $25 per year) but I really like this one. If you are a <a title="Getting Things Done" href="http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php" target="_blank">GTD</a> follower, this will be right up your alley. When looking for tools one requirement I have is to be accessible anywhere and sync with all devices. RTM is accessible with a Droid App, is web-based, and can be worked on off-line. This is where I will keep track of things like make copies of...., call pediatrician, send mom birthday card, etc. You can also share tasks. So yes, my honey do list is electronic. To help a little with the cost look for 3 months free gift promotions around the holidays. I'll buy my wife a year and get 3 months free and then she does the same.<br/><br/><strong><a title="Evernote" href="http://www.evernote.com/about/learn_more/" target="_blank">Evernote</a> -free/$<br/></strong>Your online filing cabinet and note taker. This is available as a desktop application, online, and smartphone. Recently (well November-ish) Evernote updated their Droid App making this even better. I promptly upgraded from free to a premium account ($45 per year). You are able to upload more per month and you get some other perks. Currently my wife and I are sharing the same account. We may end up getting our own and share "notebooks" between us. You can upload just about anything as well as use it as a note taker. You can organize by notebooks (folders) as well as tagging. If you are not familiar with tagging it is much more useful than folders. Ever try to find something but you can't remember what folder you put it in? Now you can tag all your items with a keyword or words. When you search you do not have to worry about what notebook you might have put it in. By using tags you can also see all items with that tag even if they are in different notebooks. I have not even started to tap the power of Evernote. On the wish list is a <a title="Would you like to donate? :)" href="http://scanners.fcpa.fujitsu.com/scansnap11/s1300.html" target="_blank">ScanSnap</a>. Then we can say goodbye to our filing cabinets. I would like to start using it for the classroom as well. <a title="Learning is Life. Russ Goerend" href="http://www.russgoerend.com/2010/09/one-of-essentials-in-reading-this-year.html" target="_blank">Here is one example</a> of how a teacher is using Evernote to document student learning. I use it as my brain dump. Any random ideas I have for a particular concept or if I come across a shared idea it goes here. We have all had those great ideas but forget about it by the time we get to covering that particular concept. Now I can easily find it.<br/><br/><del><strong><a href="http://www.roboform.com/" target="_blank">RoboForm</a></strong></del><strong> <a href="http://lastpass.com/" target="_blank">LastPass</a> - free/$<br/></strong>So many passwords, how do you remember them all? I don't. I have three passwords I need to remember. One of them is to LastPass. You know how you are supposed to create passwords with a combination of random letters and numbers? No, the name of your kid is not a <a title="Password hack" href="http://lifehacker.com/5505400/how-id-hack-your-weak-passwords">strong password</a> (<a title="Spaceball" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95SXe3pZoY">just for fun</a>). LastPass will create them for you and remember them. Now when I go to a website I have an account for, I just click on LastPass and it automatically fills in the user ID/name and password for me. I did use RoboForm for about the last 3 years. RoboForm was great. There is not much to complain about. There are three things which prompted me to switch. First I did not want to drag my USB drive around anymore (USB had all my files plus RoboForm on it). However if you do not use a USB drive RoboForm requires you to install software on whatever computer you are using. This required a purchase. The alternative was to use RoboForm online. RoboForm online only allows access, it does not allow you to create new passwords to remember. The second reason is RoboForm recently made a major revision to their software. If I wanted to upgrade my current version of RoboForm I would have to pay for each computer or purchase what they now call RoboForm Everywhere. The third and final reason for the switch is our district is contemplating going to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskless_node" target="_blank">dummy terminals</a>. In basic terms, you can not install any software on the computer in your classroom. It really is not a computer. It is just a way to access the server which contains all the software you need. If you want to install something you would need to contact the tech department. I was not looking forward to the possible hassle of having to go through the process of getting it approved or maybe even being denied. I understand the need to not have teachers installing any random thing we please. So the switch to LastPass. It is free to use on as many computers as you want. I pay ($12 per year) to have it on my Droid as well. You can also use it on a PC without installing any software. The online version will allow you to save new passwords. You can import passwords into LastPass. Please tell me you did not have IE or Firefox or Chrome remember your passwords for you though, right?<br/><br/><strong><del><a href="http://www.dropbox.com/" target="_blank">Dropbox</a></del> <a href="http://www.sugarsync.com" target="_blank">SugarSync</a> - free/$<br/></strong>Another service I recently switched. If you recall from above, I do not want to lug my USB drive around anymore. It just stinks when you forget it somewhere. By using a synchronization service, all my files are accessible from any computer. You have your files on your home computer. The synchronization service watches your files for any changes or new ones and stores them on their computers. When you log into another computer it then makes the necessary changes/additions to the files on that computer automatically. I have about 6GB of files I want access to. Out of that 6GB I really only use 3-4GB but I could not decide what to sync and what not to. I started with Dropbox (2GB free, $ for more space) and paid for more space. You download the Dropbox software to each computer you use or you can also access the files through the Dropbox website. Ahh, but remember how our school district is thinking about dummy terminals? It is much easier to use Dropbox if you install the Dropbox software on the computers you use. To use it from the website you have to manually download the file, make your changes, then manually upload the file back. Enter SugarSync. It does the same as Dropbox. The improvement is SugarSync has a great feature when accessing files through the SugarSync website. You click on the file, it opens on your computer, when you are finished it closes and then automatically uploads back to SugarSync. I now do not have to worry about installing SugarSync at school. Another improvement I like about SugarSync is you tell it what folders to sync up. With Dropbox you have to put all your files in a special Dropbox folder. Dropbox is aiming for the ease of use crowd but that one extra click to open the Dropbox folder and then get to my files was a little annoying. Both Dropbox and SugarSync let you share files using a public link. With Dropbox you have to put the file you want to share into a special public folder. Because I am lazy (aka efficient) I ended up putting all my files into the public folder. I did not want to have to remember if I moved an updated file to the public folder. I wanted all my files in their original folders. So now I have two extra clicks to get to my files. SugarSync allows you to share any file (or entire folder) no matter where it is as long as you have it synced. Dropbox is supposedly working on making it so you don't have to use the public folder. SugarSync is currently <a href="https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=fpoaks6kipvjd" target="_blank">offering 5GB free</a> (disclaimer: by using that link I get some extra space for referring you if you sign up but you get some extra space also). I will probably end up paying for a 30GB plan. The current promo gives you 10GB extra for upgrading to a paid plan and gives the person who referred you 10GB extra. I had my wife sign up first then I used her referral link. Now she will get 10GB free so between the two of us we only need to pay one yearly fee. The only drawback to using a synchronization tool is if you lose internet connection. You then lose access to your files (if using the web to access your files instead of a downloaded program) or your files do not sync until you regain your internet connection. Not having to carry around a USB or email files back and forth is worth the risk. At home we have lost internet connection twice in the past year and it was only for a couple of hours each time. So far this school year we have only lost internet connection once and it was also for only an hour or two.<br/><br/>Note: As much as I love "in the cloud" storage and syncing I do not trust it completely. I have my files backed up on an external hard drive. I have it set to auto back up every week. This way if SugarSync ever screws up or goes out of business I will not suddenly lose my files somehow. I also have carbonite which backs up almost my entire computer. Yes I am paranoid.<br/><br/>Next up: Bookmarking but better, Twitter and never reading the same book again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-79022726218025145272011-02-02T17:04:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.864-04:00My Life Organized - Part 1 of 3I have been helping out colleagues lately sharing with them organizational tools I use so I thought I would write a post (actually a series of posts) I could just point them to. I do go into more detail then what some of you need but I am writing this toward an audience who may not be entirely comfortable with all things "techy". This is not meant as a "how to" guide but just an overview of some tools, why I use them, and how you might use them.<br/><br/>In this first post I will talk about the Droid and Google Apps.<br/><br/>My life did not used to be so laid out. Anything I needed to remember I could just file away in my head. If something was forgotten or missed, mehh. Then life happened. Now if it does not get written down it does not happen.<br/><br/>Many of the tools I will mention I have only started using in the last year or two. It mainly started when my wife's PDA died. We decided to take the plunge and both got a Droid. Now I have no idea how I made it through life pre-Droid.<br/><br/><strong>Smart Phone -$<br/></strong>This would be tool #1. All the tools I will mention are accessible with the Droid. Many of them will even sync (if you make a change on a computer it will automatically be changed on the Droid and vice versa) to the Droid. Most of our friends and family are on Verizon so we decided to stay instead of going the iPhone route. So far no complaints. It's just awesome, well except for the cost of the data plan but I still say it is well worth it.<br/><br/><strong>Google Calendar - free<br/></strong>It is actually nice being able to see in detail what is happening. We created a calendar for each member of the family. We also did a birthday/anniversary calendar. Now that school is using Google apps, we can also pull in our work calendars. The main tip is to make sure you pull in your work calendar into your personal Google account and not the other way around. When I log into my school Google account, I only see work related information. However it is set up so I can edit my work calendar while logged into my personal account. I also set up a calendar for each class I teach. Our district uses school center to host our website. Instead of using the calendar in school center for my class webpage, I embedded the class Google calendar I created. Now I only have to log into school center at the beginning of the year to update any random info. I run my class through Moodle which is another reason I never have to use school center. The class calendar is also embedded in our class Moodle page. I only need to log into my Google account and add to the class calendar. The calendar is then instantly updated wherever I put it. Students who have a Google account can subscribe to our class calendar so they do not actually have to visit my website or Moodle. When I add an event or make a change, they can instantly see it on their Google Calendar. If each of their teachers did the same, a student could see all of his/her classes at once.<br/><br/><strong>Google Reader - free<br/></strong><a title="Rabbit Holes" href="http://jysd.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/rabbit-holes/" target="_blank">It all started</a> when I came across a <a title="Dan Meyer TED Talk" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html">TED Talk</a>. I now follow many blogs. Instead of having to go to each blogger's page to see if they posted something new, it comes to me. Whenever someone publishes a new post it shows up in Google reader. I can now quickly scan through multiple blog postings without having to leave reader. Another feature is to track key words or set up a Google alert. Let's say I am interested in standards based grading. I can set up my reader to pull in any news story, blog posting, basically anything published on the web about standards based grading. This is not a search. I do not have to do anything except tell reader to watch for anything to do with "standards based grading". Reader looks for new content and brings it to me. New content meaning anything about "standards based grading" starting the day I set up the reader to look for it. If I want to see old content (something published to the web before I set up reader) then I would need to do a search and manually go look for it.<br/><br/><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Chrome - free<br/></strong>Chrome has won me over from Firefox. They can argue all they want about which is faster, what I like is the sync ability. When I open Chrome at school it looks just like the way I have it set up at home. Not all but most of the extensions will also sync. Extensions add features to Chrome that Google did not make themselves. Other people make them to use with Chrome. The only unfortunate thing is for folks in my school district. IE is the only one guaranteed to work completely with our online gradebook. There are some features that do not work in Chrome. One work around is to install an IE extension. It looks like you are using IE except you are still inside Chrome. The one I use is "Chrome IE Tab Multi". However there are a couple kinks but for the most part the gradebook features I want still work.</span><br/><br/><span style="color:#000000;">Note: If you decide to use the Google tools I mentioned, I recommend you do so using a personal Google Account. If your school district has Google Apps and provides you with an account, the school district owns it. </span><br/><br/><span style="color:#000000;">Next post: A "to do" App, note taker, password manager, and file synchronization.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-14372193052813102652010-12-29T14:44:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.849-04:00Introducing Graphs to Display DataHow we introduced some of the various ways to display data with graphs went smoother this term. The first types of graphs we cover are stemplots, dot plots, and histograms. The textbook sort of whacks away at it with no rhyme or reason. I wanted there to be a flow between the different types of graphs to help show why each might be needed.<br/><br/>We start the term with a video from the <a title="Against All odds" href="http://www.learner.org/resources/series65.html" target="_blank">Against All Odds</a> series by Annenberg called "<span style="line-height:6px;">What is Statistics." </span>Before we watch I give the students a little pep talk on what we will be watching. The video series is a little dated so I wanted to give the message of the video a chance before students tune out because of the 80's hairstyles, clothing, etc. I tell them about the awesome 80's and they have seen a couple of "back in the day" photos of me already the first day of class. I tell them to make mental notes of the of the style of the day because in twenty years they will get to look back at themselves and do the same. I also mention the video is about how statistics is used. After the video we chuckle about some of our favorite styles in the video but then chat about how the same thing is done now but with newer technology. Talking points that get brought up are how websites seem to "know" you and Facebook applications. How many "which friend do you know best?" quizzes have we taken?<br/><br/>In various scenarios the video basically shows people going through the scientific method. The video focuses on the data collection and interpretation. Using that as our backdrop we talk about dominant and non-dominate in regards to hand eye coordination. We come to a general agreement that your dominant hand is supposed to be better. The book has a penny stacking experiment where the class stacks with non-dominate and then compares to the "class" in the book results for dominate hand. Where is the fun in that? Since we have not even opened the book yet I comment I just happen to have a tub full of pennies we could stack. From there we design our experiment to collect data. Since this is our very first time designing an experiment we make all kinds of mistakes that we will get to talk about later. They do a decent job pulling in their experience from various science classes. We then do our experiment.<br/><br/>Here is where the fun starts. We want to analyze our data to see if yes indeed our dominate hand is better at stacking pennies then our non dominate hand. I have not had this happen yet, but to make sure the students do not get all fancy on me and organize themselves I have a few boys start us off by putting their results on the board. Dominate hand on one side and non-dominate on the other. The boys have so far done a nice job of using various font size, sideways, upside down, in other words making it look messy. The rest of the class then joins in. Once our data is on the board the question is posed. Is our hypothesis correct? A few students will take a stab at it. We usually get conflicting arguments (remember we didn't design our experiment very well so it actually is not obvious which hand is better). I then ask what's the big deal? Which hand is better? Someone then suggests we organize our data. A list is usually the first suggestion. Even with a list we still have some difficulty. By now the day is over and we will come back to it tomorrow. At this time I have the students put their data in for me. I have two computers in the room where I have a google form set up. They just walk over and type in their info.<br/><br/>The next day I introduce a stemplot. Afterwards our debate becomes easier. Students are more confident in their opinions. Another usual suggestion from earlier is to have a graph so a dot plot is introduced. Again students are confident in their opinions using the dot plot to back it up. Somewhere along the line there is usually the suggestion to have more data. Since we did the experiment the day before I have all the hours written down. Since they wanted more data I offer up the data from the other hours and have them add it to their dot plots. After a few minutes of letting them work on the dot plots some grumbling begins and I stop the class and ask why all the not so happy faces? Of course they talk about how it is annoying to put all those dots in and their dot plots are starting to look messy.<br/><br/>Cue the histogram. We dive into histograms. They like seeing how a bunch of dots become a "bin" for a histogram. Our histogram is on the board and underneath each bin I will put a cup to help emphasize a bin is a collection of our dots.<br/><br/>As we introduced ourselves to the different graphs we are also discussing advantages and disadvantages of each. I liked how each graph had a reason for being instead of the usual "here are the different graphs now go make them".<br/><br/>If you noticed we did not go back and debate dominate vs. non-dominate again using the histogram. That will be our launch for the next topic, describing a distribution.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-56606359375024592072010-12-03T13:29:00.000-05:002012-07-26T21:28:04.856-04:00Google Apps Education Road BlocksI am running into some road blocks with google apps. Our school just switched this year. Teachers and students have accounts. I believe we have just the basic applications for education (mail, calendar, documents, sites, groups). In talking to others I seem to be one of the first trying out some applications so it appears I am the only one experience the road blocks I am running into.<br/><br/>I am using blended instruction with my stats classes. Moodle is our "home base" online. Whether the students are doing something during the school day or at home, I would like to make it so we go to moodle and from there complete our lessons/activities.<br/><br/>An example, students roll some dice and enter their results into a <a title="Law Large numbers Spreadsheet" href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/clarkston.k12.mi.us/ccc?key=0Atag3M7KL7MfdC02OEJUSVhCM2p1dmhMSDNqbmRKUkE&hl=en&authkey=CN7ij-AL#gid=0" target="_blank">spreadsheet</a> (post coming soon on this lab). Or I might have them take a survey using google form or collaborate on a google document.<br/><br/>In all of those cases I want to make it easy for myself by having the link to those documents in Moodle instead of having to use the share feature and type in everyone's email address. The way I want to share those documents is by forcing students to have to log into their google account. In all of those documents I have tried checking the box that says something like "People at xxxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx with the link" or "Require xxxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx sign-in to view this form." The reason I want to require the sign in is so I can see or have record of who made changes to a document in case a student ever has a bad day and decides to take it out on our shared document. For forms, to automatically collect their user info when filling out a form instead of having a question on the form asking for their name.<br/><br/>Where I am running into a road block is when a student clicks on a link they are asked to sign in when they already have. It also is sending them to a sign in page that does not work for students. It sends them to the teacher log in page. I've tried workarounds by having them sign into Google first then click on the shared link. I've tried to email them directly the shared link. I've tried to share directly with them the document. All fail. Students are also unable to join a Google group that I set up.<br/><br/>I think what is happening is the way our accounts have been set up. Students look like: jmfrankenburry11@stu.xxxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx while teachers look like: jpmorganister@xxxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx. Where a teacher logs in vs a student is also different.<br/><br/>Is that the issue and is there something we need to set up so that students and teachers can interact with each other? Otherwise this kinda defeats the purpose of being able to lock things down to just your domain.<br/><br/>For now I can make it so students are not required to log into their Google account to get to our documents. I then just cross my fingers and hope I have created a classroom environment where it wouldn't cross a student's mind to mess up our shared docs. I am also able to use the private share feature. I just have to type in all their email addresses. To make that easier I'm going to have them fill out a form with their email so I can just copy paste that column.<br/><br/>Thoughts? Thank you to any and all who can give suggestions.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-28429272619316443362010-10-16T10:15:00.000-04:002012-07-26T21:28:04.851-04:00Box Plots and ShapeAwhile ago someone re-tweeted a request for applet ideas using <a href="http://www.geogebra.org/cms/" target="_blank">GeoGebra</a>. I had just been scouring for an applet where students could play with a distribution and see how it is related to a box plot. I could not find anything to fit exactly what I was looking for. So, I jumped all over the opportunity.<br/><br/>I visited the <a href="http://mrho.net/blog/" target="_blank">tweeted link</a> and put in my request. Hardly a day had passed and <a href="http://mrho.net/math/dotplotsboxplots2.php" target="_blank">this applet</a> was the result. @mrhodotnet had nailed it! Exactly what I was looking for.<br/><br/>With permission I embedded the applet into our class's moodle. A couple of minor cosmetic changes is all I did.<br/><ul><br/> <li>I hid the spreadsheet and toolbar menu. We (and I) have not used GeoGebra before. I didn't want the spreadsheet and toolbar to distract from our goal.</li><br/> <li>I moved the list of values to the top of the page.</li><br/> <li>I moved a couple of other labels around to give more space.</li><br/></ul><br/>Other than that the applet is as is. Students use the sliders to add/remove values to the dotplot. At the same time a box plot is also created. The second dot plot I will get to later.<br/><br/>I had two goals for the lesson:<br/><ul><br/> <li>For students to discover box plots can (not always) give clues to the shape of a distribution.</li><br/> <li>To get rid of a common misconception in box plots. Students believe if a whisker is longer than the other whisker it is because the longer whisker contains more values. They also believe the same if one side of the box is longer than the other.</li><br/></ul><br/>The activity on moodle looked like this:<br/>-----------------------------------------------------------------<br/>In this lab you will investigate features of a box plot and how to get a rough idea of shape from a box plot.<br/><br/>To complete the lab:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Open the applet</li><br/> <li>Open the answer sheet to record your answers to the questions below.</li><br/> <li>When finished, hand in the answer sheet to turnitin.com</li><br/></ul><br/>Tips for using the applet:<br/><ul><br/> <li>There are 10 "sliders" across the top. Left click on a slider and drag it up and down. Example: If you click on the second slider, as you move up or down you will add or remove 2's from the set of data.</li><br/> <li>At the very top as you add values they will be listed out.</li><br/> <li>As you add values the dot plot and blue box plot will be created.</li><br/> <li>Ignore the check boxes on the right side.</li><br/> <li>The green target box plot is automatically created every time you press F9. You can try to add values to the set of data to make the blue box plot match the green box plot. If they match look for a special message.</li><br/></ul><br/>A. Add values to the dot plot to create a distribution that is symmetric (remember it doesn't have to be perfect, that's why we sometimes call it approximately normal).<br/>1. Now that you made your dot plot symmetric, describe what your box plot looks like.<br/>2. Look at another student's box plot. What features do your box plots have in common? (If you do not have another student's box plot to look at, rearrange your values to create a another dot plot that is symmetric.)<br/>3. In general, what do you notice about a box plot that may indicate it is a symmetric distribution?<br/><br/>B. Add and/or remove values to create a distribution that is skewed right.<br/>1. Describe what your box plot looks like.<br/>2. Look at another student's box plot. What features do your box plots have in common?<br/>3. In general, what do you notice about a box plot that may indicate it is a skewed right distribution?<br/><br/>C. Add and/or remove values to create a distribution that is skewed left.<br/>1. Describe what your box plot looks like.<br/>2. Look at another student's box plot. What features do your box plots have in common?<br/>3. In general, what do you notice about a box plot that may indicate it is a skewed left distribution?<br/><br/>D. Create a box plot using 20 values.<br/>1. How many values are above the median? below?<br/>2. How many values are above quartile 3? below?<br/><div>E. Change your values so that the right whisker is much longer than the left whisker.<br/>1. How did you change your values to make the right whisker long?</div><br/><div>2. Which whisker contains more values?<br/><br/></div><br/>F. Change your values so that the box from the median to Q3 is much shorter than the box from Q1 to the median.<br/>1. How did you change your values to make the box from the median to Q3 short?<br/>2. Which contains more values, the box from Q1 to median or the box from median to Q3?<br/><div>G. What is a box plot showing you about the data when a whisker or box is long vs short?</div><br/>H. Change your values so that you have NO whisker on the left.<br/>1. How did you change your values to make it happen?<br/><br/>Additional practice:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Press F9 to make the green target box plot change</li><br/> <li>Add and/or remove values until you get your blue box plot to match the green one</li><br/> <li>Repeat as often as you want.</li><br/></ul><br/>-------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>One of my faults I have found when doing these guided discoveries when using an applet is I tend to stray from my intended goals and go a little overboard with the questions. That whole being succinct thing is not my strong suit.<br/><br/>Overall the students were on track with the first objective. @mrhodotnet gave some ideas about questions where a box plot fails at providing us with a shape. In our debrief session I made a couple of distributions and had only the box plot visible for the students. I set the trap asking for the shape and then showed the matching dot plot. They were quick to see box plots do not always show shape. This is when we took the opportunity to reinforce the idea the main objective behind using a box plot is to quickly compare data sets and get a visual of their spreads.<br/><br/>The second objective did not go as well. More students then I cared for still had the misconception that a whisker or part of a box is long because it contains more values. Questions D-H above is where I tried to have students play with the idea.<br/><br/>As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated. Thanks again @mrhodotnet for creating the applet!<br/><br/> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-64652194209281399002010-10-16T09:36:00.000-04:002012-07-26T21:28:04.859-04:00Measures of Center in Relation to ShapeI had a lesson that did not go as I thought it would when I planned it out. I reached out for help and @druinok was able to lend a hand. Below is our exchange (I didn't have a blog yet).<br/><br/>We have been working on how to display data (stem plot, dot plot, histogram, relative frequency histogram, frequency table). We know how to describe data (SOCS) with a slight except for outliers. For those we are just gut feeling it right now. The official calculation will come shortly. We have been playing around with characteristics/properties of mean, median, mode such as:<br/><ul><br/> <li>outliers cause the mean to change more than median and why that makes sense,</li><br/> <li>if few values in your data set then that one outlier can have bigger effect on mean then if lots of values.</li><br/></ul><br/>So my next step was to show how in certain shapes (skewed left/right and symmetric) mean, median and mode generally follow a pattern in where they are located in relation to each other (skewed right the mean tends to be greater than median etc.).<br/><br/>Instead of just telling or showing I thought I would have them do the following:<br/><ul><br/> <li>broke the class into thirds. Each third had to create a histogram with their assigned shape (skewed left or right or symmetric).</li><br/> <li>calculate the mean, median and mode and mark/label it on your histogram.</li><br/> <li>students then go gather in a corner of the room with others who created the same shape to see if they notice anything.</li><br/> <li>go back to table group and share what you observed, "hey guys when you have skewed right the mean is tends to be greater than median, cool huh? what did you find?"</li><br/> <li>pat ourselves on the back and move on</li><br/></ul><br/>Things that did not go as planned:<br/><ol><br/> <li>Creating the histogram took longer than anticipated, actually much longer. They really liked thinking up a pretend scenario and then coming up with data values based on how it might actually happen if they did the survey/measurement. I was thinking just quick draw a histogram with meaningless values as long as it meets the required shape and then do the calculations.</li><br/> <li>Many of the scenarios they came up with (like how many pets you own) did not have a very big spread so the mean being greater than the median was not as obvious.</li><br/> <li>I think because of #2 when they went to their corners to talk with other people who had a similar shape the "ah ha" factor did not happen. They were looking at the actual values of mean, median and mode instead of how they were in position to one another.</li><br/></ol><br/>So basically I ended up having to spoon feed on this one. I suppose I could supply them with a variety of data which when displayed on a histogram would lend itself to the "ah ha" moment more easily. On the other hand I did like how some of them were really thinking what the actual survey results would look like if they did it. Some nice thought processes. They seem to get into it more when it is their data instead of "fake" data. Another possibility would be to use technology (TI calc or statcato) to make histogram for them so that would take out the time there. I'm not sure about that option either, by having them make the histogram by hand I was getting in some more practice time as far as how a histogram is made and what would make a bin be higher or lower. Not many but some kids think tall bin means higher values not more frequent value so it was nice to hear convos like "I need lots of that number to make the bin higher".<br/><br/>@druinok's reply:<br/><blockquote><br/><div>Random thoughts...</div><br/><div>I love the idea of the activity!! A couple of ways to revise it for next year...</div><br/><div>1) Have the kids brainstorm some distributions they think would be symmetric vs skewed first, then assign them a dataset to gather? That way you have a bit more control over graphs that have a wider spread</div><br/><div>2) I like that the kids had to make their own histograms and had those convos - the kids definitely need that additional practice in creating a histogram!</div><br/><div>3) If you have access to a computer lab, statcato might be fun for them to play around with, but you aren't going to have the same discussions I don't think as you did by hand.</div><br/><div>4) I plan to steal your idea for next year :) LOL Thanks for sharing!!! (and btw, this would make an amazing blog post!!!)</div><br/><div>Overall, the only thing that I think would be the kicker for change is making sure they understand they are looking for *patterns* in the *relationship* for mean, median, and mode rather than the actual numbers.</div></blockquote><br/><div></div><br/><div>Her last comment was definitely a Homer Simpson moment, dohh! Before the students met with their shape groups all I said was something along the lines of "see what you notice." Grrr. The other issue of students mainly coming up with distributions with small spreads may be helped by 1).</div><br/><div></div><br/><div>Thank you again @druinkok for your thoughts. If anyone else has more to add please do so. This process has been very helpful to me. I look forward to posting more lesson ideas and failures.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543206746484588517.post-69452194925348744812010-10-15T20:13:00.000-04:002012-07-26T21:28:04.861-04:00Rabbit HolesThis past summer I found myself exploring an unknown path. It started with an email towards the end of the school year from NCTM. It made reference to some TEDTalks. One of the TedTalks referenced was by <a title="Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html" target="_blank">Dan Meyer</a>. It piqued my interest and off I went exploring his bio link which led to his blog. Blog? Isn't that a place were people just spout off random stuff about whatever? Rants about politics or showcasing to the world their random hobbies you didn't know existed?<br/><br/>Wow. A normal person blogging, and sharing their thoughts on something I actually cared about. I quickly found myself engrossed. I couldn't seem to pull myself away from reading post after post. What's this off to the right? A blogroll, hmmm. Whoa! More normal people also sharing their thoughts on teaching. I quickly made friends with Google Reader. I had a hard time restraining myself from sharing every detail I read about with my wife. This was the first of the rabbit holes.<br/><br/>I then saw in the comments people posting with an @ in front of their name. What's this? Twitter ehh? Isn't that were people post messages about the crappy or good food they just had at a restaurant? Knowing how wrong I was about blogs I made my way into twitter. One person led to another and I found myself following and conversing with a group of teachers who all cared about bettering themselves in order to help students be successful. I couldn't believe the amount of collaboration that was occurring.<br/><br/>Recently two of those people <a href="http://statteacher.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">@druinok</a> and <a href="http://mrho.net/blog/" target="_blank">@mrhodotnet</a> helped me with a couple of stat lessons. I'll post about those next. That was the push that got me started here. I look forward to making the rabbit hole even deeper.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05035708452655332138noreply@blogger.com0