I finished the readers/writers project and I am very happy with the results. The web log has its first entry and I have added a picture and a clock. I hope to also add a map of the people that have viewed it and links to math websites. My newsletter changed a bit as I am going to have a student write the first entry on what we are doing and how parents can help. The contract that I devised will have to change a bit as I am going to take out the last prompt about the contract being unbinding; if I do not then the students might say they do not have to follow it.

My reflection is a bit longer than I expected as I decided to make sure that there was a good explaination of each topic and source. The presentation was a little disappointing as only a few people came over to see what I had done, for those of you who did I thank you. But I am happy that the class went well and am looking forward to turning in my Instructional Strategy Synthesis Paper.

This I Believe

What is it that I believe about writing in the classroom? I do think that writing should be a part of every classroom, even math. But for me I think that the question is: "What is it that I believe, about writing being a part in the math classroom?" In a math classroom the only writing that is usually done is in number form. But when you really think about it; what is a number anyway? A number is really just a word in symbolic form that stands for a quantity. So math really has no reason to not have writing. I believe that there are two very important roles that math could be a part of the writing world.

My first is with formulas. A mathematics formula can be a very short or long process. However, writing the formula out in word form can help with the memorization of the steps to solve a problem. Take the slope formula as an example using the coordinates (1,2) (3,4). Now slope is just the degree at which to points are connected known as rise over run. In other words, the line will rise (or fall) so far from a point and run (move left to right) from the point. That is the long explanation of slope, but when I have the students write the words out then the numbered formula (y2-y1/x2-x1) and work it out, they have a better understanding of what the slope of the line is.

My second is with word problems. Most students think of word problems as long, boring problems that they have to read over and over to understand. But what I do is have them create and write our a word problem using several parameters, so they can see exactly how easily word problems can be solved. The students then do not see word problems as such an arduous task.

So for the statement, "This I believe", I believe that writing can be used in any discipline, it is only a matter of digging down a bit to understand where it could be the most helpful.

Are You a Reader?

Since I can't figure out how to post a response onto "Are you a Reader" I will just do it here. Am I a Reader, sure I am but truthfully, only to books that I find interesting and there are not a bunch of those, and I do not search very hard. I did find "Chew on This" very interesting because it told a story. That is what I like to read the most: stories. For a long time I enjoyed the Lieutenant Bak stories about ancient Egypt by Lauren Haney. He is a policeman in ancient Egypt and he solves murder mysteries. I started reading them when I went to Europe in 2002. It was one of those books I could not put down, especially on the train during long rides. Overall, I am just the type of reader that enjoys some depth behind a book, that hasn't been made into a movie, and is something that I am not really forced to read.

EDTP 620 Blog for 6-29

Well, Laura and I were able to do the Book Trailer today, and I believe that it is very good. It starts off with what people might dream about (with a few funny extras) then goes into the subject matters of our book. We added music and my voice (in a scary tone) for some good audio and worked to get the timing down just right. It was a worthwhile project to do and a lot of fun to make.

EDTP 620 Blog for 6-28

I have been working on both the Readers/Writers project and the Book Trailer in the past three days. For the Book Trailer, Laura and I are still ironing out the details but it should be good when it is finished. For the Readers/Writers project, I have decided to do a class/teacher/parent communication project that includes bi-weekly/monthly news letters and a Class-blog for happenings in the class and past/future assignments. I contacted a parent that I talked to frequently during the last school year, and her idea about better communication was to have something on-line that parents could go to, to see what has been happening in the class. So I intend to create a weblog that will give parents the daily activities in class and what has been going on recently, just in case they are not being told everything at home. I created a class newsletter with help from an on-line creation website and I like how it looks. I am still looking for literature to help with the third genre, but with a little more work I should come up with an idea here soon.

EDTP 620 Blog for 6-25

This blog is over the Springfield Township Video blog on our class wiki. I found it interesting that a school had the opportunity to podcast so many different areas of English and reading to a website. I believe that many students learn better from both a visual and auditory manner through technology. I also find it good that there are different categories for students to be able to podcast from Math to certain books for Catcher in the Rye.

Laura and myself are teamed up to do the Book Trailer Assignment on our book, "The Number Devil." There are many different concepts in the book and I think that this is where our story line will come from.

EDTP 620 Blog for 6-22

Today my group and I did the podcast for "Chew on This". I wasn't worried at all about doing the project because Justin and I had already done a podcast in Teaching with Technology. I came up with several of the questions and the group pondered about several other questions to ask. In the end we condensed the podcast down to four really good questions. The podcast went as a form of the political talk show "The McLaughlin Group". I was the moderator with the other members of the group acting as the analysts. Different questions were asked to different members of the group and I gave my opinion at the end of each question. It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs, and it was also a very successful. I am hoping that we did well enough that our next podcast assignment will be knocked out, not that I don't enjoy doing the podcast, it just will be one thing less on our plates.