Thursday, September 25, 2008

Wikis

Wikis can be useful if you want to help students remember what they learned, because in order to create a wiki page students have to do research on the topic that is being used for the wiki page. In the process of doing research for the wiki page students are learning and the information that they are learning they are remembering, because they are doing a hands-on activity. I would use wikis in my future class. I would have my students research about a math theory and create their own wiki page, because it is important that students know background information about math.

Learning communities and traditional instruction is more effective based on the person that is learning. I think learning communities can be effective for some students, because some students only like to socialize with people who believe the same thing. But than there are other students who like to learn from traditional instruction because they feel like they learn how to do things differently in more than one way. So in order to find out which one is more effective than I would have to ask my future students which learning style is more effective for them.

Students have different learning styles, because their personality. A student that likes to have fun is probably going to want to learn things in a fun way and they are not going to always want to do book work. It would be helpful if I had my students take a personality test, because it will help me know a little bit more about them and it will help me know what assignment would be more effective on each student.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Spreadsheet

I think that spreadsheets can be very useful for anyone. I would use spreadsheets for my own personal reasons and in my future classroom. In my class, I would use a spreadsheet to help me calculate my students' grades, keep track of attendance, create worksheets and organize my lesson plans.

Teachers use spreadsheets to calculate students' grades, keep track of attendance, create worksheets and organize lesson plans. The advantage of using a spreadsheet over a calculator is that you can type in the formula once instead of calculating numbers for the same formula over and over. I think that the three primary functions: storing, calculating, and presenting information are very useful, because you can store students' grades and if they want to know their grades you can pull it up. I also like that the spreadsheet will calculate the information for you as long as you type in the correct grades and prove the formula. If you need to present the students' grade to the students or the parents you can.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Inspiration

I like the Inspiration website, because it helps you to create your own notes and turn your notes into a paper. The only time I think this website would be useful for my own classroom in the future is if I am asking my students to write a paper on the history of math. Even though Inspiration might not be useful in my classroom, I still would recommend that my students use it in other subjects. Not only is Inspiration useful for students; it is also useful for teachers , because teachers can use it to help organize notes that he or she plans to use in his or her lecture.

In the future when I am in my own classroom, I will have my students write a report on the history of a math theorm and what type of job the math theorm is used in. The activity I would have my students do is write the paper on their blogger and have someone else read his or her paper, so that he or she can get tips on how to improve his or her paper. After the students have completed writing his or her paper than he or she will need to put the paper in a powerpoint to present it to the class.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Blogs

I think blogs are useful, because it allows you to know the opinion of the students that refuse to talk in class. Students could also learn things from other people, like what other students like, where other students are from or they can get help on how to do an assignment. For example, when students write papers they can post their essay on their blog, so that they can get feed back from other students. Blogs are also useful in other subjects, because if you have a question about an assignment than you can post your question on your blog and your classmates can help you.

The technology ideas discussed in Chapter 6 are very useful for all subjects. The teacher can ask students to do a wiki page for an assignment. For example, in a math class the teacher can tell students to pick a problem, show the steps to the problem and than tell in words how to do the problem. Next, have students read at least one students problem and check to see if they did the correct steps, if they did their steps wrong than tell them how to correct them.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Introduction

Hello, my name is Gina. I have a son and I am engaged. I love to spend my free time with my son and fiance', because they mean so much to me. I enjoy being a mother, it just feels so good to know that I am someone's world.

I am majoring in mathematics and when I finish school I plan to teach high school. I want to teach math, because it is my favorite subject and it is the only subject that you don't have to read that much in.