The end is in sight!

All major projects have been completed for my two classes this summer. The only things left to do are respond to a few peoples posts and blogs and do a little twittering tweeting. I can't say this is the most fun I have had for 5 weeks but I can say that it hasn't been too bad! Hopefully I will get to enjoy a little bit of the summer before I need to start thinking about and planning for next school year.

podcast

Well, I have completed my podcast. It is a doozy. What math student who is learning about the quadratic formula wouldn't want to listen to an 11 minute podcast on it and how to use it? Come on! I'll bet you can't find one who would! :-P

I have to say that as I was planning this podcast, I really struggled finding a topic. As a math teacher, I strongly feel that vodcasts (screencasts) are much better suited. I had asked Dr. Ingram if I could do a screencast instead and he said I could, but I really wanted to use my Interwrite Learning pad for it and it is at school. My iPad and my finger (which works better than any stylus) just wouldn't be the same. So, I stuck with the podcast.

I was amazed to find out that with the intro, giving the formula, and working through an example took over 10 minutes. If this were a screencast, it would have been around 7 minutes. With audio only, I felt I had to repeat some things so that the student wouldn't get lost. With a screencast, the student would have been able to pause to catch up and/or rewind much easier than on a podcast. I am sure that podcasts have their place, but I do not feel explaining how to solve math problems is one! Perhaps I could use it to have the students create short podcasts of their own by recording where they find math outside of the classroom or even interviewing family members and neighbors as to where they use math everyday or on the job (shout out to Jodi Robison for that idea!).

Well, if you want to take a listen, here it is. *warning* there is some BAD singing on it.

References:


Roberts, D. (2015). Quadratic Formula - MathBitsNotebook(A1 - CCSS Math). Retrieved July 3, 2015.

Job opportunity

So, here is a story for you. About 5 years ago, the computer teacher was put on the RIF list (Reduction in Force - the administration eliminated her position). Nine years ago, we had our new K-12 building open. This computer teacher started off in the high school nine years ago and after a few years of slowly declining enrollment in her high school courses, a few middle school courses were added to her schedule. A year later, she had mostly middle school courses. The next year, only middle school and the year after, all study hall classes. That is when she was RIFed.

So now I am getting a degree in Instructional Technology and told the administration that I was doing so just the last week of school (another long and boring story as to why I didn't tell them sooner). I didn't think anything would come of it and sort of regretted saying anything to them. Lo and behold, I did the correct thing by doing so! On Wednesday, June 24, my principal called me and offered me 3 computer classes to teach next year. They could be anything that I want them to be. Tempting! My concern, especially as union president, is that we (the administration and I) would be in violation of the contract. *sigh* I have spent most of the last 3 days fretting and investigating and researching how we can get this to happen. It appears that the RIFed teacher did not renew her license when she should have and that could be my in. I have a colleague who is friendly with her and she has a mission to find out if the RIFed teacher would want to come back.

Here's hoping! Fingers crossed! Wish me luck! Erin Go Bragh! Hive five, spit in your eye! (what was that last one?) geesh....

WebQuest and Mobile App

Well, I got my grade for my WebQuest. I am satisfied, not thrilled with it. It is what it is. I do believe that I will use it in my class next year and I hope the students are receptive to it.

I spent about 8 hours on Sunday and Monday working on the actual Mobile App not the design. Whoops! I went to submit my app and saw that we had to just do the design first. Describing the app that I did create and what I actually wanted to happen took me about 2 hours to complete. Here's hoping that Dr. Ingram won't penalize me for the design and likes the app!

2 weeks down

I have been learning to budget my time to keep up with all the assignments for two five-week classes in the summer. My "secret" is to read the required readings first. That and try to get the big projects and/or posts out of the way so that by Saturday, there isn't much left to do that is majorly time consuming. I have completed my WebQuest and now I will be spending most of the day Monday working on my app. Wish me luck!

1 week down

I was a bit nervous on Wednesday of the first week that three courses over five weeks was going to be a bit much. I ended up dropping one course and by Friday I felt much better about this semester. I am happy to say that I was completed with my first week's assignments early on Sunday afternoon. I had even had a day off on Thursday and 1/2 day on Saturday to do real life things! I was able to read a book for pleasure Sunday and finished it about an hour ago. Now it's down to business for week two!

Twitter list

Hello fellow ITEC Instructional Applications of the Internet classmates! I have created a list of all of us on Twitter thereby creating a mini-feed on which it is easy to read all of your tweets! If you would like to join it, here is the URL: https://twitter.com/HollyCeci/lists/itec