Goble,+Suzanne+Elizabeth+-+Cool+Tools+Review

The Cool Tools Carousel sessions provided us a glimpse at several tools for collaboration and sharing student work. I felt overwhelmed at first but finally realized that the introductions and seeds that were presented were all that I needed to go back and do a more thorough review. I am thankful that the information is available to us via the wiki now and for the future.

Even though I did not find the second Cool Tools Carousel session very stimulating, I did learn about SimilarSites.com, which will prove helpful in my future tool searches. (In a recent assignment for another class for our IMPACT V grant, we had used a rubric to find and evaluate a Web 2.0 tool.) The third session in the Carousel was very exciting and provided me with more tools to preview more in depth.

I attended the //Google Tools for Schools// presentation in the second Cool Tools session. Even though I have been using Google docs for a couple of years, learning about Google Forms was one of the highlights of this day for me. After the presentation, I am determined to use a Google Form to gather discipline data for my team this coming school year. We have been using a Google spreadsheet to log student discipline issues, but I believe that creating a Google Form will be much more efficient and easy to use. I am so excited about the improvement that we will experience. I just hope that my teammates will be as excited as I am! This tool will also aid the IMPACT V team in another element of a project that we are currently working on for our classes.

On Wednesday, I attended the Cool Tools for Math presented by Erin Krupa. I loved being able to have our hands-on time for the activities that she presented to us. The tools that she provided us on her wiki presentation will be a valuable source for me this coming school year. I am truly excited about being able to use these tools in the coming school year. The Core Math Tools link will be a valuable tool for my students and me. We are going to be using the TI-73 graphing calculator for the first time in 7th grade this year. Many students will not have access to this type of calculator at home, but the online resources that Erin provided will help my students through any assignment that they may need to work on at home.

__Lesson Plan __ Each year, 7th grade students at East Alexander Middle have been fortunate in participating in //Real Money. Real World.// simulation. The activities were prepared by Ohio State University and we are able to take part in the program through our local Cooperative Extension Agency. In our activities, student research their chosen occupation and complete a paper-based web quest. There are four additional lessons that students are presented and a simulation activity concludes the program.

My plans for this year include:
 * Students using career explore options at [|www.cfnc.org] to complete their web quest.
 * Students completing the occupation web quest via a wiki created on www.wikispaces.com.
 * Students using [|www.todaysmeet.com] to post their questions during the occupation research.
 * Students posting their ideas about the types of expenses that they will be considering during the simulation at either www.wikispaces.com or another collaboration website.

At the conclusion of the simulation, students are asked to complete a paper-based survey. I would like to work with our Cooperative Extension Agency coordinator to generate this survey online using Google Forms. The survey is then summarized locally and presented during Cooperative Extension meetings. (I am unsure of how they summarize the data, but I am sure it is a daunting task since there are over 200 students in one school system!)

The lesson activities provide students with real-world application of
 * finding the percent of a number (state and local taxes) (7.RP.3),
 * reading a chart to determine federal taxes based on income and household size (Necessary review of now 6th grade content due to no transition year.),
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">how to determine net pay (subtracting deductions from gross pay) (7.NS), and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">determining the balance in a savings and checking account (7.NS).