Pyrkowski,+Monica+-+Cool+Tools+Review


 * Cool Tools Session Review: **

The cool tool carousel was similar to the web tools exposure that I had when I attended ISTE this summer. At ISTE during the web tool sessions there were an enormous amount of tools that were displayed and the presenter quickly touched based on each and skipped some. During the carousel it did benefit myself that the tools were reduced to a smaller amount to focus on. Also, the tools were divided in similar groups which helped to understand which tools benefit what goal. I felt that I had an advantage during the carousel because I had already been exposed to these tools. But over exposure cannot hurt and like I had mentioned before there were a lot more tools displayed at ISTE so seeing a handful here made me focus on the ones that I should possibly focus on bringing back to school to show others. There was a new tool iRubric that I was introduced to for the first time and this is something that I will be looking into especially since my honors algebra 2 class is project based course. This new tool will help me develop new rubrics for my projects and I will then share my experience with other teachers in and out of my department.

After the carousel I had attended the Making Global Connections session because I feel that in math global connections is where I struggle in my classroom. M. Otter showed the concept of a loan company where I could do an application of finance and loans in the classroom. I think another awesome way I could bring this back to the school is through clubs and organizations at school. I am not 100% sure how I will be able to bring this back to my individual classroom but I will definitely bring up the concept to other teachers and clubs/organizations. Even though I am struggling right now on trying to develop a plan for my classroom I do feel accomplished that I can introduce this organization to other teachers. If I cannot benefit from it I do not believe I should just throw away a resource and I am wiling to share with others.

On Wednesday I attended the math cool tool session. During this session we did the Barbie Bungee activity. I had actually done this activity with my students but what was different between my lesson and the session was our technology concept. I personally used strictly a graphing calculator and in the session we used an online math tool. I had not been introduced to this concept but I did enjoy the fact that students could download this at home and use the tools instead of the calculator. I would have to do a session with them to understand the process of using the tool. I would most likely have a class set of computers and use the tool this way so students would not become frustrated when they were having problems. Another concept we did in the session was using Excel for collecting data, analyzing data and graphing. Iknew that you could use Excel doing this but I had never actually done it before so having the chance to work with Excel I felt that I benefited tremendously. Given the time constraints we were not able to use all the tools that were on the resource page. Fortunately I will be able to go back and look through the wikipage to experiment with the other tools.


 * Lesson plan: **

Out of all the sessions and tools that I saw I think the one concept that I will implement in a lesson is with Excel. Excel is not a brand new tool but my students need to be exposed to this because they have or will be taking a computer course in high school or college. This way I can show them that excel can be used in math and not just in a computer class. At the school we will now have a computer lab in our department that we will be able to use.

// Objective: // Using Excel to collect data on quadratic problems.

Students will be given data where they will need to plug in the data into the chart and construct a graph. Once data is placed in the tables and the graph is displayed they will then analyze scenarios such as: highest height, when the object hits certain heights, when the object hits the ground, etc. Also, students would insert equations as well. All of these concepts will not be obvious from the data and they will need to use the goal seek function. I would walk the students through an example with data and with an equation. Once I believe that the students have a decent grasp of the process I will then give them examples that they will then try on their own and then they will need to research a concept and present it to the class. On their research they will need to be able to answer these questions: 1. How high does the object get? 2. Pick a height, then when does the object hit that height? 3. When does the object hit the ground? Student’s presentation will include the data, equation, graph and answers to the questions. In these presentations students will be grouped together in three.

Using excel in math can be used for all other data collection. So I would use this process in other various data collection.