Week 6 Differentiating the Process

What does it mean to differentiate the process (content, strategies for instruction) in the classroom?

Differentiating the process deals with how the students learn.  In Math differentiating the process can be done by tiering/leveling questions, grouping students by levels, small group instruction, using manipulatives, students doing independent work, or allowing more time.

Tiering/leveling questions may look like:

·      Why is estimating an answer important when you are solving math problems?

·      Estimate the answer to 503 x 299.  What strategy did you use to estimate?

·      Estimate means to find a number that is close to the exact amount.  Why is estimating an important thing to do when solving mathematical problems?

·      Why is estimating an answer important when solving?  Give an example of this?

The questions can be posed in the following ways:

·      In what ways did…..

·      How might you have done this differently…

·      What if…

·      How does this affect…

·      Explain several reasons why…

·      What problems does this create…

·      Describe the ways…

·      What is the best….

·      What is the worst…

·      What are some possible explanations for…

·      What is the likelihood…

·      Predict the outcome…

·      Form a hypothesis…

·      What are ways to classify…

·      Support your reason…

·      Make a plan for…

·      Propose a solution…

·      What is an alternative to…

http://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/newsEvents/nctm/nctm_2009_math_differentiation_PowerPoint.pdf

When differentiating the process everyone in the classroom is working on the same, but differentiated, problem. The teacher may then use either whole group of flexible small groups instruction time to encourage a student-led discussion about solution strategies.

There are lots of ways to differentiate and the key is to be flexible and based on student readiness, interest, and learning profiles, teachers can adjust content, process, and product.  The goal is to choose activities in which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content.  Many of the tools we have learned about in class can be used to creatively implement different activities.

My diigo link for this assn can be found at:

https://www.diigo.com/list/dmhale23/week-6-differentiating-the-process

Week 5 Reflection

Week 5 Essential Question: What are your overall take-aways from the methods/tools that you might use to differentiate the classroom environment (for teacher productivity and student progression)? Which of these may you use in your classroom in the future?

I have come to understand that differentiating the classroom environment with technology tools will take some time and struggle, but that after the first hurdle of that overwhelming feeling is overcome, that it all will become easier.  There are many people who struggle with change and an unwillingness to take the precious time to learn about new tools and buzzwords.  I now have a bag more full of tools to use to differentiate instruction and provide feedback.  Any content area, learning style, and level of learning can be addressed with the many technology tools that we have learned about. 

When dealing with differentiated instruction, the tools like Diigo, wikispaces, Dropbox, blogs, evernote, and eportfolios make it possible to offer multiple approaches to meeting learners’ needs.  Modifications of instruction can be made to make an assignment fit to address the different levels of learning in our classrooms.  Technology blended with curricular content may make it more interesting.  What I need to remember and keep reminding myself is that I cannot lose site of the importance of continuous feedback while implementing some of the online tools.  It would probably be a good idea to build surveys for feedback into the assignments.

I have found some interesting paths that I may take away from what I have learned.  Not only with this class, but in conjunction with the Digital Storytelling class by Jason Ohler.  I think I would start out simple and have students create an eportfolio and use it to add their assignments to.  This way they would have a great end product to look back and be proud of.  The assignment would probably be to create a digital story about an autobiography timeline and then build into using digital stories to explain math concepts.  Not sure, but this seems like the way I would go.

The diigo link for references for assignments 2-5 are found at:

https://www.diigo.com/user/dmhale23

Our group’s wiki that we created can be found at:

http://diffimooc.wikispaces.com/5th+Grade

Week 4 Essential Question: How can I use tools "in the cloud" to easily manage and deliver feedback to my students?

First of all, I would like to share my frustrating experience that I recently had with iCloud using my iPhone 4.  I still am a beginner user of iPhones and wanted to switch my phone to the iPhone 4s.  I backed up my phone to my computer and restored the 4s from the backup and thought that all was fine and dandy.  My daughter took my older phone and switched out the contacts to the ones she had on her sim card.  Then all of a sudden, poof, my contacts disappeared and were replaced with hers.  The phone was changing in front of me and I called in a panic her to tell her to stop making changes.  After continuous restores and frustrating hours, I still could not figure out that the changes were now saved in the iCloud and did not know what to do.  I turned off iCloud backup and decided that I did not like iCloud.  I now know that I could go online and make the changes there.  This is probably why I am feeling apprehensive about learning all theses new tools.  Too much frustration when there is not an expert at my side to show me the ropes.

I have not used any tools in the cloud with my students, but have had some experience with a previous class with Dr. Mary Lee Graham, where I turned in a couple of assignments using Dropbox.  Although I already had an account set up, I was not aware of the sharing features that Dropbox makes possible.  I first heard about Dropbox from a colleague in September 2012, and I thought it was just a storage space on the Internet that I could access from any computer.  I only recently wondered how my teacher was able to gain access to my Dropbox assignments.  This week’s essential question gave me a chance to explore and learn more about using Dropbox as a delivery and feedback tool.  I now have accounts with my sister and my daughter and am excited about the possibilities that it offers if I needed to communicate with students.  I even tested out the dropvox feature, which allowed me to record and place it right into the dropbox folder.  I can see the many possibilities that these features can bring into feedback on assignments or when students may have questions.  Dropbox is a free cloud service with up to 5GB of free document storage, but the option to purchase more storage is available.  No more need to worry about carrying around a flash drive and all you need is access to the Internet.

More about the cloud service Dropbox can be found at the following site:

http://plpnetwork.com/2012/08/10/dropbox-a-superb-classroom-tool/

Another tool in the cloud that I found interesting is Evernote.   According to Wikipedia, Evernote is, “a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A "note" can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook. Evernote supports a number of operating system platforms.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote

Since students are continuously on the go and have access to the Internet, the possibilities of what cloud computing has to offer makes sense.  Teachers can access student work from anywhere and they do not need to carry around a pile of assignments to provide feedback.

The diigo link for references for assn 4 can be found at:

https://www.diigo.com/list/dmhale23/week-4-how-can-i-use-tools-in-the-cloud-to-easily-manage-and-deliver-feedback-to-my-students

from anywhere and they do not need to carry around a pile of assignments can give feedback. 

ED637 Week 3 Technology Tools to Manage, Track, and Differentiate Student Progress

Week 3 Essential Question: What technology tools can I use to manage, track, and differentiate student progress in my classroom?

There were quite a lot of tools to explore this week, and yes they were all new for me.  I decided to focus on two tools that I might apply to help best meet needs of my classroom or a project that is set up to be group learning, Wiggio and Math Pentagon.

Wiggio is a free online group organizational tool.  Use Wiggio to manage your group with tools such as:

·      File upload and sharing – files can be accessed and edited by your group members

·      Schedule meetings – set up conference calls, virtual meetings, and chat rooms

·      To Do Lists – acts as group talk manager to assign tasks to individuals in your group, set due dates, etc.

·      Wiggio Poll – create polls to gather opinions, take a survey, in T/F, multiple choice, or open-ended forms.

·      Events – hold a meeting or invite people (can also be combined with polls)

·      Message Utility – Send messages through text or emails, ability to record an audio and send.

To sum it up, Wiggio is an expert all in one tool for group collaboration.  There are other tools available online that work better for specific tasks, but as a whole, all-in-one place tool, Wiggio save you time and there is no more jumping between different apps.

More information about Wiggio can be found at:

http://web.appstorm.net/reviews/project-management/wiggio-group-collaboration-made-simple/

and

http://wiggio.com/

If I had iPads for students in my classroom, I would find that there are many math apps available, but one in particular to meed needs of your students in your classroom or at home is Math Pentagon.   With Math Pentagon you can:

·       Practice Real Math Problems On Your iPad.

·       Middle school math teachers: supplement your lessons with an array of practice problems. This app provides math worksheets organized by specific topics to make it easy for you to choose the problems you want to assign. Students can practice, scribble, solve and learn math all by themselves.

·        

o   Math !!! by Math Pentagon has one of the largest collection of Math worksheets on iPad. It is a structured math learning program that engages students by letting them practice math worksheets, complete exercises & assignments on iPad. Teachers can capture student performance data, review and understand student progress - thereby saving time, paper, money and enhancing productivity.

o   This app covers several Math topics for Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7 and Grade 8. The course content includes Algebra, Geometry, Statistics, Decimals, Fractions, Percent, Ratios, Proportion, Trigonometry, Arithmetic and more.

Download Link : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-!!!/id467548534?mt=8