I have been thinking....

Summer vacation is a great time to sit back and reflect. All of those ideas that have been bouncing around in my head can now be given some more serious thought.

One of the things I have wanted to do since attending NECC 2009 in Washington D.C. is to organize an EdubloggerCon event right here in my hometown of Cold Lake, Alberta. I really like the format of EdubloggerCon. You get a bunch of educators together, they decide what topics they would like to discuss, you set up an online schedule on a wiki and the attendees decide which topics they would like to participate in. The key word here is "participate". There are no "speakers" at the sessions.
Everyone gets together and discusses the topic for that session. It represents the collective sharing of knowledge amongst each other. We share our successes and failures, we help solve each others problems and the best thing of all, we develop connections amongst colleagues we may have never known before. This is truly powerful.

So, I guess my first goal for next school year is to organize EdubloggerCon Cold Lake. Stay tuned to find out how it works out.

If you have any experience or ideas for our event please leave a comment!!!

Assessment for Learning

I have been trying some different Assessment for Learning(AFL) strategies in my high school Mathematics classes this semester. Yesterday, I gave a vectors assignment to my Applied Math 30 class. I had them complete the assignment in class but after each question come to my desk and have me check over their work and their solution.

It worked great!!! I was able to see how each student was progressing, I was able to reteach or assist the students with difficulties or misunderstandings. In the past, I gave out the assignment, had the students complete the assignment and them took it in for grading. The OLD way let me see what students knew and did not know but did not allow me to help them out in any way.

The problem I have is that in the past I would have had a mark to place in my markbook. Even though I did "mark" every students assignment as they did it I do not have anything recorded for this assignment. I realize that it is assessment for learning so the students are still 'learning" the material but I should document some how the progress of each student on this assignment.

Do I use a rubric? Do I use a checklist? Not sure how I can document my students progress. Any suggestions are welcome.

Sometimes You Know You are Doing the Right Thing

In all of my classes we are currently having our students prepare for their final exams that begin in about 5 days. In my Applied Math 20 class I had two students request to borrow a laptop out of the cart to study for their final. I was curious what they were going to use the laptop for.



So, I said "Why do you want to borrow a laptop?"

Their response was, "I have lost some of my notes and my binder is really disorganized. I want to use the laptop to go to the class wiki and look at the notes you have posted. They are really organized well and I will be able to more easily study the material for the final exam."

I immediately got each of them a laptop.

Inside of me I had the biggest smile!!!! These two students made my day. They "get" why we have a class wiki and they were going to use it to help themselves out. Hopefully, the other students around them see how these two students are using the class wiki and make use of everything I have posted on it.

If you can check out the class wiki here.

These two students are living proof of why I use class wikis. It is because it "helps" students. Sometimes you just know you are doing the right thing.

How My Daughters Learn and Work

This past Christmas we decided to get our two daughters a Macbook Pro as a gift. My daughters are definitely digital natives. They both have an iPod Touch that they use everywhere and they were continually borrowing mine or my wife's Macbook Pro.



So, a couple of days ago my youngest daughter, Sarah, said, "Dad, can I take my Macbook Pro to school to use in class?"

My first question was, "Don't you have carts of Macbooks at school that you can use?".

Her response was, "Yes, we have carts of Macbooks but our teachers NEVER let us use them!!"

I discussed this with her a little. She informed me that most of the teachers are either scared of using the Macbooks with their students or just do not want to bother. Interesting!!

I told my daughter that I would have to check with the Director of Technology (a good friend of mine) and her principal before I allowed her to take her Macbook Pro to school. I am all for letting her take her Macbook Pro to school as that is a TOOL she uses to learn and work. Why would I not let her use it at school!!!!

I did not want to step on any toes by just letting her take her Macbook to school.

I e-mailed the Director of Technology to see if he was OK with having my daughter bring her Macbook to school. He e-mailed me back and informed me that they are just adjusting the network at school to allow student owned devices on it. He asked me to wait a few weeks. Once things are functioning he will get back to me and things are a go.

Nice to see my daughters school district is preparing to let student owned devices be used at school.

I am very glad to see that my daughter is asking to use the tools she is most comfortable with to assist her in her learning. This skill of advocating for herself is going to be very useful in later life.

Conics Around Our School

We have just finished studying Conic Sections in Pure Math 30. At the start of the unit I informed my Gr.12 students that, for 1 bonus mark on their unit exam, they needed to use their cellphone or digital camera to take a picture of a real life example of a conic section. Many of the students took me up on this challenge, but I was kind of disappointed. The vast majority of the students brought me a picture of a circular object. While this an example of a conic section, I was hoping for ellipses, hyperbolas and parabolas.

So, on Thursday I decided to put the student to work and actually have them find examples of every conic section. At the start of Thursday's class I told my students we were going on a scavenger hunt. This got their attention!!! I informed them that they needed to use their cellphone to collect pictures of objects around the school. They needed to find a real life example of a circle, an ellipse, a parabola and a hyperbola. Immediately one student said, " Can we half a half an hour to do this?". I informed them they had 10 minutes to collect their pictures. So, off they went. They were like little kids in a candy shop. They were so excited!!!

In under 5 minutes, every student,(there were 20 of them) had collected their real life examples. It was really amazing to see how quickly they could find real life examples of conic sections around the school. I then asked the students to e-mail me their pictures from their cellphones. Here are some of the pictures my students sent me.







My students even explained to me that they took these 2 pictures above because they were examples of degenerate hyperbolas. Cool!!!










This little extension of Conic Sections was definitely worth the 10 minutes of class time that it took!!

Try sending your students on a scavenger hunt with their cellphone. You will be really pleased with what they find.

Using Wolfram Alpha to Discover Properties of General Equation of a Conic

Today, my Pure Math 30 students, took out our department laptops and logged into Wolfram Alpha.


We were investigating the general form of an equation of a conic. Ax^2+Cy^2+Dx+Ey+F=0.
I had the students graph many different equations and observe what graph Wolfram Alpha created.


The students then had to compare the equations with their graphs and answer the following questions.

1. Describe what values you must use for A and C in order to generate a circle?
2. Describe what values you must use for A and C in order to generate an ellipse?
3. Describe what values you must use for A and C in order to generate a parabola?
4. Describe what values you must use for A and C in order to generate a hyperbola?

Wolfram Alpha made this investigation quite easy for the students. All they had to do was type the equations into Wolfram Alpha and it gave them nice, easy to read graphs.

I could have just lectured for this lesson. However, I believe that the discovery approach I used was much more powerful.

Some math teachers would say that they could have their students use their graphing calculator to do the same thing. You are right. I have had the students use a graphing calculator for this lesson before. However, I had to install a special program on the calculator for the students to complete the activity. Wolfram Alpha is accessible to all students with a computer and an Internet connection. It is a far more valuable tool than a graphing calculator. Wolfram Alpha can do so much more than a graphing calculator.

Wolfram Alpha was an awesome "TOOL" in my math classroom today.

If you have not looked at Wolfram Alpha I think every mathematics teacher should.

Assessment for Learning in Circle Geometry

I have been "dipping my toes" into the assessment for learning stream. The last couple of weeks we have been studying circle geometry in my Applied Math 20 class. The students ALWAYS struggle with this unit. It stretches their minds and really makes them use their problem solving skills. Needless to say, the students do not "like" this unit. It is hard!!!


Every semester I give a two page assignment with about 15 different circle geometry problems. In the past, I have taken this assignment in, marked it and returned it to the students. While this method gave me another mark for my mark book it really did not HELP the students to learn to solve circle geometry problems any better.

So, today, I switched things up. I gave the same assignment. However, I explained to the students that I was not taking this assignment in for marks. I explained that I wanted them to learn to solve circle geometry problems better. I asked them to solve problem #1 then bring it too me and I would mark it and discuss it with them. Then go on to problem #2 and do the same. You would have thought that the students would have grumbled that they were doing an assignment for no marks. Not one single complaint.

In this class we have had a number of discussions about how all of the work in a unit is to help them learn the material. They get the "marks" when they write their unit exam at the end of the unit. The more questions they ask and the more learning they do during the unit the better they will do on the end of unit exam.

I am struggling with the fact that I have less marks in my mark book. However, I really like the fact that my students are learning and understanding mathematics better.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the Transformed Educator!!!