Using ELMO Cameras to Record Math Tutorials

I am not a math teacher, by any means, but, as a technology teacher, I do teach observable skills. I have therefore been on a crusade of late when it comes to creating tutorials. If you teach observable skills, I believe you have a responsibility to post your tutorials online so that students can get further guidance from you when they leave the classroom. You may not agree with me, but I know my students and they're going to go to youtube for tutorials anyway. Why not watch mine?

45 minutes is a very short time. How many math teachers have the time to get around to every student during a math lesson? It's very difficult, especially if you are teaching complex skills like algebra or calculus.

What if your students could rewind you, or fast forward you? Or pause you? With an ELMO document camera, and your PC or Mac, they can! Below is my second example of using the ELMO for a sample subtraction lesson that I did. Of course, I'm not a math teacher (but I did use manipulatives- dots!), so please accept my rudimentary example.

After a lesson, you let students practice, right? Here's how I think you can be super successful using tutorials in the classroom:

1. Model the skill live.
2. Have students then view a different example on your youtube channel. (here's my channel).
3. Allow students to practice, and let them access the tutorials as much as they need.
4. Check for understanding - give them a problem to see if they "get it" without using the tutorial.
5. Give homework. They'll have access to your tutorials at home (hopefully), so they can check if they need any more guidance.

A couple other things:

• Make sure your tutorials are step-by-step, not a glossed over version of your classroom lesson.
• The shorter the better. If you wax and wane for 10 minutes online, you may totally lose their interest, and they'll find your tutorials boring. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Tutorials are not a replacement for teaching, but a super compliment and great for guiding learning during practice. There's also a caveat to making tutorials- they need to come from the classroom teacher- context is extremely important. So- better to come from you than some guy from Illinois!


Thanks to luckyguy for the image.
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Using Two Mice with Your Mac

This is a quick share, but I wanted to share this quite easy and helpful accommodation for the Mac. In my classroom we have a student who does not use his right hand. Now, most of his aides (and myself) all use our right hand, so this creates some logistical issues when we try to help him (and try to do it quickly and seamlessly). So I thought I'd plug in a mouse to the other side of the keyboard, just to see if it would work with both mice at the same time, and... it worked!

It reminded me of drivers ed, where you use a car that has two brake pedals.

Hope this helps some folks out there!
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Jigsaw - a teaching strategy for the deadpool

I'm a huge fan of Doug Buehl, as evidenced here, and this is his writing on the Jigsaw Strategy.

If you follow his guidelines for this strategy than you will find success in your classroom, no doubt.

However, I rarely have been involved in or have seen this strategy used as nothing more than a quickie way to brainstorm, or have students "teach the class," which is unfortunately not usually the result.

I've been witness to seeing this strategy failing *over* and over and over again. Sadly, I've seen it fail in my own graduate classes most! I have never seen a teacher or professor use this strategy effectively. If you are one of these teachers, than you are very, very special. Teachers often think that "gee - students can teach the class!", so they hand out a reading and break kids up in groups, and have them become "experts" on that chapter, so they can share the high points of that chapter. While I think that putting students in a facilitator roles is a super-important thing to do, which is why I also like the idea of students creating tutorials, don't expect the end user to learn something.

The process of having the student present their chapter or "expertise" in front of everyone is the real benefit in this strategy- it's to the presenter. The process of the facilitator role is where the learning happens, which for this strategy, leaves all of the other groups in the lurch.

Almost every time I see this strategy implemented, it's in a poorly thought out, last minute attempt to get kids (or adults) to disseminate a whole lot more information that they probably can take in at one time.

Maybe this should be added to the teaching "deadpool."  Handle with caution.
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Team Bloom's Posters

This is a quick share, but I finished designing Bloom's Critical Thinking posters for my entire team: Band, PE, Spanish, Technology, and Art. The idea is when you are in class, and you write an objective or an "I can" statement on the board, use a Bloom's verb and color code the verb. That way you will bring students into the learning process, and they will be let in on the level of critical thinking that you are having them do. It also makes the teacher accountable to the level of thinking they offer in their practice.

I previously shared my Technology poster, and now all five are complete and here for you, if you like.
The link is available at my drop: http://drop.io/bloomsposters

Here's a preview of the Spanish poster. Enjoy! And get those kids thinking!

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2010: Arthur C. Clarke and Three Wishes for a New Decade

Hollywood always likes to dream that progress will happen a lot faster than it does. And Arthur C. Clarke liked to do this more than anyone. One has to give him a lot of credit when it comes to dreaming big. He always used the most current science in his novels as a way to tell stories of the future, whether it be Halley's Comet or Supercomputers.

I wish there was an educational equivalent to Arthur- someone who was so forward thinking when it came to education, that your mouth just salivated at the idea of learning a certain way or of joining a certain learning community (see, Arthur didn't let politics get in the way of the ideas; in Clarke's future, people got over their divisions in the name of progress). 

Before Arthur died in March 2008, he made the below video. In it, on his 90th birthday,  he had an overall wish for the 21st century:

"I would like to see us overcome our tribal divisions, and begin to think and act, as if we are one family."

Relative to education, this statement is telling because right now, there are so many tribes and so many voices, that very little is being accomplished nationally. It's a jumble-muck; let's hope that we can overcome that. 

He also, surprisingly, talked about technology "tools:"
"Technology tools help us to gather and disseminate information. But we also need qualities like tolerance and compassion to achieve greater understanding..."
 
See? Even Arthur knew it was about more than tools. Folks in education have been talking a lot lately that it's more than just about the tools; it's about critical thinking, and learning. Although Arthur Clarke wasn't really talking about education, per se, it's really all about education, and it's good to hear him say this three years ago, now that we're almost becoming buried in Web 2.0 tools.

Arthur also had three wishes on his birthday:

1. I would like to see some evidence of extra-terrestrial life

2. I would like to see us kick our current addiction to oil.

3. I dearly wish to see lasting peace (established in Sri Lanka)

When you listen to Arthur talk, it's like he just knows. He knows what is possible for us, and what we are capable of. If tele-communications can grow so big so fast, why can't peace (or the graduation rate)?

So, in this new decade of the "tens,"  I have three wishes that I'd like to see:

1. I wish the pedagogy and the process of teaching will see more light in the conversation about using technology to improve teaching.
2. I wish that students will have a bigger voice in their schools as stakeholders, from kindergarten all the way up- that they'll be connected to their schools in such a way that they'll always be able to give back. 
3. I wish that new ideas of education management and administration will begin to see a tipping point, and that those in education will begin to act as one family.

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