Chapter 1
Quote: Far more important, however, the students referenced each other. For them, classroom time had become the least significant part of the overall experience. They had formed their own learning communities” pp. 25 Question: How can I get my students to create a learning community like Scratch? Most of my students are driven by competition and not by creation and interaction. Is there a way to get my students to take initiative when they understand the material to help others learn it? Connection: With the younger generations coming up, being raised on Ipads and other devices, it is important to show students how to use those tools to enhance their learning, creativity and imagination. There is a lot more out there for my students to create, especially in the technology field. I feel that a programming class should be mandatory because it is a skill that students can use to create something that is their own and unique. They can make programs for smart phones and actually make money on their programs that they create. Epiphany: Seeing the success of scratch and the way sam talks about using the community to interact and create relationships was something that students need to be exposed to. Chapter 2 Quote: “allow the culture to reproduce in an uninhibited, completely organic way, within the constraints of the medium and environment - and then see what happens.” pp. 37 Question: Sometimes math seems to be disconnected from the real world. I was teaching my students logarithms, and one of my students asked me what we would use this for in real life, I had no idea where logarithms are used outside of the classroom. Is there any resources or websites that can connect the topics covered in Algebra 2 to the real world? Connection: Learning-based approach is something that students can really latch onto. The students get to practice “learning through engagement within the world” pp. 38. Outside of the classroom this is the way in which I learn and acquire new skills. I make a lot of mistakes along the way to learn these new skills, but each mistake is a learning opportunity. Recently I have used this method to help me learn to program in python. I created a code that allows me to compute mathematics problems that are very tedious. This programming language took a while to learn and create this algorithm, I would create a line and see if the program is doing what I want it to do. If it isn’t doing what I needed it to do, I would look back and revise. This learning process does take more time, but I have such a deeper understanding of the language and how it works. I want my students to have this patience and drive to learn and be willing to make mistakes along the way. Epiphany: “take the world in and make it part of ourselves”, I could not agree more. We are a product of our environment and its best to just accept that fact than try to fight it. Chapter 3 Quote: “giving rise to an environment that is constantly being changed and reshaped by the participation itself” pp. 42 Question: How can I leverage this changing environment to bring these ideas and innovation into my classroom? I want my students to see the relevance of the content that I am teaching them and also the connection to life outside the classroom. How can I do this? Connection: I hear that all the major news companies and also online media web sites are running algorithms that order objects based on how popular the article / discussion is. I have seen the facebook top stories on the side of my feed that are ordered based on the participation and views from people using facebook. The stories change based on who is viewing them and how many people view them. Sometimes I’m a little shocked that Lindsay Lohan is still one of the top stories on the facebook feed. How is she still so popular? Epiphany: It is interesting that we can determine what it is that we see based off of how many people are viewing it. In a sense we control the news and information that we are viewing.
Becky Kainec
3/24/2015 04:08:57 am
I like the question you asked about bringing more connection and meaning to math. I was just in a geometry class a few days ago, and the students were taking a test. They had test questions about ladders making angles with buildings or shadows making angels to the object, and the questions were about how to find these angles. I thought to myself, have I ever used or applied this knowledge in my life? I couldn't even think of one time it was useful to me...Math definitely needs a connect and use when we learn it. I'm hopeful that common core will help with that.
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May 2015
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