Tool 8: Getting to Know the Tools


I am pretty familiar with the tools we are going to be provided, so there is very little information here that I would consider to be new. Although since the students will have to log in using their own credentials, it could be tough to integrate the netbooks into my activities if this process takes a long time.


My initial plan is to have the netbooks set up as a designated station for days they will be in use. Depending on the group activity, there will be a point in the day where students rotate to that station to record what they have learned or answer any questions I have. I will probably set the computers up on the side of the room for space reasons.


The iPads will be used as a station but also at times one will be given one to a group for recording data or watching something that integrates with the lesson. All the iPads will be tied to a single iTunes account so that I can quickly distribute the same apps to all of them. I am considering using this account with another teacher's iPad set so that if necessary one of us can use eight iPads for an activity instead of the four we are given.

Tool 7: Collaboration


Objective: Students will use proportional reasoning to calculate the height of unreachable objects around the school commons by measuring their real height, perceived height, and the object's perceived height.


Timeframe: September


Tools: Google Spreadsheet, Today's Meet


Students are presented with three tall objects from the commons: a column, roll down door, and a stair case. These are all items that are too tall to measure by hand. In the classroom the students record their heights using a measuring tape. In the commons, a student holds a ruler several feet away from the object and records a perceived height for this object. All the students in the group take turns standing next to the object and their perceived heights are measured as well. The numbers are used to calculate a real height for that object.


Students record data in a Google spreadsheet so they can see the results from other groups and other Algebra II classes. The calculations are compared with the original guesses. Today's Meet can be used before and after the experiment for students to compare their thoughts going to in to what actually happened. They can also discuss what problems they encountered and see if any other groups ran into the same issues and how everyone dealt with them.

Tool 6: Using Web Tools


I made use of Twitter and Today's Meet for this item. I already have a twitter account and using the service twitter feed you can link the article feed from your blog to your twitter account so that students or other colleagues that follow you can know when you've written something new. Here is an example of that:

So you could set up a class website have the students follow a twitter account that would tell them when new information (assignment, etc) was available.


I also made use of today's meet. It's a quick way to set up a discussion board if for example you are having students watch a video that you want them to comment on. Or if you were doing a group data collection activity, they could ask questions of one another about what might be going wrong or verify that everyone is on the right track. Here is a transcript from a sample today's meet.

Tool 5: Web 5.0?


I played around with xtranormal and adimoto. Since xtranormal requires that you pay to publish the project I cannot embed the results right here. Though I am using blogger to talk about my experience with these tools, so that counts as another one right?


I did find it interesting at how quickly xtranormal was able to take anything I typed and synthesize it into voice. I could see some students using this to produce instructional items if they didn't want to talk on camera. Though having to pay for results is a bit of a downer.


I did produce an animoto using some pictures of a sidewalk chalk activity I did this year. I suppose I could have the students produce one of these to show off their work but you have to pay for anything longer than 30 seconds.




Try our video maker at Animoto.

Tool 4: Google Apps


Sharing documents and creating forms with Google Apps is very trivial. I have used it in the past to collaborate on a Teacher U class that I am running this summer and it could be applied for making notes for team meetings or other curriculum projects during the summer when it's hard to get everyone together. Unfortunately, Google Apps is very clunky on iPads so with the students I will probably restrict its use to the netbooks. The forms seems like an interesting way to ask short response questions to an activity or gather information from different groups about errors they saw in an activity, things that went wrong, or interesting things they noted while we were working. I can also use it for feedback surveys to get a feel for how the students feel like their progressing at the end of a grading period for example.


It is definitely something I am going to look into for the fall. Math is always a challenge for this sort of thing as we don't have as many items that require long form writing, though spreadsheets could be handy.

Tool 3: Online Videos and Images


I enjoy making use of videos and images in the classroom as much as possible. I use YouTube and Vimeo the most. Vimeo has the advantage of being used by the kids without any special workarounds.


This video I've used before to introduce our discussion of exponential growth functions. They have financial, biological, and industrial applications that the kids relate to quite well. And this video always makes them gross out a little bit.






I shared this video with my Pre-Calculus students during our study of vectors. It's a great example of the resultant direction of a plane that wants to go forward up against wind that wants to push it sideways.






It is important to cite sources that you use in your lessons. It provides an opportunity to explore more from that author if the kids are interested in other things and it also sets an example for them that created work is not always free for the taking.


I have had a Dropbox account for years. I have it on my home and work computers and it makes creation easy because I never have to worry about where something is stored. It makes collaboration with other people very simple too through the use of shared folders. There is an iPad version that can allow for quick distribution of images/files to the student iPads.

Tool 2: Other Blogs and Comments
I paid a visit to a few of my fellow teacher's blogs and there are several blogs I visit on a regular basis for interesting ideas.


1 - Thoughts from A303
2 - 11 Tools Erin Johnston
3 - Kristina's 11 Tools
4 - Dan Meyer's Authors Choice
5 - Continuous Everywhere Differentiable Nowhere
6 - Action/Reaction

Often times teachers within a school will get stuck on the same ideas for years and years without considering alternatives or ways to iterate on what they have. By seeing what people in other parts of the country are doing you can stumble on all sorts of interesting things.


Dan Meyer inspired a standards based grading strategy that has been incredibly successful in my classroom that I am working on rolling out to more content areas at Northbrook. Sam Shah is a Calculus teacher from New York with a vast amount of resources. He recently made a post about Algebra boot camp in Calculus that mirror an idea I had for my Pre-Calculus students. Frank Noschese has a very interesting 180 Day Photo Project that I might implement next year, if I can remember to take a picture every day.


Sharing your thoughts is a great way to get feedback from other teachers who might show you some items you may not have thought of before.


A lot of the tools I use in my classroom have been inspired by these people, something I would not have gotten on my own.