Appropriate Use of Technology

Check it...

So for starters, I went to the Illuminations website and found a fantastic tessellations activity. It hearkens to the last time I taught tessellations and used a boat load of pattern blocks. The activity is essentially the same as using pattern blocks with a few additions/subtractions. First for the additions...

The flash activity has a different set of polygons from the blocks that I've used to teach this in the past. It still has the little green triangles, orange squares and yellow hexagons, but it also 7-12 sided regular polygons. Fun stuff for finding out if they can make tessellations by themselves. It also contains a button so that you can copy and paste the figure or shape that you just created. I was able to create a tessellation this way using the octagon and square fairly quickly (that is until the number of shapes on the board bogged down flash...boo.) It also allows you to change the color of the shapes and allows for the shapes to be rotated (although the rotations button is kind of a pain).

Subtractions:

Gone are the days of the red trapezoids and the little white diamond slivers. I missed them when making a pretty, pretty flower. Also, it's hard to make the towers that students are so fond of with this flash activity (I'm trying not to use the term "app"). The activity does get bogged down, as I said earlier, when you have a large number of pieces.

As far as teaching or reinforcing tessellations, this works just as well as the "box-o-blocks" that most teachers have in their rooms. And if you have access to a computer lab for the activity, way cheaper. You can still float around the lab and point out to different students what they are doing right or where they need help. The copy/paste function is also nice as a check to see if their creation really is a tessellation.

I'm torn with teaching the lesson now...the blocks are so much fun and they allow me to rotate the blocks on the students' desks so that they can see different points of view. The wood blocks also allow for more incarnations of the hexagon (two reds, six greens, etc...). On the other hand, the flash simulation is really nice as well and involves more polygons with less clean-up.

The illuminations web site reminded me a lot of the physics simulations that I use for my Principles of Technology class. They are offered for free through the University of Colorado at Boulder Interactive Simulations web site.

Standards, Standards Everywhere

So…the biggest thing that I noticed that divided the three was that the NCTM standards have the middle grades grouped into 6-8 whereas the CCS and the CMP both have them lined out as individual goals for grades 6, 7 and 8. I did notice that the CCS have very focused standards for Geometry in each of the grades. For example, in the 6^th grade, students are to be able to, “Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.” After which there are more focused standards. The CMP also has individualized standards for each grade. For the geometry strand, they outline each individual piece of information that a student should learn. What I liked about the NCTM standards however, was that there were overarching concepts in geometry that were to be applied to all students with individual goals for grade groups. This created a major goal that could be built upon throughout the k-12 education pathway.

Task 1-3 - educ 533- Best Practices Research

So for starters, I didn't know that Alta Vista was purchased by Yahoo! Go figure. I used the alternate search engine to see if I could get some different results.

Best Practices in Education

Okay, I found something worth my time. The US DOE has a web site called "Doing What Works." On it I found a .pdf that put some of the major mathematics benchmarks on a timeline (http://tinyurl.com/3ra88hz/). This was a nice linear representation of some major concepts that kids should be learning in mathematics during elementary and middle school. It's nice for me because I can know some of the skills that students should know coming into my classroom and where I need to head, curriculum and instruction wise, to prepare them for their next step.

Next, I found the site that I wish that I'd found first. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-educational-practices.html) Here, educational best practices is defined:

"And the methods and tools used to give the best possible education (in the arena of formal education) to students in the available resources refer to best educational practices."

Short, succinct, and easy to understand.

Below this definition is a list of general ideas, or best practices I suppose. Included here are some cute names with general ideas that could be put into practice with a little bit of effort. "All Clear" was one that I liked in particular. It said that by stating clear goals, students have better focused direction. Seems almost too simple.

Next, we go to Oswego County, New York. (http://bestpractices.oswegoboces.org/index.php) [Note: You need a login to access the vast majority of the site. It's free and took me less than 90 seconds to register, click on the confirmation link in my e-mail and then access the site.]

This site is mostly focused on effective implementation of the Common Core Standards (something that threw a new spin on my integrated math course alignment last year after I'd already aligned with the "new, old" state standards. Ugh...). One article that I found here was something that reinforced an opinion that I've had since the end of my first year of teaching. Teaching deeply is far more important than just teaching facts. Now, I know that this is what every teacher is told from the get go in their formal teaching education, but the article that I read reinforced that it's so in areas of low economic advantage (exactly where I teach). Basically, it's better for me to teach the mechanics of how an end table is constructed (mortise and tenon joinery, proper alignment with dowel joints, how to make top setting blocks, etc...) and then have them design one to build rather than give a kid a plan for an end table and say, "...um...well...go to work!"

Best Practices in Instruction

http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/bestpractice/tiered/index.html has information on tiered instruction. Essentially this is teaching one concepts and then meeting every learner's needs to reach universal understanding. Great idea for me, because frustration builds along with increasing blood pressure when there are kids that fall behind and get farther and farther off track because they didn't understand one concept. For example, if a student doesn't understand that squaring a square root (or vice versa) leaves you with the number inside the square root (or square), moving on to solving single variable quadratic equations becomes fairly difficult.

The Texas Education Agency (http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/bestprac/bpc_instruction.html) provides a fairly good list of resources for best practices in instruction. Under the "mathematics" section, there is a program that details how a middle school targeted underachieving middle school students and got them into a "math lab" that stressed the use of manipulatives, hands-on activities and mid-year benchmarks to help elevate achievement. It was effective and demonstrated one thing that I wish to get better at as a teacher...helping to set clear, intermediate benchmarks (other than, "understand this particular lesson") that I help my students to work toward.


So the "best practices in education" are the more broad, sweeping ideas that should bound teaching pedagogy whereas the "best practices in instruction" are the nitty gritty plans for getting your hands dirty in the classroom.

About Me

My name is Aaron Longo. I'm a fourth year teaching in Mapleton. I teach mathematics, woodworking, electric cars, middle school general shop and advanced sports. I also serve as the district Athletic Director, assistant track coach and CTE coordinator. In addition to this I also serve on the Lane ESD CTE committee and am the Mountain West League basketball commissioner.

In my spare time I do work on my home and yard. I like to fish and once held three national titles in competitive trap shooting. Now I usually confine myself to shooting targets at a local quarry with our social studies teacher and playing guitar in a blues trio.