Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Online Tutoring Artifact

Background:

As it says on my profile, I am a Sec. Math Ed. major. Just the same my brother is also very good at Math. My parents are just besides themselves because they can not figure out how my brother and I have come across our talent and liking of Mathematics. (They are history buffs).

My parents moved to California before a graduated high school. My brother would occasionally call me for some homework help whenever either of our parents uttered our favorite lines, "I don't know anything about Math Alex. Go ask your sister." (They are our favorite lines because this is when my parents actually admit that we know more about something than them).

What:

Ever since was brother was placed in an Advanced Algebra class he is always calling me for help on how to do problems or help understanding the theoretical ideas behind the material. If it came to problem solving help, we would agree to get online,, on Messenger and he would type out the problem for me. From there I would work it out and then coach him on how to work out the problem without just simply giving him the answer. (He gets mad at me for doing that, but he later realizes that it helps him to do it on his own). For the theoretical ideas of Math we just usually discuss that on the phone. He might not understand why something is the way it is. This is when I ask him what the material is covering and to tell me exactly what he doesn't understand. Sometimes he will read his textbook out loud to me. I'll stop him every once in a while to go over what he just said, putting it into words that he would better understand. Some textbooks are just way too wordy and vague for a junior in high school.

http://recycledproducts.org/images/products/standard/CHEW1344.JPG
From http://recycledproducts.org/detail.aspx?ID=5343

Alex just acquired a graphing calculator not too long ago and at first he was very over whelmed by it. (I remember feeling the same way). Although he has read the manual (part of it anyways), he sometimes still calls me up asking me to remind him how to do something on it. I'm afraid if he were to ask our parents about it they would get sick from looking at all the buttons, haha! Just kidding! Every once in a while I will have to go online and type out the buttons he would have to hit to get a specific function to work on his calculator. I believe this is because he is a visual learner and it is hard for him to be told what button to hit. He usually needs to be shown what the button looks like to register that if he hits it, "this" will happen. I am the same way and have very similar learning styles as my brother. Therefore I know that going online and working Math problems out there is the best way for him to get it without me being physically there. Our online Messenger is a great way for me to tutor my brother and I have been doing it for quite a while. This was why I choose to do Online Tutoring as my Artifact.

So What:

This process of online tutoring seems to work quite well for my brother. Our Messenger conversations are a form of visual for him because he is a visual learner. However it would be more benefical to him sometimes if I was actually there with him showing how to do things. Some materical is too hard to try to explain without being there to point to out a step by step process. Another then that one thing, our tutoring system works.

Now What:

My brother will be a senior in high school next year and he will only have four or five classes. One in which is Calculus. We are very sure that Alex will be needing my help next year and we will obviously be continuing our online tutoring sessions.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Oldies from my Educational Media Blog!

These three blog entries were ones that I posted last year. I did them for my Ed Media class and I thought that they were too important not to share.

1. Online Lesson Plans -
http://kkwilson1.blogspot.com/2008/04/online-lesson-plans.html

2. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) -
http://kkwilson1.blogspot.com/2008/04/iste.html

3. Tele-Teaching -
http://kkwilson1.blogspot.com/2008/04/tele-teaching.html

Monday, February 16, 2009

Using Excel as a Worksheet!


I was reading up on one of the blogs that I follow Maths Teaching. She had published a post last month called Excel and Maths. This post has a link to a website, MathsFiles, where there are 37 different Excel files that you can download and use in the classroom to help students on a specific math areas. I was really amazed by this website. You are able to preview the what the Excel layouts look like before you download them. For Educational Media I did an Excel worksheet dealing with area formulas. I found it difficult to come up with Excel worksheet so when I discovered this website I was again amazed!

These Excel files are such a great idea and are useful to the student. I will definitely be using these MathsFiles in my classroom to help my students better understand the material we cover in class. I also thought that these Excel files are something that the parents can download at home. This way the students have access to these resources whenever they need them; instead of just during school hours. These files are a great way to get the students involved in the material and it is a way for them to learn but also have fun at the same time.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My Theme and More

Introduction to my themed blog:

The theme I created for my blog is about finding ways to teach Math with technology. When it comes to Math, it is hard to not just result in using the traditional ways of using a white board or an overhead projector. Those resources are helpful, but I'm interested in the new up to date classroom technology resources. Through my theme blog I will share my ideas and knowledge (and others' knowledge as well) with my readers on every source of classroom technology I can find.

Blogs I Discovered:

1). Math Education And Teaching - The writer of this blog talks all about teaching Math and how to make it fun for the students. I decided on this blog because along with learning new ways to teach math with technology, I was also looking for just a pure Math blog. This blog holds to that so I can learn to make learning easier for my students. Although only had a few entries and has not been updated in a while, I still found entries worth while to keep handy since it contains material that I need to keep in mind while teaching. The writer of Math Education And Teaching is writing to express their opinions only. There are no links to any other blogs or websites.

2). Maths Teaching - This blog is also purely Math, but with allot of resources and links. The writer's main purpose, I believe, is it share her teaching styles and materials with others. She has posted a number of worksheet and presentation links created by her to use in the classroom. Along with web links to check out for teacher and student use. The writer posts only about three times a month, but she posts of much information in just one post, it's enough for multiple lesson plans. Great resources at my disposal.

3). Teach Science and Math - A great blog relating to using technology to teach Math and Science! The writer mainly links to websites for teacher and student use. He also gives ideas to lesson plans and activities for both Science and Math. Offers lots of links and updates everyday. Teach Science and Math blog grabbed my attention and the writer keeps me interested with a variety of topics relating to his theme.

Check these blogs out! :D

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Feb 3rd. 2009

My first blog entry. More to come!