Multimedia Tools Artifact #2

Screencasting - How to Use Flip Grid

         This artifact is from module 7 when we were asked to create a screencast for students on how to use a tool. In my opinion, a screencast is one of the most useful tools as a teacher. I started screencasting last school year as a means for when I was going to be absent. Since I teach high school math, I could never expect my substitute to be able to teach my students so most often I would just give them a worksheet to practice problems and we would lose a day of instruction. Now with screencasting, I can create short videos for my students to learn from and students can watch them at their own pace. They can rewind, pause, and it really caters to their pace of learning. They can even go back and watch the videos before any tests or quizzes. 

         I liked this assignment because it made me think about how I would teach students how to use a tool rather than to solve a problem. All the other screencasts that I made were more instructional on problems. This screencast allowed me to demonstrate where to click and navigate a certain tool. I feel like these might be useful at the beginning of the year to compile. I could make quick little tutorials for my students in how to use our online math program called mathxl as well as where to find everything on my website. This might even be beneficial for parents to access. I plan on continuing to screencast using screencast-o-matic and make a bunch of short videos for the beginning of the year! 

Mulitmedia Tools Artifact #1

Audio Fluency

Fending Off Math Anxiety Audio of Article: Link to audio

       For my first artifact, I wanted to share my Audio Fluency assignment. This was from Module 2 where we had to simply record ourselves reading something. I choose to find a content related article about math and anxiety. I simply downloaded an app to my Smartphone called Smart Recorder and just had to push record. The whole process was extremely easy but I found this assignment interesting for two reasons. 

      The first is that in high school math, I don't ever ask my students to read any articles. Most of the class time is spent discovering math formulas, solving problems, and asking questions. Never is there any articles to read. And yet, there are so many good articles about mathematics. This made me stop and think about the importance of not only solving problems but understanding the role of mathematics in society. This is the perfect opportunity to have class discussions about why so many people have math anxiety. I really want to try to incorporate more articles and discussions into the classroom that would aid in students ability to understand true mathematics. 

     The second reason for including this artifact is that I never actually stopped and thought about what I sounded like. This was the perfect opportunity to reflect on my speed, tone, pace, and clarity in talking and reading. This practice will come in handy when I make my own audio records or screencasts for my classroom. 

      I hope to bring audio and articles into the classroom more this upcoming school year. My plan is to find one article a month and to record myself reading it or post the article. Students will be expected to listen to the recording or read the article themselves, I like giving students options. Then the next day in class we can have a discussion about what they read and see where the conversation takes us.

Mulitmedia Tools Reflection

MultiMedia Tools

            When I started this course, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I figured that I would be learning about a variety of tools that are available. What I didn't expect, was how easy and simple the tools were to utilize. My favorite part about this course was that each week we learned about a different tool. Not only did we learn about the tool, but we, ourselves, had to use the tool. Every week I got to use a tool as if I would ask my students to use them. I feel as though this practice is the most important because I know feel like I can troubleshoot with my students having done it myself. This course also gave me a few new ideas to try out in the upcoming school year. 

          What am I going to try out you might ask? Well, Flipgrid was a website I had never heard of before. In math, specifically, we often assign a few practice problems from a textbook or worksheet. While I feel as though practicing is important, it gets old and boring. Flipgrid is a way for students to respond to questions with a video. It limits their response to 90 seconds and is SUPER easy to use and navigate. This was the perfect take away from this class and I can't wait to try it out in my classroom next year! 

         I plan on continuing to take more technology classes because technology is always changing. My school is going 1:1 with Chromebooks and this class has helped me put a ton of new tools in my toolbelt! :) I am no longer nervous for the school year but rather excited. My goal is to introduce these new tools sparingly as to not overwhelm students but to gradually switch things up from the traditional high school math classroom! 

Graphic Design in the Classroom

Graphic Design & the Classroom

"A designer considers the end user. An artist does not"

Teachers, you might not be aware of it, but you are in fact a designer. You design through selecting, planning and organizing how every single paper, lesson, test, quiz, and homework is going to look for your students. Over the years, we as teachers have gotten so good at cranking out tests and worksheets that it has become second nature. But with the 1:1 rollouts happening all across the country, we need to consider how we are going to transform those same elements digitally. Digital mediums offer much more variety, font styles, colors, and a plethora of options. So now more than ever we need to design with our students in mind!

Patricia Russac argued that "By taking typography into account, teachers can't help but help students. Whether filling in PowerPoint slides or typing up worksheets or writing unit tests, teachers can make purposeful decisions regarding letter families." Furthermore, Heather Dowd in a google summit presentation made a good argument that "We teach students to read and write from a young age and we spend time helping them develop those skills.But we don’t provide much support for communicating visually."

We as teachers must not only model the design principles of CARP which stand for Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity. But we also must teach our students about these design principles. With the implementation of the common core standards and the advance in technology, more and more students are utilizing the 4 C's of Education (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity). When we ask students to be creative and communicate we need to help them learn how to do this visually!

Below is an example of how I decided to try out Google Drawings and create my own poster utilizing the elements of designing!

References

Dowd, H.  (n.d). Tell Me With a Graphic in a Google Slides Presentation [Google slides]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Y5LAxlRhRGgkqbFGKu9f5ZdZx2RwhlxZAC9eeJyUZ5Y/edit#slide=id.g22a979eea9_0_0

Russac, M. H. (n.d.). Why Teachers Should Care About Typography. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from http://theasideblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-teachers-should-care-about.html