Wizards, Mind-Reading and Techno, Oh My!

This year, I was lucky to attend the MACUL conference in Detroit, Michigan. MACUL stands for "Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning," however, at the conference I heard about many different technological tools and ways to incorporate them into the classroom. When looking at the MACUL program, I was overwhelmed by the amount of presentations, there were hundreds to choose from! So, I picked which presentations I would attend based on which names sounded the most exciting (very similar to the way I picked which teams would advance in my March Madness bracket). The words included in my title of this blogpost were what led me to go presentations- how can one say no to a seminar that includes the word "wizard" or "techno teaching?"

The second presentation that I attended was entitled "Mind-Reading with Technology Tools," so of course I was intrigued. The presenter, Andrea McKay, began by having everyone participate by making each attendee sign up for a website called peardeck.com. This site is a tool that teachers can use to get students to interact with powerpoint presentations on their computers, smart phones or iPads in ways that are similar to students interacting in a webinar. For instance, students can submit or choose responses that can instantly be shown in a graph to the class, so that they can see what their peers answered and the teacher can see who answers what on their screen. Students can also interact by drawing pictures or or placing points on maps. It is also important to note that students can look onto the powerpoint-esq presentation, slide for slide, on their device. This technology is pertinent to where I am currently student teaching in that it would help to make up for some of the technology that we lack, in that we do not currently have a projector to project slide shows or anything from our computers the class as a whole. With peardeck.com, I can show the whole class videos or information without a projector. One setback to this technology is that is costs money, but if I am in a similar predicament next year I spending the twelve dollars a month would be well worth it!

Andrea ended her presentation by using technology to read my good pal Elliots' mind. She talked about how she uses a certain video that showcases a man who could read any real person's mind (it actually has some secrets to it that I cannot share but you can watch below) to spark conversations with her students and them engaged in class. If you were the watch the video I took of her and Elliot, you can hear me hooting, hollering and laughing in the video as evidence of its excitement; I hope that I can use it one day to get my mathematics class started by getting them to begin to think about predictions and theories. My final thing I will say about this presentation is that I really enjoyed the Andrea presented. I loved how she was able to obtain her objectives and teach what she wanted to teach through use of humor and her personality. I learned and saw a little bit about the kind of teacher I hope to become from watching her present.

Overall, I came out of the conference so inspired to not only be a person that uses technology, but a teacher that uses technology. At lunch in the middle of the day, I finally came around to creating tmy professional twitter account because I was excited to connect to those who utilize technology in creative ways like those I learned about throughout that wonderful #macul15 day!

A Lesson with Desmos: The TI-83 for the Next Generation

The lesson that I plan on integrating technology with is one in which the students will be exploring graphs of polynomials and how they relate to the different parts of polynomial functions. For instance, by finding the leading coefficient and degree of an expression of a polynomial function, one can predict the shape and behaviors of its graph. Students will be looking at different polynomials and finding patterns between their graphs and the parts of a polynomial. Instead of using the traditional graphing calculator, students will be be going to the back of the classroom to use the Desmos graphing devices on the computers to complete questions like those on the following handout: 

Desmos is a free online graphing device that has many of the same features of a Texas Instruments graphing calculator. Therefore, as a math teacher it is quite easy to integrate Desmos into classroom for many math concepts can be modeled via graphs and the act of graphing is essential for a deeper understanding of certain mathematical conceptual knowledge. For this particular lesson students will be using the graphing device to clearly see graphs and accomplish their learning objective: students will be able to identify a polynomial function graph based on the parts of a polynomial and vice versa. 

One of my main reasons for using Desmos over the typical Texas Instruments graphing calculator is that with Desmos, students can save their work, unlike the calculator. Overall the computer application is also easier for students to collaborate and investigate with for multiple students can see the visuals of the graph at once. This is really important for this particular lesson since students are asked to work in groups to see patterns that aren't easy to see individually or without discussion. Another characteristic that separates Desmos from the TI-83's available in our classroom are that program begins to create graphs as students type in numbers and variables. If you make a change to a number, the graph is quickly redrawn on the computer. This way, students can make these changes and the impact of the changes they make in real time; this gives them immediate feedback and of how the graph changes under certain circumstances which is pertinent to and enhances the objective I am trying to reach and overall a powerful way for students to learn math. 

What makes Desmos even more remarkable is that students can also download the application on their phones and tablets. This may be something that I consider having them do before implementing this lesson since it may help some students engage even more so he may be distracted by the computers or want to work alone. By having students download the application to their own devices, there is a chance they would play around with it during their time after school. This could really extend their learning to places outside of the classroom, which is one of my overall goals as a math educator specifically.