How mathematics has influenced Origami art‏

Very interesting TED talk, this guy is a former physicist, now Origami expert, who has used mathematical theory and geometry to help revolutionize Origami. He calls it "using dead people to help you do your work".  The

The students at my school did a huge origami event; to send paper cranes to Japan.  The ideas expressed in this video would be a neat way to integrate the cranes into math. 

Ipod Touch Reflection

After reflecting on my experience with my Ipod touch in the classroom, I have mixed feelings.  I really liked the opportunity to explore and test out new and fun ways to integrate the Ipod Touch in the classroom, but I found this harder than anticipated.  In a previous post, I had mentioned that I felt unsure how to utilize the Touch in older graders verses younger grades.  This opinion might be skewed though because of my experience with my own younger child and all the uses I have found for him. As a result, I have thought a lot about this, and realized that it might have been easier if I was told exactly how to use the Touch. I generally like the freedom to explore and find solutions without directions, but in this case I feel that I was unable to fully take advantage of this technology because I did not know how to integrate it into my 5^th grade classroom.  As a university class, we discussed some of the issues that arose for us, and someone brought the idea of using the Touch with only one student and not the other 25.  Our professor made the good point that many classrooms don’t always have class sets of each resource such as dictionaries; therefore, the argument of using this technology when not every student had access at the same time needs to be disregarded.   Overall, I still feel that I would have benefited from more instruction of best practices and uses for this amazing and potentially helpful form of technology.   

ITouch Update

Since my last post, in relation to technology in the classroom, I have yet been able to implement my ideas of using the Itouch in the classroom.   I have seen opportunities where the Itouch would be beneficial, but I am having a difficult time figuring out if timing is appropriate.  I also wonder would one student using the Itouch and the rest of the class using a worksheet be fair?  I almost feel that it would be better if I introduced the Itouch only to students whom I was working with independently…. I guess I am still unsure how to use one Itouch in a classroom of 25?

On the flipside, I have been given an amazing opportunity where I am teaching a science unit to a small group of 5^th graders.  The unit we have begun is food chemistry, and I have been brainstorming ways I could use the Itouch with them.  I have some strange circumstances, I have to teach in the hallway, and therefore I do not have any access to technology unless it is wireless, in the form of an Itouch or a laptop.  As a result, my first idea was to use the Itouch to show a YouTube Video on learning about sugar, or nutrition labels, but then I realized that the screen was going to be way too small for nine bodies to group around.  My most recent idea has been to obtain an app that provides information about the different food groups and allows users to look up food facts about different foods.  I could use this application to allow my students to have access to information and take that information and graph it or use it to explain to me more about their understanding of the different nutrients in foods… I will have to do a little research.

Apps in the Class

The classroom that I am student teaching in has a range of abilities; the range of ability levels is what I feel would be comparable to most classes within the general Seattle area.  Recently, I have received an IPod Touch from the University of Washington Bothell to use with students to help differentiate instruction in the classroom.  I have personally owned an IPhone since their first generation, and I am very comfortable with the ability of functions that this form of technology contains.  I learned early all about the educational value that IPhones or IPod Touches contain from my son.  My son just turned four and is a complete wiz using all the applications this technology offers.  I began purchasing letter games and virtual story books when he was younger, and now he uses different phonics reading games as well as puzzles.  Therefore when I considered ways to use this piece of technology in the classroom, I thought of three particular ways that would be helpful in my 5^th grade class:

1.       Working with kids with special needs.  The Itouch contains a stop clock, some students with special needs are very particular to time and need timers to help them transition into the next activity.  The Itouch has a stopwatch feature that is very easy to use; the student could even start it themselves.  (This feature could also be used in whole class instruction when students are given a specific amount of time to individually or pair-share).

2.      Working with students whom need extensions.  For this example I am thinking about a student very strong in math, if he was to finish early he could use the Itouch to graph date tables from data he collected in class.  We are currently working with stem and leaf plots and it would neat to allow this student the ability to take that information further and input the data into the graphing calculator application, allowing him the ability to see the data being graphed in multiple ways. 

3.      Working with students whom need a little more practice with their math facts.  There are a few students whom need a little more practice with their basic facts.  So to help them move from the counting stage to the recall stage, practicing these problems would help.  There is an application called Math Drills that offers students extra practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The app offers a review section and a practice session.  The review section is really nice because it uses a number line to visually show how 3+5= 8!

As the needs of my students become more apparent to me, I know I will discover many more helpful ways to utilize the Itouch in the classroom. 

Tech Posting

I love this