Reflection of Last Class

I thought that the last class, where we all did our presentations online was really amazing.  I never knew that technology had come so far as to be able to do something like that.  It's like schools and classrooms don't need to exist anymore.

Both of my older brothers work from home. My brother Tony is a computer person and my brother Gerry is director of Finance.  The last class gave me a little insight of what it's like for them to work from home.  I understand our class was only 2.5 hours long.  Gerry and Tony work from home 40-50 hours per week. 

I especially enjoyed the different presentations and different modes of presentation.  Some of us prerecorded our presentations, and some of us dictated our presentations during class.  Some of us used Prezi and Screencast-o-matic and one of us made his own website.

I thought all the presentations were very well done.  You could tell that everyone spent an immense amount of time working on their presentations.  I have spent an immense amount of time working on everything for this class because I am not computer savvy, it takes more time and effort than everyone else.

Overview of Teaching with Technology

At the beginning of this class, I was nervous and scared because I am not good with computers and computer programs.  I have always been the type of student who needs to be shown how to do something first.  In other words, I need class time experience and then I can do stuff at home.  This class, however, has not been like that.  We were thrown into the class and forced to take everything head on.  We had the tutorials to watch and learn from, but for the most part we have had to play around with every program to learn how they operate.  I am not use to learning in this fashion.  It was very intimidating in the beginning.  I was given advice by Dr. Smirnova, and I appreciate her advice more than I could ever express.  I was ready to drop the class and give up.

Dr. Smirnova told me to stay in the class, she believed in me when I didn't believe in myself.  No words can ever express how much that did for me.  I am now able to do so much more today than I could before I took this class.  Derek, Patrick, Claudia, and Brian have all helped me as well.  I appreciate their help so much.  Derek was and is an excellent partner and group member all throughout this semester.  He is going to be a great Science teacher. 

Now that we have completed this course, I feel that I am better for it.  I can now confidently incorporate technology resources in my future math class.  I now know how to Blog, Screencast, Prezi, Powerpoint, and so many other programs.  I think we have all shared in this struggle and come out better people.  This may have been the toughest course I have ever taken in my educational career, but it's now complete.  I feel like I have grown through this process.

multimedia project

I used kidblog.org and screencast-o-matic for my multimedia project.  I had to redo the project because I couldn't find where I put it online.  When you watch the video, you will see that kidblog is very similar to blogger (the blogs we use in class).  I really like using kidblog.  I think it is for elementary students, but I would like to use something similar for high school math students.  I think they would benefit from typing or writing about the process of math.  There is no writing in math, I see only problems being solved.  I would like to incorporate some sort of writing or blogging in my course in the future.

efolio experience

I really like the idea of an online portfolio where you can keep links to all projects.  I wish I could understand all of this stuff better.  I am not computer literate.  I need to have someone show me all of these programs step-by-step, at least for the first time.  I'm sure there is more to livebinders than I have implemented.  The video tutorial was extremely helpful.  There is a lot to fill out in the efolio.  Not only are we putting our projects in the portfolio, but we are also asked to input our education philosophy and things about eDTPA as well.  I have tried my best to fulfill the requirements for the class. 

WoW project

I used Prezi and Screencast-o-matic for my final project.  The subject I chose was the flipped classroom.  I really like using screencast-o-matic.  It was the easiest program to use out of all the programs we used this semester.  I think I would actually use my presentation in my future classroom as a series of lessons on flipped classrooms.  I think I could use class time better and help the students understand math better by having them watch lectures at home.  We could spend more class time on reviewing problems and doing collaborative activities.

chapter 8

I found chapter 8 to be very interesting.  I especially like the section about technical support because someone like me needs a lot of technical support.  The interactive asynchronous model is the model that this class seems to be designed after.  "Students 'meet' and interact with their instructor (and often other students) in a course space enabled by a Content Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS), such as blackboard or Moodle."  (Robyler, p.235).  The 10 steps described on pages 238-243, describe our course perfectly.  The most interesting thing in the chapter, for me, were the statistics about online classes versus in-person classes.

Audacity and AVS video edito

Chapter 7 asked us to make a video and audio file for a procedure we would use in school.  I chose how to sit down in class properly.  I used an audio file and a video file for how to sit down properly.  You will see that the video file is better because I can model how to come into class properly.

Chapter 5

I've seen, my fieldwork assignments, that the use of the whiteboard is prevalent in all math classes.  Every math class that I observed had a whiteboard installed in it and was used almost on a daily basis.  I can see the advantage of using them for teachers and students.  Whiteboards make everything more interactive. 

Endgrade seems to be an effective tool as well because students can see their grades anytime they want.  Students can see their grades right away and track their grades themselves.  As for teachers, the program figures all the grades out on its own.

Coolmath.com is an interesting website to use instead of using a graphing calculator.  It even has a cool review for students with exponents, lines, and graphs.  A very simple way for students to review on their own at home.

Ptcfast.com offers easy scheduling software for parents and teachers.  It saves time and taxpayer money.  It makes this process convenient and easy.

The free online readability tools offer grading for books.  You can use this program to test texts for age appropriate books. 

Word Puzzle generator

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mt_lXXZ3__p25BQAAfFwdUBcprjoecxdjTk1sj1VKuI/edit

Here is the URL for the word puzzle activity that I tried.  I made a 15 x 15 puzzle with the generator.  I input 12 math words that I thought would be interesting to find.  Some of them are backwards, forwards, up and down.  I found this to be very interesting and fun. 

Simulations

Here is my input about the simulations from Chapter 3

The poor scholar's soliloquy

Here is my slideshow for The Poor Scholar's Soliloquyhttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C16GeV30vmo1pv25s1DbETzbMEieKYx-VS02dh-QMtA/edit#slide=id.g1157236645_0_11

My views of chapter 1

I was interested to see the history of computers as described in the chapter.  I am definitely not computer literate by any means.  The MOOC's are very interesting to me.  We live in a much smaller world than we ever have before.  Smartphones, laptops, ebooks, and technology in general has made the world a much smaller place. 

They also discuss multitasking, which I am not good at either.  Studies have shown that it is counterproductive.  The example they use is driving and texting, perfect!!!!!

The chapter is a perfect summary of the history of technology up to this point.

Here is my first post to a blog ever.

I am Frank Napolitano.  I am a self-employed landscaper.  I live in New Windsor, NY.  I went to Newburgh Free Academy and graduated class of 1996.  I got my associates degree from Orange County Community College.  I received a bachelor's degree from MSMC in 2005 in education.  I am now pursuing a Master's Degree in Education.  My preferred field of study is High School Math.  I have spent the last year taking classes at Mount Saint Mary's College.  I didn't think I could do well in these classes, I was actually very apprehensive.  Everything seems to working out, though.  It's tougher than I expected it to be.  I feel like a dinosaur because I am usually the oldest student in the class.  Everyone else is in their mid 20's and I'm 38 years old.