'Selling' the tech implementer idea.

Our school is formulating the class schedule for next year; with some changes, I have an extra hour that needs to be filled. I have suggested be to use it as a technology implementer. During that hour I would go to the teachers classrooms and help them integrate the use of technology into their classrooms. It sounds like a great idea and something I would love to do. We have a lot of good tech at our school, but it doesn't get used very often. I would like to remedy that situation. My problem is trying to 'sell' it to our superintendent. I am in need of ways to 'sell' it to our superintendent. I am also wondering if you know of anyone that does this in their school.
As always, Live long and learn lots
Mr. Love
@mrlove314

Why is Teaching so Awesome.

Every since the 8th grade in Mr. Branham's LA class, I wanted to become a teacher. I was a little turd (if I may say so) through 7th grade and Mr. Branham turned me around and made me a better student. Ever since then, I had a desire to become a teacher. I always had an affinity towards mathematics and while I was in high school my math teacher Mrs. Miller brought my desire to become a teacher to a higher level. I knew I wanted to become a math teacher all because of Mrs. Miller. Thank you soooo much Mrs. Miller. I have had some awesome teachers in the past: Mr. Calcaterra, Mrs. Miller, Mr. Hargraves, and Mr. Griffith. Each one of my favorite teachers have taught me a little something and all of their great assets have made me what I am today, A TEACHER.
Teaching, to me, is one of the most rewarding careers ever. I can say that every morning that I get up, I can't wait to get to school and start my day. Yes, there are days in which things do not go very well, but I still can't wait to get up in the morning and start anew. I really love my job. I love the fact that the students trust me to teach them all about math and life. I love how they listen to me when I tell them stories, how they laugh at most of my jokes, and how they trust me enough to tell me what they are thinking.
I finally have a principal that cares more about the kids them themselves, and that does nothing but help me and our school. Thank you Mr. Waters.
One of my favorite movies is Mr. Holland's Opus. I get teary-eyed when all of his former students gather in the auditorium and give him a final farewell. I so desire to be a teacher that is loved by his students the way Mr. Holland was. I have parents that tell me their children really enjoy me and my class and I always tell them that I just hope they are learning something from me, because that is of utmost importance. I am glad my students enjoy me and my classes, but I hope they are learning something. Kids are so much fun and the each make my day a little brighter. Thanks you to all my kids. I love each and every one of you.
As always:
Live long and learn lots.
Mr. Love

Kids and Fractions

Kids and fractions are not a good mix at my school. My students absolutely loathe fractions and want to kill them all. But as we math teachers know, fractions are a huge building block in the world of mathematics. This year I have really seen my kids struggling with fractions. Most of these kids had substitutes during their middle school years because the regular teachers had children during the school year, nothing wrong with that, but it happened three years in a row and that, I believe, hurt these kids in building their mathematical base. So it comes to my class and these kids only know how to do fractions with their stinking calculators. I would love to tear each one of the fraction buttons on their calculator. That button has lead to a lot less learning, especially with fractions.
So what am I to do? Well, I was reading my twitter feed and someone (sorry but I can't remember who mentioned this) said something about a fraction Friday type of bell ringer. So it got me to thinking, and I came up with Fun Fraction Friday. Every Friday, I will have 5 fraction problems: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and another of my choice as a bell ringer. I started this today and the results were amazing. The average Algebra 2 kids answered 2.8 questions correct, and my Math Analysis kids were able to average 3.7 questions. What is even worse is my Algebra 1B kids only got an average .7 questions correct. Hopefully as this little project gets going the averages will go up (they certainly can't go down much more). With the kids seeing fractions more often they should feel more comfortable with them and their anxiety level will decrease when it comes to fractions. I am also going to show them where fractions come alive in the mathematics we are teaching. I just hope they will turn their draconian view of fractions into a love of fractions. Might be wishfull thinking, but we all have to have goals.
Live Long and Learn Lots
Mr. Love

Technology doesn't always work?

I have been working at integrating more technology into my classroom. So, for my Personal Finance class I created an Excel spreadsheet for them to collect information on stocks they get to pick. So I was looking for a method of having the file available to all the students. I picked Box.com and uploaded my file and got the URL for the page. Then I went to bit.ly and shortened my link. Now all I had to do is let the students know the URL and boom they would be off and running.
All is good. At least I thought so.
I gave the students the URL they tried to go to the site and they had to sign up for the service. Bam!!!!!! My world came tumbling down, well at least I thought it was. So I was in the computer lab trying my darndest to come up with a quick solution. Nothing worked. So class ended and I was looking like a big boob (and not the good kind :) So I got to thinking, how can I get this out there to the students. Then it hit me. I created a new blog and embedded the file from Box.com within that blog. Now all they have to do is go to the blog and download the file. So hopefully that should work.
I have some tips for people looking at putting technology into their curriculum.
1. Always try it out on a different computer before you set the kids loose to use it. It's always best to try it on a different computer because your main computer usually has all the passwords needed to perform what you want.
2. In case something happens, have a backup plan. I should have had a backup plan, and since I didn't have another plan, I looked like a boob.

I guess you live and learn. And you almost always learn the hard way.
Live long and learn lots.
Mr. Love

Technology I use in my classes

My last blogpost I talked about ClassParrot and how I use it to communicate with my students. I absolutely love this tech tool. However I am using more tech in my classroom this year than I ever have. I was able to get a smartphone and that has helped me get more interested in using technology in the classroom. Here are some tools that I use and how I use them. I use Dropbox a ton. I have the DropBox app on my smartphone and, as you may know, there are certain times where we have a picture or a diagram that you would like to show the kids, well all I have to do is take a picture on my smartphone and move it to my dropbox folder. Then it magically appears in my desktop dropbox folder where I then can then display it on the projector for all to see.
I use DropBox on my home computer and school computer where I keep all the files that I am working on and no matter where I am at, I always have access to those files. Death to ThumbDrives.
DropitToMe.com is also a tool that I am starting to use. This site allows you to have your students upload the files they are working on to your DropBox folder. This saves time and energy, no more having the students email their projects to you. They just upload them and they are in your DropBox folder.
I love Professional Development. And I try to get PD anytime that I can, and the tool that allows me to get great PD for free is Twitter. Twitter allows you to connect to people who care about the same things as you. I have tweeps all over the world from the UK to Austrailia to many places in the U.S. I can talk all day about what I have learned on twitter, but that's a whole new blog. These are just some of the tools and how I use them in my room. More to come later.
As always
Love^2

Using ClassParrot in my Clasroom.

A couple of months ago, I ran across a tweet about this new Web 2.0 tool called ClassParrot (http://bit.ly/qtL0Fk ) I started using this tool because our principal wanted us to use the students cell phones in the classroom. (If we can't beat them, then let's join them.) Well I wasn't for sure how I was going to use it, then the bright idea doing a problem of the week. So every Sunday evening I send a message out to all of my students (since Sunday evening is when they are doing their homework) with a problem of the week. They would then reply back to the message with their answer. On my dashboard at ClassParrot I can see who sent the message back to me and what their answer is. As you can see here in the screenshot.

As well as the Problems of the Week, I also send out a reminder the night before each test, just in case they would forget to study (doesn't usually happen right?).

There are many great things about this tool. You can use it to send out polls, you can reply back to an answer if they need to redo something. Another good thing about this poll is that they do not have your own cellphone number and you cannot see their phone numbers.

ClassParrot is a great tool to use. You should go and check it out. And if you have any suggestions on how to use it better let me know. Thanks and hope your all ready to come back to school, I know I can't wait.

See you in the classroom!

Mr. Love 314

Changes are coming!

What I want to talk about today is what I need to change for the upcoming year. We all know about the 'New Year's Resolution' junk. Well I am not a believer in that, but I do think it is a great time to sit back and reflect on what you would like to do differently in the following year. Most everyone is going to be taking a peek at the diet/exercise fad in the following weeks, with me, I made the conversion to a healthier me last May and have done well. I have lost over 90 lbs., also ran in 4 5k's and can now run the entire thing without stopping. (In May I could barely run 1 minute without taking a break). So I am not going into the new year with a new diet or anything like that. What I am going to change is things in my classroom. So here is my list of things I want to change.

1. Organization: I have a problem with this. I will have everything organized and in its place. After about two hours in the classroom it looks like a paper bomb went off and strewn paper all over the place. I will get it cleaned up by the end of the day (at least have it in piles), then the next day it happens all over again. I worked with a teacher a few years ago and no matter what time you went into her room it was imaculate. Everything had a place and it was in its place. I don't know how she did it, but I will find out how by the time I retire.

2. Communicate with Parents: I don't do this enough (if at all). But I vow to change that this semester. I hope to communicate with each one of my students parents by the end of the semester for either something they are doing good or poorly with. This is going to be hard, because I am not a phone person, I would rather not talk on the phone if I had the choice. But it's not about me, it's about the kids.

3. More projects: My creativity level is not where it should be, and so I steal a lot of ideas from teachers. And I plan to do more stealing in the following months, because I need to get these kids doing projects and not just more homework. They need to see where this stuff is used in everyday life. So teachers out there, beware I coming to steal your ideas.

4. More problem solving: I am not a big problem solving person, but I know it needs to be one of the core things that we teach. I don't like them and I know the kids don't like them, but ready or not kids, here they come. I need to integrate more 'real world' challenges to them in the hopes of allievating that question of 'When are we ever going to use this'

5. To not fail anyone: This one is hard, because I believe that if a kid doesn't do any work they deserve to get a failing grade. But my problem is that I don't do enough to push that kid to do his homework. At our school we have a ton of apathy and I am going to change the ways in which I approach these kids. I will push them until they either do their homework or it's the end of the semester. I am not going to pass everyone, only if they deserve it, but I will work harder at getting these kids to do their work.

6. I will not complain (as much): I have had the tendency to complain about things. Well now is the time where that complaining is going to stop (slow down) and I will help change the things I can change.

7. Read more: I love to read, it's just that I don't have a whole lot of time to read. But talking with one of my tweeps (@mathheadinc) who read my blog and suggested I read a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (http://t.co/kGXtG9oC). So I went to the library yesterday and borrowed it. I am now reading it and it seems to be pretty good. Thank you @mathheadinc. I vow to read more non-fiction books so if you have any great non-fiction books that you think I need to read (mostly about education) please let me know.

Thanks for reading. You can always follow me on twitter @mrlove314
Love^2