Reflection

I decided to do this last Blog on a reflection of this class. I was extremely excited when I saw the name of this course. I love technology and all of its uses in the classroom. I am currently flipping my classroom and in an iPad academy hoping I will get iPads in my classroom and in my students hands. There are so many wonderful resources out there that I have yet to learn and I learned a few more by going through this class. I am creating an iBook for my students and plan to incorporate some of the new tools that I learned in this course in my iBook. I really liked TrackStar. It is a great place to have for my students even if it is just for when they have extra time and want to go practice on their own they have multiple places to go using Track Star. I also liked quiz star because it helps my students become familiar with multiple choice questions like on the ACT/NeSa and any other standardized test that I don't do a lot of prep for in my class. We try to incorporate some multiple choice, but never a lot as we want to see their work and thought process. I liked the activity where we all picked a tool because now I have that Wiki page and if I ever need a refresher on one of the tools I can use that to teach myself how to use it and become more familiar with the tool to be able to use it in my classroom. Overall I felt this was a great class.

Wiki in my classroom

Wiki would be a wonderful place to have my students complete and share a project they're working on. They could each create their own page for their own projects, but each student would have access to everyone's projects so we could use peer review and discussions throughout the process and at the end we could have a peer review for grading. This would be a great way to have class discussions and wonderful place for my students to be able to go to on their own for different resources throughout my course.

Curriculum Unit

Here is the link to my curriculum unit.

Ideas for Blogger

There are so many wonderful opportunities to use blogger in the classroom. Specifically in my classroom as I teach high school Algebra. It is not very common to do a lot of writing in math classrooms, but I think it is necessary. It would be a great way to collaborate with my students on topics rather than just doing the math problems, but truly discussing them and what we are learning in the classroom. A way I can use blogger for my parents is to help keep them informed about what we are doing in the classroom and what they can do to help their students be more successful. I have a new teaching method that I am trying that a lot of my parents have never heard of or seen in schools so it would be a great way to keep them informed on the new teaching method and to help explain to them why I am doing this for their students and more in-depth explanations to make sure they understand this teaching method. With my colleagues it would be a great way for professional development, sometimes just reflecting on our curriculum and courses helps teach us and our colleagues more about themselves and help us collaborate more efficiently when we do have time together.

Curriculum Project

My idea for my curriculum project is to do a unit over Unit 5 of my curriculum which is all about quadratics. I have found this is the most difficult and longest unit of all of Algebra so I thought it would be great to have supplementary material for that Unit for my students to use online. Since this unit is longer, it will be nice to have something different for my students to do rather than just in-class activities and work, but to incorporate the internet. This will also help teach my students how to use their online resources for educational purposes specifically math. A lot of students do not realize that there are as many resources available to them at their fingertips that they can use, instead they rely on their homework and teacher to provide all of the information, when really there are so many other resources that will help them succeed in the classroom and on the assessments.

School Year Goals

This school year I have set out on an adventure in my classroom. I have completely flipped my classroom. If you don't know what this is it is where my students watch the video lessons at home and then come to class prepared to apply their knowledge through activities and collaboration. This has been a huge challenge as it is a very different concept and my students have been in the school system (as well as their parents) for many years now and so it is different for them. I have had other colleagues and students question this approach, some even said that it was lazy teaching and I am just having a video teach my students rather than me. Clearly these people have not done the research I have done, nor have they taken the time to learn what a flipped classroom truly is. I would say it is the exact opposite of lazy teaching. I have never been so busy in my 5 years of teaching, but it is worth every minute. I make my own videos so the students are learning from me, the basics that is. When asked why I do this or why I chose to flip my classroom I go back to an article I found about the flipped classroom and answer this question that it posed, "When do your students need you most, when you're lecturing over a topic, or when they're trying to apply that knowledge to all different types of problems and situations?" Well when I answer that question it is definitely when the students are applying the knowledge. I may have one or two questions during a lecture, but most students just copy down the notes and barely pay attention and then get to the homework at home and have no idea what they're doing. Now when my students are applying their new knowledge I'm right there beside them with the ability to work individually with each student each class period. I can create formative assessments that require my students to depend on one another to complete them. I can not only teach them the Algebra concepts, but I can also teach them how to work with others (even if you don't necessarily like them) to complete tasks that forces them to think and problem solve as a collaborative unit. I now have my entire 51 minutes to work with my students, answering questions and challenging them to a whole new level. Now when asked if this works, yes it works wonderfully when done properly. If you ask my students how they like it you will get a mixed response. Those who would rather come to class put their head down, or barely take notes just to get by then go home and not complete the homework are really struggling. They have not been challenged in a way that they have to "own their own learning" like this before. They have not had to help themselves learn or work at it. However, my students who are up for the challenge and can be self-disciplined are performing better than I ever expected. As a teacher it is easy to point out the student's who are not doing well, but if we focus a little more on those who are excelling our lives would be much more enjoyable!
My main goal for this year (other than flipping the classroom) is to teach my students how to learn. I want them to leave my classroom in May feeling the joy of learning again. Somewhere along the way they all forget how exciting it is to learn new concepts and to be able to apply those concepts to either other disciplines or the real world, and my hope for my students is that they get that feeling back, even if it is only for 51 minutes a day in room E-10.
My other goal that I have been focusing heavily on in my classroom is spiraling the curriculum throughout the year. I want to force my students to retain the information they are learning through different tasks so that in the future they can apply their Algebra knowledge to all different situations.

Introduction

Hi. My name is Chelsea Hoglund and I am in my 5th year of teaching high school math. I currently teach at Bellevue East High School in Bellevue, Nebraska. This is my 2nd year at Bellevue East. My first three years of teaching I taught in Lincoln, Nebraska at Lincoln North Star. I have taught Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Algebra (Algebra II) and Algebra Support. I am currently teaching 5 sections of Algebra, two of which are Basic Algebra and one is cotaught Algebra. I also coach basketball and soccer at Bellevue East. I was born and raised in Hastings, Nebraska and went to Hastings College for my undergrad. I played soccer for Hastings. This year I have flipped my classroom so that is a new challenge and is very different from the previous four years of my teaching career. It has a lot of challenges, but also has a lot of rewards. It is a lot of work the first year, but I can see the improvement in my students.