Thursday, July 28, 2011
Khan Academy
This was one of the best websites I have found yet. It deals mostly with math buthas history, biology, chemistry, and economics videos as well. It basically has a cache of videos that explain a multitude of concepts, mostly math. I think I could use this in a math class introducing a concept, such as multiplying integers, and the video explains it in simple terms. I found it very useful and the explanations are clear and also gives ample examples for the students to practice while they watch the video. I could see myself using this in the classroom for math.
LazyMATHS.COM
I went to the website LazyMaths.com to look for useful tools to use in a math class. I found this website to be helpful but not what I expected. They take a typical math problem and solve it in the traditional way and then, using Indian Vedic math and Russian Tracthenerg short cut techniques, solve the problem using one of these two methods. In almost all cases, the short cut techniques were quicker. It even gave an estimated time for each method, and the short cut technique was always quicker. However, as I did these problems I wondered if these methods might confuse the students even more. Would I have to teach these methods to them before they could put them into practice? If I had to do that I might be defeating the purpose. A couple of the presentations had video slideshows that showed how to solve the problem, which made it easier to view and understand. However, some of them just explained in words how to solve the problems, and based on my math teaching experience, wondered if seventh graders could follow along, grasp the concept, and see the difference. I'm not so sure. I guess I will have to try this out and see the students' reaction to this approach and see if it is worthwhile.
I really really like podcasts and ipadio. I am already familiar with iTunes and podcasts as I have subscribed to a number of podcasts before. It is really easy and the only problem I have is deciphering which podcast to subscribe to as there are so many. I found it easy to find ones for personal use. It was a little bit more difficult finding ones useful for school. There were many great podcasts on history but I think it would put kids to sleep listening to them. I haven't really found any video podcasts that might be useful but I am still searching. It is really difficult to find useful stuff for math. I think the ipadio would be great to use in a classroom. You could literally record a lesson or directions for kids if you weren't going to be there on a certain day for them and your sub to use. I could use a video cast and use it and literally have sub plans for the day. This was fun to use and play around with and I really enjoyed it.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)