Oh The Journey Continues

My Fosnot adventure continues to roll on and we are moving forward. I would like to share a few stats for you.

I did a test based on an investigation and the kids stunk the joint out. They did poorly and were confused by some of the wording. They did do well using the ratio tables but struggled to understand the whole picture. I have made a reflection of this test part of a Growing Post the students are doing. What a great way to review a test!!

Then I gave the students a test on the Strings we have been using in class. Strings being clever mental math strategies to add and subtract fractions. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most students achieved a higher level than in previous years. Most of the 50%ers now were in the 65%range and some questions were done properly where hey had never been done before.

2 3/5 - 1 4/5 always used to be a stickler. Kids needing to borrow or change the mixed number. Kids realized the values of the fractions and figured it out. I am impressed with their conceptual knowledge.

I have the kids creating voicethreads on the 2nd test. They are learning the powers of the tools this new web is giving to them.



We are playing with multiplying and dividing of fractions and will be doing this into January. Then the rest of the curriculum will come into play.

My message is that Fosnot Strings WORK.


Learn about them and start using them with your classes.

My continuing Fosnot Adventure

For the past few weeks the blog has fallen silent. The Picture you see here is one I found when I did a search for "lost" at flickrcc. I seem to be struggling with the idea of slow learning. Doing the Fosnot Math is taking lots of time. A book that is supposed to be done in 10 days took over 4 weeks. The second unit is taking just as long. But the students are starting to take responsibility for their work and learning. They have completed their first growing post at their class blogs;

• Room 816
• Room 817
• Room 841
• Room 873

The students were highly successful using clocks to add fractions. Here is a voicethread I made in the summer for using clocks to teach the adding of fractions.

Now we are using Money to add fractions and playing with ratio tables. Fractions are such a large part of next years math that I am willing to spend a third of the school year teaching them. I hope they stick with me.

I have had issues marking and assessing the learning for these units and have come to the realization that the Growing Post is one easy way to see how what they have learned. Now we will journal old school in our notebooks and put the highlights of what we have learned in a new growing post. I had the students learn to upload a picture from their harddrive and to bring one in from flickr. They had to reflect on their learning from the first unit and most students participated. I hope they do as well the second time around.

Now that the students have a firm grasp on moving around the blog I will start Scribe posts. When I first attemped this the students did not know what they were supposed to do and just used the slides from the class smartboard as the scribe. I will still post the slides to slideshare but make the students recreate their math using paint or sketchcast.

Another thing for the students to start. Oh yeah we will start eportfolios in the next 2 weeks. Hmm more work for these poor students. They love it.

And to my friends and network in my google reader. I will now start to go attack the backlog of posts that I have not read for too many weeks. Thanks for your patience.

OK. I have 15 minutes to blog...

I feel rather guilty that I have not been blogging as much as I would like. So much to do and so little time. Now that the K12online is live and ticking I would like to see as much of it as possible.

A nasty thing gets in the way.... that "job" thing. Hmm how to do both.

How about some Fosnot!

Speaking about the job my students finally finished the first unit of thier Fosnot adventure. They have created some amazing work and will be doing a growing post soon on what they have created.

I still am having trouble not being the center of attention in the classroom. I love the spotlight and a chance to captivate an audience. Now my role is taffy puller.... getting that important information out of the students head to give them ownership of their knowledge.

My mentor at school keeps telling me as he draws a turtle on the board "slow learning". Sometimes it is so frustrating with the silence. I will have to continue to find the right "questions"or conversation bridges to continue the math chatter in the class.

The timeline in the book said 10 lessons. My students needed many more lessons than in the book's outline. Most one day activities were 2 day activities to allow for completion of assignments. By the end of the unit the students were getting more efficient at their learning. They were talking more at the onset of lessons and expressing the math that had been learned the previous day. Finally some progress. Hmm it can be hard to reprogram students to be the one mashing up the knowledge instead of mirroring it. (thank you Mr. Warlick)
I have used the blog to get the kids to comment on what has happened in school that day. I am up to 50 to 60% of them commenting regularly. This shows promise for assignments to come.

About thier blogs
These are raw "blogging" students. They need to be taught the inner workings of the blog. How to post, how to embed how to ..... you get the picture. I never had thought about using "Growing Posts" to teach all of these blogging necessities to students. But the Growing Post seems to be the tool that fits the bill.


I look forward to showing them voicethread, and bubbleshare to be tools that they can use to illustrate ideas in their growing post.

Next Fosnot Unit next week. The scribes will begin. Houray. Onward 21st century learners...

Ding time is up. Time to create a Growing Post.

Back to Fosnot

Kids do not want to take responsibility for learning. Man they blew the first assessment. Those that participated in class did well. Those who sat on their hands.... well you can guess those results.

I am still in the first unit trying them to understand just what fractions are. Hopefully by the end of the week they will be done this section. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I have added in some clock strings to the mix a little early. are a series of fraction questions that can be answered using the idea of time.

They seem to get it... those who are participating.

I am also using the smart board to post the slides of each class. I wish it was mounted instead of being on a cart but... we will live with what we have.

Onward Fosnot soldiers... we continue the struggle with the mathematical F-word Fractions.

Fosnot Day 2

The second part of the Submarine Sandwich assignment will be having a "Math Congress". This is a math meeting where students become mathematicians and explain their work. I am looking forward to this day. It will be my job to make the class and the presenters go in the right direction. I will need to maneuver them their with a hands off approach. I need the rest of the class to push the participants to the "needed end point".

I need the class to see:

• Fractions are division
• the size of or amount of the whole matters
• with unit fractions, the greater the denominator, the smaller the piece is.
• when naming a piece, the whole matters.
  

I am hoping that these congresses soon will be published on the web. I will record some and create podcasts. I will also take pictures of all of their work and post them in a pictobrowser.

Day 2 is going to be great!!

Fosnot Math Day 1

I was excited to start teaching fractions with context today. This is one of the goals C Fosnot has given me in my math teaching this year. We started with a problem about field trips and the students were actively participating. It is amazing when good questions are posed how entertained and enthused students are about math.

Now that they have answered the question they have to present to the class what they have learned and it is my responsibility to get the "big ideas" out of the presenters and the class. The class will have to be trained to be good listeners and the presenters will have to be trained to be good mathematicians. I am looking forward to tomorrows class and congress.

The GREAT UNPROJECT

In previous posts I have written that I love teaching and I love teaching where I teach. My school is fantastic. We have a great staff, great administration and most of all GREAT STUDENTS. Don't get me wrong. We have those "special" students just like everyone else but WOW I teach some really great students. Never do I go into work with a frown. I go in thinking where will we go today!! Enough background hoorays now for the real reason for posting.

The unproject's deadline was today. Though I am not a real stickler for deadlines most projects were completed. Well most projects completely amazed me and I even had to get an Educational Aide to stay in the room for 10 minutes while I went and told anyone who would listen what these 13 and 14 year olds have created. Kids never stop to amaze me.

The unproject came out of a conversation I had with Darren. He was coming up with an idea for his high school students to do a project and become "experts". he called his project Expert Voices. I was anxious to participate but he wasn't ready in time for my project to start.

Darren since our meeting has created a blog for his students to post to with their Expert Voices.

Out on my own I went and created a project or an unproject. The unproject was to have as few rules as possible. The only teacher driven information I wanted from them was a simple wiki page explaining one of three fraction topics. The second part of the unproject was to do something, anything and show me your expertise on fractions.

Topic 1 What are Fractions?
Topic 2 Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Topic 3 Multiplying and Dividing Fractions

It is interesting because I gave a 5 week timeline to do this project. This included the week we take off for spring break. No school time was devoted to doing this work. It was all done at home. Yes that is right HOMEWORK!! I knew that there would be a big rush during the last week and many of the students were busy doing some finishing touches on their projects this week.

Most students that were going to do the project were completed their background information wiki by the end of the 3rd week.

This brings us to today and the look of disbelief on my face. I have had some AMAZING work handed in. The students without any prompting or pushing on my part have created some of the most amazing projects.

A story about fractions using The Sims.
A movie about fractions using The Sims.
Songs about fractions.
More Songs about Fractions.
Games Games Games about fractions.
Movies about fractions.
Amazing wikis with bubbleshares, and so much more.

But here was the kicker for me. For months I have been trying to find an application that will duplicate much of the "button power" of powerpoint. I have had little luck. That was until Charmaine and Julie turned in their project. This was there background information. It is nothing less that ...... words do not describe it.

They found an application called spresent. It is the killer application I have been looking for. Students when left on their own can create some amazing stuff.

Please comment on their wiki's at spfractions. These kids deserve to know that their work is being seen and appreciated by an audience that is larger than myself.

I would like to thank Darren and Clarence who have already started the Ball Rolling. Thanks guys. This has been a terrific day.

The great Fraction UN-project

I am trying out a new project. I hope it goes well. The final work will be published to this wiki.

Any suggestions?

A Fraction Unassignment.

You need to choose one of three topics.

1. What are Fractons
2. Adding and Subtracting Fractions
3. Multiplying and Dividing Fractions


You must become and expert in your topic. If I was an alien and you had to teach me everything about your topic how would you do it?

You have to be convincing and know your topic.



You must use different tools from studentblogwikitools.

Some presentation options are the following;

1. make a game





2. create an online quiz that would be good for reviewing.






3. create a song with lyrics that talk about your subject. If you remember the old sesame street this could be an option for



you will have to record your song and post it to the web.


4. make a screen cast or a set of slides to explain your topic




5. make a movie of you and your friends acting out your topic.




6. create a wiki and post everything that you need to know



7. Choose anything….. just make sure that you are explaining your topic. You must clear your choice of project by me first. Once you have the OK you can get started.



This project can be done alone or with one partner. If you have a partner you are responsible to work as a team. Once you are a group you are stuck with your partner.



Final due date April 5th. This is lots of time and you are expected to do a good job. Do something at the last minute and you will get a mark that reflects this work. This project is worth 10% of your term 3 mark. Do well on this project and you are on the way to getting a great term 3 mark.

Other important dates

* Project has to be chosen March 5
* Progress report 1 March 16
* Progress report 2 March 23
* Final due date April 5

All projects will be published to a wiki. What ever you are creating you need to be prepared to have it put on the web.