Beth Trowbridge's

EDUC 464 Wiki Wiki Wiki Page 

 

This is my second wiki page this fall!

 

 

Here's some info about me...I teach Algebra and Computers at Wyalusing Valley High School. At school, I help out at soccer games, basketball games, and track meets by running the scoreboard and other odd jobs. I also coach the Scholarship Challenge team and am the advisor for a very busy Leo Club. On the weekends, I teach College Algebra and College Mathematics at Keystone College in Towanda. I get to use a smart board there...it's fun!!! That leaves me very little free time, but when I have some, I like to put on my Ben Roethlisberger jersey on game day to root for the Steelers, scrapbook, and play with my dogs (Heinz and Rooney).

 

 

Here are my assignments...

 

 

Here are some websites that I find useful for myself and my students:

 

http://del.icio.us/btrowbridge

 

 

My PodCast

 

Check it out...

 

 

 

Handbook 101 

 

 

My PowerPoint Assignment

 

Teachers can use PowerPoint in various ways in the classroom. I particularly like PowerPoint for creating review games. I used to have Jeopardy PowerPoint, but then I got a setup that connects to the TV and has wireless remotes and scoreboards. It's way cooler. My favorite PowerPoint game is a version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that I created. Below I've attached a short version that I use on 7th Grade Orientation Night. I also have longer versions that I use in my math classes. (I hope all of my sounds work. Otherwise, I may need to upload them also.)

 

 

7thGradeNight.ppt 

 

 

 However, the purpose of this assignment is to have students utilize PowerPoint to learn or master material. This is difficult in math class because I expect my kids to apply skills more than I expect them to research information. However, I could have my students create their own quizzes for a chapter review. Each slide could have a math problem and a couple of different answers. The answers could be action buttons that lead to various slides.

 

Students could also use PowerPoint to create a tutorial for a process that has several steps. For example, I use a flow chart to teach students how to add and subtract integers. First, kids need to decide if the problem is an addition or subtraction problem. Then, they need to decide if the signs are the same or different. And so on. Students could create an electronic version of this.

 

Here is a sample:

 

 

AddSubIntegers.ppt 

 

 

 

My Inspiration Assignment

 

Inspiration is a program that can be used to create concept maps, flowcharts, and other graphic organizers. I have used Inspiration before to create flowcharts for math topics, such as creating box-and-whisker plots. In math, Inspiration could be used to have students make a concept map of polygons. They could list triangles, quadrilaterals, etc. Then they could have branches from the triangles listing the different types of triangles. Similarly, they could list the different types of quadrilaterals.

 

In my Algebra class, we have several "Integration" lessons. These are lessons that usually pertain to something other than Algebra. There are several lessons related to Statistics. As an end-of-year review, I could have students organize all of the statistics lessons into a concept map. They could organize it any way that they wanted, but they would need to be able to justify how they arranged their map.

 

A sample is given below:

 

Statistics.isf 

 

 

My Podcasting Lesson

 

The Math Dude has some really great audio/video podcasts that I could have my students view in class or as an extension/review of a lesson.

 

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/itv/mathdude/MD_Podcasts.shtm

 

 

 

My Excel Lesson

 

Below are two files. The first file is a PowerPoint that gives the instructions for completing a lesson on scatter plots and best-fit lines. It may not work correctly because there were a lot of videos and still images in it, and I didn't see a need to upload them all to the wiki page. The second file is an Excel file. The students use Excel to create a scatter plot and draw the best-fit line for a set of data. 

 

mentos_pop.ppt

 

 

mentosData.xls

 

 

How I could use Digital Cameras

 

Last year, I did several lessons on conic sections. I had the students search the Internet for various conic sections (circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas). I could also have the students use digital cameras to photograph conic sections that they find around them. The project could be as simple as just downloading their photos for display in a slideshow, or it could be much more.

 

 

Virtual Tours and Virtual Tools

 

1) A lesson on Fibonacci numbers: This website shows many examples of Fibonacci numbers appearing in nature. It is cool because it has several pictures where you can click to have the spirals on the objects highlighted. This is not exactly a tour, but it is a bit interactive. Many of these objects you could bring in on your own for some hands-on work, but it would be difficult to get all of the items displayed on this website.

 

Fibonacci Numbers 

 

2) This NCTM website has some great virtual tools for math. It is very useful because the students can get immediate feedback. Here is one lesson that I really like:

 

Geometric Solids 

 

3) Although I would not use this much for my age level, it is great to know about: Lemonade Stand. Students can make decisions about pricing, quality control, purchasing inventory, and more.

 

Lemonade Stand

 

 

4) Another great online tool is Study Island. However, you need to subscribe to it. It is excellent for students to use to prep for PSSA's.

 

Study Island

 

My WebQuest

 

Here is a WebQuest that I created for my Algebra class. I used the same one for EDUC 463. Hope you don't mind...

 

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer