Learning+Log+5

Learning Log, thoughts and musings - 3/24/09 I really enjoyed our conversation about the use of technology (high and low tech) for our students who have a range impairments. It seems to me that a student should be allowed an accommodation if it is something that adults use as a matter of course in day-to-day life. For example, we use calculators to make sure we don't over spend our grocery budget or to adequately tip wait staff at a restaurant. Obviously, if the task is designed to test proficiency in math multiplication facts, go for it with paper and pencil, but gosh, think of the brain space we would save, not to mention stress and time, if we could concentrate on the process of applying the formulas and concepts rather than the mechanics of calculating the facts.

We (or certainly I) found I did far better if I actually attended class when I was in college. It was not until much later that I figured out that it was not the glorious presence of the instructor that allowed me to understand the material so much better when I was there (rather than sleeping through the 8:00 class and thinking I could read and get the information). It turned out that I was better able to understand the material because I saw and heard it. It seems to me that all students (with or without an IEP or 504 plan) should be able to see and hear written passages. Individual computers with headphones?

While I do not teach math, I do support the primary math teacher in a math enrichment group. I was amazed by the tremendous number of resources there are out there. I copied and pasted many of them and e-mailed many of them to her. Hah! If my spring break is going be spent wandering through the multitude of resources I have not had a chance to look at, why shouldn't she?

I do think I I found the lesson I will be using for our final project. While the book referenced (on the ReadWriteThink) and the accompanying lesson are geared for a 3-5 grade band, we just finished a novel (__Crash__ by Jerry Spinelli) with a bullying theme that our students could absolutely relate to. I am thinking I going to take the RWT lesson, along with the __Crash__ background knowledge we already have to put together a multi-lesson unit. Yeah!

Later (4/8/09).... I have completed (for the most part) the presentation for the software I took a look at; InspireData. What a cool tool it is. When I sat down the other day to begin to look at it and to begin creating the PowerPoint presentation, I figured it would take me an hour of two. Four hours later, I was nearly done, but had had so much fun digging around the various features. I am not sure it is something I could use in language arts, but definitely our math and science teachers would have a use for it.

Some of the best features include the ability to move from one type of plot to another using the same data set. Also the ability to take a look at specific attributes within a data set. It also has a neat slide show feature, where you can take a "shot" of a plot, save it to the slide show, move to another type of plot or to another set of attributes within the same data table, take a "shot" of that plot and create a slide show to point out trends, etc within that set of data.

I know it would have been much more interesting to go on a vacation over spring break, but, thanks to InspireData, I had some fun at home. Ha!