Blog Assignment #3

Peer Editing

The videos What Is Peer Editing?, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, were all helpful videos to help learn how to peer edit or how not to peer edit. What Is Peer Editing? and Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial were very similar. Both described the steps in which you should take when peer editing.

1. Start with a compliment. Let your peer know what you think they did well.
2. Make a specific suggestion. Suggestions can include: a different word choice, their details, their organization, their sentences, and their overall topic. Be specific about what they should do to their paper to improve it.
3. Make spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence corrections.

It is very important to stay positive. Let them know when they did something well and be specific of what it was. Example: I really loved your topic! As the video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes expresses, do not be a “Picky Patty,” “Mean Margaret,” or a “Defensive Dave.”

Technology in Special Education

Our lives are based on all sorts of technology. If we can teach special education students to use it, then they may be able to live more of a “normal” life. In this video the teacher explained how she has changed her classroom. Laptops have changed how she teaches and how the students interact in her class. One student needs help during silent reading time so he is taken into the hall and is read to there. Now, he has an iPod that can read it to him while he is in the classroom with everyone else.

Chris is a mute student who can type out what he wants to communicate. The students like using computers, and they themselves believe it is helping them. I am thrilled that these students are not being swept under the rug and are being cared for. In my class I hope to have a way to help students with needs. With Math it may be a little more challenging than English and reading. However, I will rise to that challenge and do what needs to be done for my students.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism

In this video a little boy named Brad is doing some homework on an iPad with his mom and dad. First he used the app called Toddler counting. In this he used it to learn how to count. He would touch each object and it would tell him the number. In the end it would repeat X amount of what ever it was he was counting. He also used apps for learning sight words and a righting pad to help with how he writes his letters.

After watching this I looked to see what kind of apps I could use in the field I want to teach, Algebra. There was Wolfram Algebra Course Assistant. It is made for Algebra I Algebra II, and College Algebra. The Wolfram Algebra Course Assistant solves your specific algebra problems, and it will show you how to work through the problem step by step. However, this specific app would be used more for those who are just looking for how to do it and turn it in, not to actually learn how to do it.

So, I kept looking and ran across the Algebra Touch app. It lets you drag numbers and letters from side to side in an Algebra problem. Say you have x + 7 = 10. You can drag the 7 to the other side of the equation. You can drag to rearrange, tap to simplify, and draw lines to eliminate identical terms. You can switch between lessons and randomly-generated practice problems.

 Also, you can create your own sets of problems to work through in the equation editor, and they will appear on all of your devices with iCloud. So, you do not have to use just an iPad.

Right now, this app covers Simplification, Like Terms, Commutativity, Order of Operations, Factorization, Prime Numbers, Elimination, Isolation, Variables, Basic Equations, Distribution, Factoring Out, and Substitution. 

 I believe this app would be very helpful for every student, not just the special needs students. In the classroom it would be helpful if there were a way to record what the student has done on the iPad. The teacher could make his or her own set of problems, and record what the student can do and what needs work. They could then set it up to where they can send practice problems to the parents, and have their child practice in addition to their assigned homework. We all know practice makes perfect! As of right now, I feel as if pencil and paper is the best way to collect homework and such in a Math class. However, I do believe this app could aid in learning the process of Algebra.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Mrs. Davis made a very important point at the beginning of her video. “ I don’t have to be in front all of the time.” I think it is important for students to learn from each other. Once you teach something to someone else, you yourself have a better understanding of how to do it.

I have never seen a high school that had that type of technology to teach in such a way. My high school was all pencil and paper. We had to use our own computers at home to type up our English papers. Personally, I like pencil and paper for some classes, but as she said, “Only some will succeed that way.” Her students have had the opportunity to learn with people all over the world!