Video to Show Understanding on Unit Circle
The Assignment is for 10th Grade Students after learning the Unit Circle. Students are to use their best knowledge of technology in making tutorial video to show how well they understood the Unit Circle Chapter. Students can collect circle and trigonometry pictures from internet and then edit them using any picture editing software such as GIMP.
Please watch the Pythagorean Theoem Tutorial created for 7th Graders.
Students can use the ideas from the Tutorial video to create their own video on Unit Circle.For a start, Here is how Unit circle looks:
Collect pictures and add any kind of music to show what unit circle is and how it works by creating a tutorial video. Students can also make a video and record audio of themselves doing the example on Unit Circle.
The idea for the assignment is taken from Kuleshev Effect, which asks students to make a video explaining the kushelev effect. I used the Windows Movie Maker to make the video and add music, which is the Pythagorean Theorem Music I downloaded from online.
DIY: TI-83 DRAW Function Tutorial
My video shows how to find the tangent line of a graph using DRAW function on the calculator. I have learned that it is difficult to find the tangent line without using calculator. Therefore, I made this tutorial to help students in finding the tangent line. To make the video, I used my camera and a TI-83 calculator. Below is the video:
Edupunk and DIY Education
Although the word Edupunk seems weird, but the actual definition is something different from what I thought about it. Edupunk is basically teaching and learning through technology or also called Do It Yourself.
I like the idea of Do It Yourself. As Jim Groom and Brian Lamb state in their article:
There are simply too many applications of open-source software, open content, and public-service teaching and learning practice to cover them all here.
This shows that Edupunk is a way of teaching and learning in openness. Long ago, the internet was only used as a search engine, but now its being used to connect the world. I believe that the best way to connect world is to find ways that can benefit people, which includes online learning.
Before, the idea of publishing was not that great, but now it is easy though blogging. As Jim Groom and Brian Lamb state:
Having signed up for a Gmail account, a user can publish websites with Blogger, manage groups and mailing lists with Google Groups, videoconference with Google Talk, write collaboratively with Google Docs, track topics with Google Alerts, manage syndicated feeds with Google Reader, share video with YouTube, post images with Picasa, and do whatever it is that Google Wave is supposed to do. We need not belabor the power and popularity of services such as Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. All this incredible functionality is delivered in remarkably stable and user-friendly environments, and it’s available free of charge!
Google is an example of edupunk, where people can connect and learn many things by themselves.
I found this interesting Blog on Edupunk that explains what an Edupunk really want. I like the following quote An edupunk is someone who doesn’t want to play by the old college rules, which is something I totally agree with.
I am also one of those people who want to save time from traveling around and rather sit in one place and connect with others to learn. I love online classes. There are many students around who need to work to survive and also come to college to learn. By the time, these students get to school, they are tired and they are not able to focus on the learning in class. I think that online education can be really helpful in this type of situation. If these students can use DIY technique or through Edupunk, they can benefit themselves by both working and learning at the same time.
Poll Summary
My question was : Being a k-12 educator, How would you become an optimist and bring change in the education system? Here is the Link.
I only got three answers to my question. The answers in the polls explains my question well. As a future educator, people who answered wrote that they will bring a change to the current education system.
Here is a quote from the first poll:
Right now we are using computers and ipads in the classroom but there has to be more that we can do to further education system. Also not being afraid to use these ideas.
Another poll states:
As such, blogging, networking and sharing information are ways I will use to stay aware of what is happening. Searching for like minded teachers will also be something I will engage in.
All three of the polls state that they will be optimists in their future profession. They will try to bring some kind of change, either in technology or by making impossible, possible.
Since I did not get too many polls, I believe that may be students found the question difficult to answer. If they had watched the key points I posted, I think they must have been able to answer the question. The polls that I did receive do answer m question, but should’ve been more specific. I think I should’ve explained the video more rather than only quoting points from the video because probably, some people did not want to go back and watch the video.
Connecting Optimists
The above video is about Connecting Optimists. In the video, Gina Bianchini talks about what creates a social movement and how optimists can work together to bring change in the world or the society we live in. She answers what makes a social movement successful here.
She says that social movement becomes successful by Hope, Confidence, Drive, and Love, which I totally agree with.
Bianchini believes that there has always been a realist or an optimist in this example. Then she gives another example of an architecture and how he brought together others to work in the disastrous areas of the world. At the end, she tells how people can come together using internet sources and bring a change.
Circle
“A circle is a round straight line with a hole in the middle” By Mark Twain, quoting a schoolchild in “English as She Is Taught”, Century Magazine, May 1887.
The above quote describes how circle looks. Here is an image describing the circle.
8th Grdae math Students are to find quotes from literature on Circles and then relate those to pictures (can find those from internet) which describe circles. Pictures can be anything that resemble circles.
This is a good practice on teaching geometric figures.
The idea is taken from Visualize that quote, which is to explain a quote using a picture.
Algebra Equations
Students can find X to even both sides and also find similar pictures to get more practice on Solving Equations.
X+3 = 8
5+3 = 8
8 = 8
The following is another picture, which shows that students can use real people and objects while solving equations. Students are to find real life pictures and then turn them into math equation.
The idea is taken from Iconic Identities, which is to remove icons and still get recognizable picture. I will use this assignment while teaching Algebra class to solve equations. Students will be supposed to find similar pictures or equations to practice on solving equations.
Greetings from California
California is one of the beautiful states. I love California since I spent my past life there. I did few years of my high school there. California is largest agricultural state.
This idea comes from Greetings From DS106, which is to create a greeting card to tell where you are from.
Pana Po’o
Although the word seems funny, it means to scratch your head in order to help you remember something you’ve forgotten. This picture shows how President Bush has forgotten something and trying to remember it. 
This assignment comes from Make The Untranslatable Understood, which is show use a picture to explain a word that is not found in dictionaries.
Sukhpreet 