Hi My name is Chris and I am a Grade 8 math teacher at Sargent Park School. My students blog and use many different web 2.0 tools to help them learn. You can find their work at 873, 841, 817 and 816. My classes have been using these tools for 4 years now. It is amazing the work that they are willing to create. For the first time in the four years the students are completely at ease with the technology. I attribute this to the prevalence of facebook in their lives.
Students want to use technology. It is the teachers that are hesitant about using it. My class blog hub is sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com. Here my students communicate with each other and me even when the class is over. Many student work on their homework until late at night. They help each other out frequently when I am not in the chat box.
This year the grade 8 students are planning to do group inquiry projects. The projects will take the form of 2 minute infomercials. The students will choose the topics but the topics need to have a more global feel to them. They cannot just create a video about snow… they need to create a video about something that is important to them. The goal is to have the student intrinically motivate themselves to create something that is a lasting legacy to themselves, their school and the world.
I had the good fortune to see Dr. Tim Tyson who was the principal of Maybry School in Georgia. This school had students create similar videos to the ones I want the Sargent Park Students to create.
I like the idea of a blog to communicate. It would be benificial to create a ning or wiki so that the sharing and collaboration can continue. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
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