Saturday, May 17, 2014

Help fund my DonorsChoose project - a little $ goes a long way!!

Hi Friends - I need your help!

I just posted my first DonorsChoose project to help get Chromebooks into my classroom to help my students delve deeper into math and further their understanding!  Read all about my project and donate here http://goo.gl/5qEAuE  Even $5 can go a long way!  Thank you for helping!

AND - if you donate in the NEXT 7 DAYS, enter the code 100WOMEN and 100 Women in Hedge Funds will DOUBLE your donation!

Questions? Please ask!

Please feel free to "share" this post generously on any social media site to spread the word!

My Project:
A Flipped Classroom is about so much more than just videos - it's about an active, engaging, effective, & enjoyable learning environment that allows all students to succeed and delve deeper with the content. We love to create work and share on our blogs, and would love to have more access in class.
My students are amazing. I teach over 100 Jr/Sr and 70 frosh/Soph in two different levels of math (Math Analysis Honors & Algebra 1 CP). They work incredibly hard every day as I challenge and push their thinking, continually encouraging them to go deeper and make connections.
When they enter my class, most of them have not heard of Desmos or Geogebra, have never thought about creating a video to explain a math problem, and have never blogged before in their lives. While many are "tech-savvy" they have not utilized technology to deepen their understanding of math. It is awesome to see them make connections and get excited about what we can discover and what we can create.
Many do have access to the Internet at home; however, it usually comes from an older, slower computer, a smartphone, or a computer that has to be shared by many family members.
My school is a large school of approximately 2500 students. We are over 90% Hispanic with the majority receiving free and reduced lunch.
These Chromebooks will help my students in many ways:
1. Accessing flipped learning videos and resources in the classroom, especially for those who have limited access at home.
2. Creating their own Desmos and Geogebra graphs so they can visualize and make sense of the different functions we are exploring. Concepts seem to make so much more sense when students can interact with them on these two programs.
3. Create their own screen-casts explaining mathematical concepts to post on their blog. It's always been said that if you can teach a concept to someone else, you really understand it!
4. Create, share, and collaborate with their classmates via Google Drive (docs, spreadsheets, presentations)
5. Share their created work and mathematical writing on their student blogs.
By having constant access to this technology in the classroom, we will be able to utilize the amazing resources available on the web on a much more consistent basis, only deepening the impact on my students' learning
I've been trying to accomplish these goals with limited success because the majority of the access and creation happened outside the classroom when students worked in isolation at home. We can do so much more with a much greater impact if they are able to collaborate with each other and with me by using these Chromebooks in class.
Helping my students become deep mathematical thinkers and helping them develop their technological skills will only further their success in high school and beyond. 

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