Teaching the content standards in the 21st Century is my focus this year.  As a new member of one of the Freshman technology team, I plan to give my students a variety of learning tools presented not only with technology, but also with traditional methods.

This year students are able to take their text books home and leave them there.  The Saxton Algebra 1 textbook is vailable on a classroom set of IPad 2's. The textbooks are not to be placed on a shelf or under the bed, however.  The students use the textbooks at home where they do not have access to the IPads.  Students work at individual paces with limited time frames.  This is made possible by secure classroom pages found at http://www.edmodo.com/ ,  http://www.quia.com/ and Google.docs. 

Assignments are posted on Edmodo with links to Quia, Quizlette, teaching videos, math websites, and other media. Their grades are automatically posted on Edmodo, but students (and their parents) must have the site code to access the site.  The students can also see what assignments have not been turned in, what assignments have been graded, and what assignments need to be redone.  Absent students who have access to the Internet can keep up with classroom activities and assignments and get feedback for the assignments in the same time frame as the students who were in class. 

I plan to institute a live-video link to my classroom so students who are absent can connect with the classroom during their class period and attend class via the Interet.  When this is accomplished, I will report my success. 

Traditional teaching methods, such as lectures and discussions are used to reinforce and reteach concepts and objectives that the students are having trouble with.  Students who prefer the traditional methods of learning and/or those who do not have access to the Internet at home will have the opportunity to substitute written assignments for those posted online.

My team is the technology team.  Each week the students go to a different teacher. The rotation is as follows:  Mrs. Bossie to Mrs. McDermott; from Mrs. McDermott to Ms. Hurd (Ms. Iglacie is filling in until Ms. Hurd returns); from Mrs. Hurd  to Mr. Miller;  and from Mr. Miller back to Mrs. Bossie to begin their next four-week rotation..

The students receive a 1/2 credit a year.  This is not a study hall; it is a class that gives them an opportunity to catch up on make up work (including tests) as well as a media for the core teachers to teach them other learning skills.  Mr. Miller is covering Internet Etiquette.

The students can access their assignments, see their grades, and chat with each other about the assignments. They can post questions for me and link to math sites they have discovered that helps them with the assignments.

Parents can access their student's page to check out their grades, their missing assignments, and see what they have posted.  To make sure this page stays secure, parents must have a parent code to access the page. Parents may e-mail me at diana.bossie@gocruisers.org to ask for their codes.

Many of the assignmens are linked to another site, Quia. Quia is a site where teachers can create activities, games, practice tests, quizzes and assessments.  Time on task is recorded for each task, so students must log on before completing the activities or assessments. I will have no way of verifying that they have completed the assignments or assessments if the students do not log on first.
 
Students and parents who have an Edmodo account, can lick the link below to assess my Edmodo page.