Mr. Higgins’ Blog

For those of you who thought I was done blogging, I was for a while. I was out of inspiration and organizing my own life and thoughts in my complicated brain. I have not had a great deal of time to share my ideas and converse with the educational bloggers out there. There have been so many great posts over the last three months that I have not commented; however, I have acknowledged them completely. The many ideas I have expressed on this blog have been negatively affected by my time off, much like a light bulb that has been left on; however, no one is home to enjoy the light.

Here is what I have been doing lately with my classes and Web 2.0 applications…

Classroom Website - I have completely redone my classroom website to now use Drupal. I needed a way to get students in AP Computer Science A to submit files online through an easy to use interface. Once it is completely up and running, the students will have a forum where they can discuss issues and submit files. My math classes are going to get more involved with the classroom website, no matter how much they want to simply listen to a lecture and find the correct answer.

Teaching Adjustment - In my second year, I’m finding that I am working harder this year than I did most of last year because of my new schedule. I am now teaching four math classes and one computer class. It was very easy to get the students involved in blogging, wiki-ing, and other Web 2.0 activities when the students had computers in front of them every single day. It is going to take me a couple of years to really get the students involved in Web 2.0 in math classes, because there really is not much of a precedent. I strive to have the abilities and applications seen in Darren Kuropatwa’s math classes. I am glad that I am a live long learner!!!

SMART Technologies Senteo (Clickers) - For those of you who are not familiar with the SMART Senteo system, it is really a neat system which involves the SMART Notebook and many small “clickers” which use radio frequencies to communicate with a PC. As a teacher, I can create an interactive question or quiz in SMART Notebook where each student uses the Senteo to answer the question. Watching all of the students work hard on a single problem or quiz feels great as a teacher. Even better, I can get a full report of how each student answers the questions. There are many teachers who use this system as an alternative to scantron, which is great. However, I am looking to use the Senteo system to supplement my classroom notes.

One example of how I have used the Senteo is during our Chapter review. I made 10 different questions and showed the students how to use the Senteo in the matter of one minute. During the 50 minute period (which felt like 20 minutes), I was impressed with most of the students on the questions. After each question, we took a look at the pie chart of answers and then evaluated the class progress. It was a very difficult test the next day; therefore, I’m glad I was able to use an alternative strategy to reach a few more students.

Classroom Notetaking - My classroom notes have been revolutionized through the use of my Tablet PC and SMART Notebook.  Last year, I did not have the wireless projector and Tablet PC working as well as anticipated.  This year I have been creating notes which have pictures and animations.  My handwriting is not the greatest on the whiteboard, this gives me a great alternative.  Here is a handwriting sample.

I needed to put a few thoughts down in the blog.  It is like therapy.  How many others feel that way?