Mentorship Project Wednesday, Nov 28 2007

The Mentorship project I chose to write with was with the Consumer Math 20s class of Darren Kuropatwa. I was and still stand amazed at the technological advancement of our classrooms. The thing I find is the most interesting about these classroom projects is that the students help each other learn. An example of this is when I asked a student to find the answer to a question I had. He didn’t know how to answer but his friend answered me back. By doing so, he not only gave his classmate the answer, but showed the benefits of having an online class tool as such. I found it a bit intimidating to try to give comments or suggestions to math students because I was never really that good in math. However, the exercise helps me to overcome my fears of the unknown and I even learned many math tricks that I will most likely use! Here are a few examples of the comments I left.

I also learned that this type of teaching keeps the parents accountable as to what their child is learning. It would be great to create a website as such to help the parents of my students updated on their child’s success just as Mr. Kuropatwa did.

To James,

I like your sense of humor James. The step 6 is the best part isn’t it? Because you know you are going to pass the test! Thanks for sharing that with us. It’s so much simpler to find the answer to larger numbers once you have tricks. Is there a trick to finding an answer quick when you have divide 3 digit numbers by 9? For example, 432/9…

James said,
Veronique

I have no clue about a trick to divide three digit numbers by 9, but I assume Mr. K has one and is just not sharing it with people. =O

Vincent said,

hello, its me vincent, i have a clue about your question, veronique,this how it is, 432/9=48 simply put the first figure of the dividend down as it is, so its 4, 4 is our first number of our answer, then add diagonally to get the next quotient digit.so, its 4+3=7. 7 is our 2nd number of our answer, but 47 is not our final answer. next step is to add the 7+2=9. actually the digit of 9 or more is not permitted because we are trying to find how many 9’s are there in 432,so there’s 1 nine in 9 so we must add that 1 into 47,so the final answer is 48.

I replied,

Great thinking Vincent!

I am impressed by your critical analysis. You are clear and in control of the topic. Keep it up! Thanks for answering my question!

Another comment was the following but I did not receive any reply yet.

To Junar,

That’s a really great thing to learn about healthy food especially with all the bad things we unconsciously eat. You should check out this site http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index_e.html on Canada Food Guide. Maybe you have already seen it. I have a little task for you. Check out the website and tell me how much milk CHILDREN need to drink and why. If you find this answer maybe you can ask me a really tough one too and I’ll try to answer it.

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University Orchestra Wednesday, Nov 28 2007

I just got back from my last orchestra rehearsal before the big concert next tuesday. I play second violin and am pretty excited about the concert. We are playing a repertoire from Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and Mercadante, I don’t know if any of you like orchestral music or if you really know what it is but if you would like to come see it, it’s on tuesday night at St Paul Cathedral on the corner of 12th ave and Mackentyre, I think. It starts at 8 o clock. If anyone is interested, you let me know and I’ll give you more imformation.

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My Tech Task #6 Monday, Nov 26 2007

I learned so much from making this movie and it was a great deal of fun. I finally know how to post my videos on the internet and this will be of great use when I want to teach my students how to post their own.

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Go Riders Monday, Nov 26 2007

I’m so glad it was our year, Finally! I think it wasn’t so much the fact that we won the cup, it’s the expressions of pride and of happiness that were on all the players’ faces. That kind of thing makes you realize how rewarding it is to put your heart into something for a long time. I’m also impressed by the fact that the players’ comments about their fans were immense. Go Riders! and Go Saskatchewan!

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Crazy week Friday, Nov 23 2007

So this was definitely a really hectic week and I’m still not used to not having a computer. I think that once next week will be done, I will start breathing again.  It’s not fun to know I won’t be getting much sleep until the 4th. At least, people are getting into the Christmas mood. I  have been hearing many commercials and songs on the radio already. It doesn’t feel like Christmas. Maybe because I haven’t had time to think about it. Once I’m done this semester, I’m definitely doing something for myself. I hope you all do the same.

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Tech Task #7 Thursday, Nov 22 2007

Chacha.com is a research site like many others that links the searcher to answers. However, unlike many others, it uses a very distinct search engine, the human mind. This could be of such benefit to the classroom because the student gets the help he needs through more specific information. The searcher has the option between a normal database search or can find information with a guide, a person hired to work efficiently, quickly, and specifically with what you ask him or her.This site is also very useful to the teacher because it can link exactly to curriculum based information. The teacher can look through many links that are exactly what he or she is looking for, unlike other search engines tht give out much too broad information.

This internet tool goes beyond other searching tools because it is more personalized. The child may feel more comfortable doing research for a project if he is speaking to someone about something specific. It is also more subjective and quick. Many children might feel a bit intimidated by the internet or by projects that demand research, but chacha offers a better understanding of a topic. It also censores some of the sites that could be negative for a student. I have found that by using chacha, it filters the sites for a much better result. This would be of great use to all teachers as well as to their students.

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Bad News for me Wednesday, Nov 21 2007

When I thought every thing was finally falling into place, my computer proved me wrong. With a ton of things left to do specially for this class, I will have to try to work without my computer. It collapsed on me last night and I can’t bring it to the IT support center because the computer technicians are on strike. It will be a nice big challenge to try living without my computer until I find some place that can fix it for cheap. I also had some important work on there that will be of no use…so much time lost. And really, that’s the last thing I need to lose. Anyway, I think I’ll be o.k but I need to find the strength and the energy to redo some work and to come to school to use a computer….something which I haven’t done in a long time.

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One laptop per child Tuesday, Nov 20 2007

XO laptop is such an innovative creation. It is a must watch!

I hope this video works because I found it on CNN news.

It would be in TECH, and it’s called One Laptop per Child.

Here is the website with the vision, that explains this type of laptop in case you cannot find the movie.

If you have the money, this would be a perfect christmas present!!

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My life in 4 pictures, Tech Task #8 Monday, Nov 19 2007

Here is my assignment from Photoshop 4.0

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It’s time to vote! Wednesday, Nov 7 2007

Voting advanced polls have been open for a couple of days but today is the official voting day. If you haven’t gone or you don;’t know where to go just find out what constituency your poll is and if you are eligible to vote. Here is the elections website if you aren’t sure. Saskatchewan elections

I’m quite excited to see who our new leader will be. The NDP party has been on top for 16 years and if they get elected again it will be a big 20! I don’t know if you guys follow politics but it’s interesting to see what parties have to say about tuitions. This affects us all as students and we should all participate in the debate. I’m going to be sort of the devil’s advocate in this blog. I’d love to get comments on what you guys think about it. Even if the elections are over pretty soon, it’s still something to think about for upcoming students. Here are a few other sites of each party and their platforms, but more precisely on the tuition ideas they have for Saskatchewan students.

The Liberal Party’s statement on student housing is very interesting, considering students pay more for rent than for school. It would be nice to see housing and rent go down a bit in Saskatchewan but since that is mainly impossible, the Liberal Party is willing to introduce a tax credit to students of up to 500 dollars for an academic year(full time)…..Not quite enough.

“A $5 million per year undergraduate teaching fund will be established for our two major universities. This teaching fund will be used to attract some of the best and brightest undergraduate professors from across Canada and around the world.” My question is where do the college students fit into this whole nice coated deal.

The Saskatchewan party’s plan sounds very convincing…However, students would need to stay in Saskatchewan for the 7 years following their degree to be affected by this nice money. Should students still be able to chose in which province they will work depending on their salary? I think so.

“The Saskatchewan Party would also designate $3 million annually for the creation of a Saskatchewan scholarship fund.” This is a great idea but it’s to hide the fact that they will not freeze tuition. It may go up by hundreds, even thousands. Both other parties plan to freeze tuition. -The NDP has already done it.

The NDP party seems the most convincing. It also seems to help a great load of cash for striving students on loans and rent. Tuition would be lowered by a 1000$, making it the lowest tuition cost in Canada. This seems nice, but the NDP’s goal is to equalize, to make all students the average middle class citizens. If you aim for high standards, this statement is deceiving.

I hope you have learned a bit on the politics of our day. These sites are great for debate and rise concern to all students. They also touch upon education in schools if you want to look at it. If any of you speak French I will be a panelist for the Radio-Canada television network and the radio network (93.5fm…i think) tonight, representing students and giving my opinion on some of these aspects and more.

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