TECHNOLOGY UNIT Geometry Special Right Triangles Joe Oakes

Standards: I used the following Indiana State Standards in my unit: o A1.1.2 Simplify square roots using factors o G.5.1 Prove and use the Pythagorean Theorem o G.5.3 Use special right triangles to solve problems o G.5.6 Solve word problems involving right triangles I used the following ISTE NETS-Teacher Standards in my unit: o 1.a Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness o 1.b Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources o 2.a Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity o 2.b Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress o 2.c Customize and personalize learning activities to address students diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources o 3.a Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations o 3.b Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation o 3.c Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats o 4.b Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources o 5.b Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others o 5.c Evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning o 5.d Contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and their school and community I used the following ISTE NETS-Student Standards in my unit: o 1.c Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues o 2.a Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media o 3.d Process data and report results o 6.a Understand and use technology systems o 6.b Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Pre Assessment: I used a previous years exam as my pre-assessment for this unit. In past years students have truly struggled with finding missing sides of special triangles more so than any other part in this unit. These were questions 13-18 on both the pre-assessment and the post-assessment. Each one of these six questions had two parts. I compared overall scores and the scores on just these six questions. I did this technology lesson in only my 2nd period geometry, so they were the only ones to take the pre-assessment. On the pre-assessment none of my students got any correct on questions 13-18. It is quite obvious from the pre-assessment that the students had not covered the material in the past. Overall on the pre-assessment, the class averaged 8.23 questions correct out of twenty-six for a 31.66%. Teaching Strategies: I used the following technology tools in my unit: o Explain Everything App I used the Explain Everything App on my iPad to record my lectures so that the students could listen to my lectures outside of class instead of me lecturing inside of class. This app allows me to record my lectures as an .mp4 which allows students to download them and watch them at a different time. With other screencasting apps that I have used, students had to have an internet connection to be able to access my lectures. This enables students without internet access to watch my lectures outside of class as well. o My Big Campus I used My Big Campus as my learning management system for this unit. It allows them to create a bundle with bundle locks that forces students to work through the material of the unit in a specific order. This unit had a total of five lectures, five Starting Fives, five practice worksheets, and five section quizzes. Also, my Starting Fives and the section quizzes were completed on My Big Campus as well. My Big Campus bundle locks enable me to require students get certain scores on the material before they could move on the next item on the checklist. This helped me ensure that students were working towards mastery. 1-1 Laptops for Students Our school corporation has adopted a 1-1 to laptop initiative for all of our students which makes it very easy to incorporate technology in our classrooms. If we did not have the 1-1 laptop initiative, I would not have been able to design this unit in the manner that I have. http://www.math-play.com/Pythagorean-Theorem-Game.html - This website allowed me to incorporate a different method for students to practice the Pythagorean Thoerem. It also gave them immediate feedback on whether they were working the Pythagorean Theorem problems correctly or not. I thought this was an interesting way to show the students that there are many websites out that they can use to practice and advance their skills.

I tried the following new and innovative technology idea. o I tried Flipping my classroom for this unit. In all actuality, I have flipped my classroom for my 2nd period Geometry class all year long. The idea of the flipped classroom is that students can watch lectures outside of class meeting times, and then use class meeting times to work problems, work on projects, and to ask questions. Since this is my first year experimenting with the flipped model, my students primarily

work on assignments that I would require as homework for my other classes. This is not the best model for flipping a classroom, but I wanted to take baby steps in adopting this approach. I do try to incorporate a website or project once every unit during this experimental phase. The only way I could attempt flipping my classroom is through our school corporations 1-1 computer initiative. It would be nearly impossible for students to do so without the laptops. o Learning Management System I use My Big Campus as the web portal for my classroom. Everything my students need for my technology unit is uploaded onto My Big Campus. Lecture notes, Starting Fives, Practice Worksheets, and section quizzes are all located on the website.

I incorporated the following to support the use of distance learning systems appropriate in a school environment. I used the Learning Management System, My Big Campus, to facilitate distance learning in my classroom. I uploaded all of the material for this unit to My Big Campus so that students could complete the work from anywhere. They do not necessarily need face time with me to complete the unit. This allows students to support their learning with direct instruction outside of the classroom as well as inside the classroom. In my technology unit, I used the method of flipping my classroom instruction. This is where lectures are made available to students to watch outside of class and they work on homework, assignments, and projects inside of class where a teacher can help them. I have been intrigued by this method since I started recording my lectures using the Educreations App last school year. I recorded every lecture and made it available to my students on my school website. I wanted to take this one step farther this school year so I decided that I would try to flip one of my geometry classes. The main reason that I am able to attempt the flipped design is the fact that our school corporation has adopted a 1-1 computer initiative. This provides all of our students 9-12 a laptop at the beginning of the year. Some students can opt out and not receive a laptop, but I do have three desktop machines in the back of my room that students without laptops can use. Students are required to bring their laptops to class everyday charged and ready to go. I do allow them to move around the room if they need to be near an outlet to charge their computers. My unit covers the Pythagorean Theorem and special right triangles. We also incorporate a review of simplifying radicals in this unit as well. This created a total of five sections that my students had to cover. I recorded each one of my lectures for this unit utilizing the Explain Everything App on my iPad. This allowed me to save my videos as .mp4. The benefit of saving them as .mp4 is students do not have to be online at home to watch them. When I was using the Educreations App they had to be online to watch the videos. Since some students did not have access to the internet from home, it made things very difficult. Now students can download my lectures while they are at school, and then watch them on their computers at home without connecting to the internet. Our school also created a forty minute homeroom time where students can get help and work on assignments. This allows students without internet access at home to have a built in time during the day to work on their assignments.

Unit:

In order to help my students stay on track, I gave each of them a checklist, which is attached, so that they knew the expectations on when material should be completed. I did choose to run the class asynchronous so students can be on different sections and different activities at the same time. Every section consists of a pre-recorded lecture that is posted on My Big Campus, a set of lecture notes for them to complete as they watch the lecture, a starting five activity to make sure they understood the lecture, a practice activity (usually on paper, not on the computers), and then a quiz over that section. The starting fives and the quizzes are both given through My Big Campus so that students can get immediate feedback on whether they are doing the material correctly. I do require a certain level of mastery before students can move from one activity to another. My Big Campus allows someone to create a bundle of activities and place bundle locks on certain activities so that they cannot move on until certain criteria are met. On the starting fives and the quizzes students must get at least a 60% before My Big Campus will allow them to start the next activity. I did find a website that had a game that students could use for practice for Section 8-1. I included that in my unit after the starting five and before the practice worksheet for that section. This allowed students to get even more feedback on whether they were doing the material correctly or not. The website was http://www.math-play.com/Pythagorean-TheoremGame.html. Once they were done with the activity I asked them to take a screenshot of the completed screen and send it to me via e-mail. If students completed the unit before the due date, they were asked to do some research on the Pythagoras and special right triangles. I asked them to see who had studied with Pythagoras and what other ancient mathematicians were inspired by him. I also asked them to see if they could find out who was credited with discovering the relationship in special right triangles. Unfortunately, not all students did this activity, but if they finished early, I used this as an enrichment activity.

Below is a screenshot of how one section in the bundled unit appears in My Big Campus:

Student Inquiry and Research: Students used the following technology to do research. o If students completed the unit before the due date, they were asked to do some research on the Pythagoras and special right triangles. I asked them to see who had studied with Pythagoras and what other ancient mathematicians were inspired by him. I also asked them to see if they could find out who was credited with discovering the relationship in special right triangles. All of this research was done utilizing the internet in my classroom. We do not often get a chance to do a lot of research in the math classroom, so I often utilize the history of mathematics as an enrichment activity for my students who finish early. I dont have them create a written report, but they do have to summarize it verbally to me. I also have them tell me where they found the information and how credible they thought it was. I do not usually delve into copyright law and other issues since they are only verbally summarizing what they have found.

I used the following technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities. o I believe with my videos being available to all my students it allows them to listen to the lecture as much as needed. This helps the students who are at a lower level get as much exposure to examples as they might need. The entire idea of a flipped classroom also allows the students to work at their own pace which helps immensely. Students can move through a section slower or faster based on their general understanding of the material. Also, having the lectures available for the students outside of class is very beneficial to the students who have parents that do not have the ability to help them with their homework. Students now work on practice problems in my classroom where they can get help on the material that they do not understand. In a traditional classroom they would be outside of my class to practice what I have taught, and would not be able to ask me questions when they did not understand problems on the practice.

The following adaptive/assistive hardware and software helped to assist students with special needs. o Last year, I had a vision impaired student in my classroom, which changed how I presented material. All of my lectures are now created on PowerPoint, which allows me to print them out a slide per page to give to students with vision impairments. I have since made my lecture slides available to all students creating note sheets through PowerPoint. This way all students have the opportunity to utilize the lecture notes. o We also utilize iPads for our vision impaired students. This allows us to share worksheets and other written assignments via Google Drive with the students. They can then change the size of the worksheet to whatever works best for them. This makes it much easier for the students to work through the assignments and be more efficient with their time. The fact that my lectures are recorded and made available to the students also is very beneficial to students with special needs. If they have a vision impairment they do not have to worry about making sure they are in the front of the class. If they have a hearing impairment they can utilize headphones to help them hear what is going on in the lecture. These videos do not solve all special needs issues, but they are very beneficial to students with special needs.

I included the following technology resources to affirm diversity and address cultural and language differences. o My unit did not affirm or address diversity or cultural and language differences. However, it could be adapted to do so very easily. Since I do record my lectures, I think it would be very easy to give students a transcript of what is said on each slide. Then, if necessary, I could translate what I say, via transcript, into their native language. I could do this through Google Translate or some other translating software. Also, since students are working on material at their own pace, I could very easily change the assignments to better address a students native language or culture. Modification of assignments would be very easily done since there is more one on one time between the student and the teacher in the flipped classroom.

Post Assessment:
Post-Test is Attached I used a post test that was very similar to the pretest that I gave at the beginning of the unit. As of Thursday, April 17, I had fourteen students who had taken the pretest and the post test. These were the only students I compared. I had seven other students who were not done with the unit as of April 17, they were not included in pretest or post test data. None of my students got any questions correct on #13-18 on the pretest. On the post test my students in my 2nd period geometry class average 9.31 questions correct on #13-18. These questions saw a huge improvement from the pretest to the post test. In my other geometry classes, where I didnt use flipped instruction, the students averaged 7.14 questions out of twenty-six correct on this section. Unfortunately, this does not indicate that the flipped class was much more successful. The students in my 2nd period class are mostly freshmen who should score higher on every exam. It does appear that the flipped classroom technique is just as effective as a more traditional lecture. The students all went from zero problems correct to an average of 9.31 questions correct on those problems. This shows that the flipped classroom is an adequate method of getting information to students. The overall average from the pretest to the post test increased from a 31.66% to an 85%. Again, this does show that students are learning through this method. My regular delivery method classes had an overall average of 62%. Again, I do not necessarily believe that this indicates the flipped class is a better format. I would expect my second period class average to be higher on any test. I do believe that the flipped classroom will be a better way for my students to learn. I cannot prove that it is better as of right now. I can show that it is not hurting my students though. Test Results

Work Samples
Sample of Student Completed Pre-Test Screencast of Student Watching the Technology Lesson Screencast of Student Participating in Technology Lesson Sample of Student Completed Post-Test

Video of Lesson:

All video lectures have been uploaded on to the Box.

Screencast of Student Watching the Technology Lesson has been uploaded on to the Box Screencast of Student Participating in Technology Lesson has been uploaded on to the Box