C4T Summary Post

In Project Based Learning via Javascript this 7th grade math teacher talks about incorporating programming into her common-core-based seventh-grade math class this year. She stated she wanted to integrate the common core standards and teach programming with a purpose. To do that she used a lesson on congruence transformations. She gave her students the task of creating a computer program that created a design with symmetry. The program she used was Khan Academy’s Javascript. She said she chose Javascript because of Khan Academy’s easy integration with Google accounts and the class management tools given to teachers.

Here are some of her students work:

She encourages everyone to incorporate computer science in math. She says the key isto hold on to the mathematical purpose behind it. I really found this idea very interesting and something I could do in my own classroom.

My reply was:

Hi there! Im Cameron Hall, a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your blog post! I think that this project is an excellent way to incorporate computer sciences into mathematics classes. And programming is something I think kids would get interested in easily, for class and something they might be interested in later on in life. I love this idea!

The next post I commented on was One Good Thing where the prompt was to talk about one good thing that had happened at the start of the school year. She thought of many different things she could talk about and came up with a few good ideas. That Friday something tragic happened in her community. They had a big flood, one that hadn't been so severe since 1976. She felt helpless and unmotivated to do anything since she couldn't go anywhere or help anyone else in need. She made a map that explained her location and what the different icons meant on the map.

My reply was:

Hi there! I am Cameron Hall a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Sorry to hear about this tragedy in your community. I experience somewhat of the same thing here in Mobile having gone through Hurricanes Ivan, that hit us directly, and Katrina where we suffered a lot of damage. When we returned back to school after both hurricanes, one thing my teachers did was have us write about our experiences and have a class discussion about what happened. We did this in our homeroom classes. I think this is a great icebreaker to kind of get everyone to relax a little and get the elephant out of the room. After this everyone was a little more comfortable with continuing our academic day.