Continuous formation

Folks have been waiting a while to get Equation Editor into OneNote (Win10 version... it's been in 2016/Desktop for forever). Now, the funny thing is this won't make a huge deal for me. I tend to just write my equations out, and if it's for more serious distribution I tend to write it in Word.  But for others, this may improve the way they work in OneNote.  And I also think I'm not allowed to call it Equation Editor, but I'm going to ignore that. Make sure you've updated your OneNote (go to the Store and check for any Downloads & Updates). I recommend folks visit the Store regularly to get any updates. I'm never sure how often it looks for updates on its own and Microsoft has moved to a continual, if gradual update process for all of its apps. To start entering equations, click on the INSERT ribbon and then on EQUATION.  You may think, "why not just click on the Math button?" but that is to translate digital ink or text writing into a mat...

So, Alice Keeler -  @alicekeeler - who is an  amazing blogger  and an incredible resource for those using Google products, posted  60 Ways Math Teachers can use Google Classroom  last April.  It came across my desk the other day and, since school hadn't started yet, I thought it might be a good reflection for me on how one could do similar tasks with OneNote Class Notebook. I went through the list and checked that I could accomplish them all with OneNote and re-wrote her post with those modifications ... but it was looking a little "plagiarism-y" so, just to check, I emailed Alice to see if she was okay with it.  She was not, but encouraged me to do my own brainstorming. So... Math Teachers & OneNote (including OneNote Class Notebook).  My top five...  1) The Under-valued value of scribbles & notation If you really want to be "paperless" (and that should never be a goal - you want to be digital so that content is ...

So this post is prompted by Dave Sladkey's post earlier on using Google Drive, namely Google Drive! What are you waiting for Math Teachers? Now Google Drive/Google Docs has much greater visibility than Microsoft OneNote and even though I'm a long-time GDocs/Drive user I would likely recommend the OneNote Notebook approach over the GoogleDrive.  But I realized that maybe folks didn't know how easy it was to set something up. Thus... Go to OneNote.com and, if you don't already have a Microsoft account, sign up for one. Click on CREATE and choose OneNote Notebook Now, you can think of a OneNote Notebook as a "Google Drive Folder".  It has Sections (like Google Drive Subfolders) and Pages (like Google Drive Files).  But these pages can contain anything.  And I mean anything.  They're like wiki pages in that you can drop text, images, links to other pages, you can embed files & videos... you name it! After you're done playing with it (and yo...

I've been thinking about how to assess my Grade 9 and 10 students this year ... I did a lot of experimentation last year with my accelerated Grade 8 students;they were open to trying things out since acquisition of skills and open-ended problem solving was right up their alley. Here's one change I can make: So, there are four units in both MPM1D and MPM2D ("Ontario" for Grade 9 and 10 math respectively). For those paying close attention, there are only three in 2D but I break the Quadratics unit into two pieces. Beyond the typical written assessments ( test and exam ) that we're required to do by the school -- we have both Christmas and June sit-down exams -- and the evaluations & projects that the other teachers determined while I was in Utah, I'd like to introduce a SMAK at least once for each unit: Show Me Application and Knowledge . Yeah, it's a lame acronym... I'll try to think of something better. My idea is that each student will choose...

I managed to sign myself up for a How to write a better blog online course. Because, dear reader, this blog isn't just for you... no, this is to teach me how to be a better writer and a better reflecter (I'll bet that's not even the right use of the word... but I'm going to pull a you can do anything on the internet, grammar and spelling don't count ) So my task today to improve said blog is to provide a list. Totally open-ended. The rest of the 10,000 participants in this online course are mostly marketers, trying to sell something (not necessarily material but also opinion). That's not my goal so my list then is this, right off the cuff. I have to get this done because I have planning to do for tomorrow. I want to use Google Sketchup in my MPM1D Geometry class and that will take a little time. Three things that will make me a better teacher: Reflection. Reflection . Reflection . Reflection on what I am teaching, how I am teaching it, how it was recei...