The Plunge

I suppose every blog has to have a first post, and this is mine. Let's organize my thoughts using the classic language arts question: When, What, Why, Where and How.

When

The when is now, or December 24th, 2007 if your now is different than mine. I was hired at FCHS in June of 2007, which corresponded with the opening of brand new school. Of all the reasons to be excited with the job, the new school and accompanying technology had my interested piqued the most. The past four months has enabled me to start my first website , learn how to use a mimio, and explore the possibilities of youtube, teachertube and all things video.

What

This blog has two purposes:

1) I plan to write about my own personal experiences and ideas on teaching math. There are also a few mathematical topics I would like to explore further and I will chronicle what I learn about them.

2) I am currently creating various instructional videos for the algebra classes at FCHS. Those are being posted on teachertube and imbedded in my school website. However I have higher hopes for those videos (and others) and this was the place I decided to start organizing what I am doing. I am concurrently creating squidoo lenses about the topics the videos are covering. I will blog more about squidoo at a later date. Links to those pages are on the right.

Why

Three reasons:

1) I believe that education is going to become more and more digital in the next 25 years and I want to be at the forefront of that trend. This is my jumping off point for that.

2) I believe that a high school level education should be free for all those that want it.

3) I have perused the educational content on the web and discovered that, though there are pockets of good material, there is very little well organized free material. Especially with regards to videos.

Where

I chose blogger because I wanted the blogging/organization to be cost/enerergy effecient. From what I read blogging here was simpler than some of the other free options. I chose squidoo for similar reasons. There may become a time where I move all my content to my own space on the internet, including hosting my own videos, but I wanted to know more about how to create websites and how to generate readers before I did.

How

The videos are created using mimio technology. There is a recorder option that makes creating the videos super easy. I also use window movie maker to edit and voice over the videos. Here is an example of a video I created.



Well that is my first post. I plan on regularly updating this blog and my squidoo pages. My goal is to have an entire course on Algebra 1 displayed at Squidoo and then linked here by the end of the school year. Currently I am only creating videos of example problems but will be creating lessons on the topics as well.

Have a Merry Christmas,

Trent