EP+Keller

Unit Plan Link



//**My name is Everette P. Keller though**// __**I**__ //**have gone by EP ever since I was born. I love working with kids of al**//** __L__ ** //**ages as n**//__** O **__ //**matter what their age, you can always learn things from them and it can be**// __**V**__ //**ery amazing. **** I **// //**hav**// __**E** __ //**always enjoyed mathemati**// __**C**__ //**s and am just very passionate about reac**//** __H__ **//**ing out children in way that is ben**//__** E **__//**ficial in both the educational department as well as in the lives. And I'm awesome! But not as awesome as Danielle Oslager (you can see her information by going to her page).**// **//My favorite is showing off my "kiss" face, as you can see in the awesome pic of me above.//**

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 * 9 Multiplication Table**

I chose this video as it is an interesting jam to how to get students to learn their 9 times table with a few tips embedded in the rap so as they can understand it better.


 * Sketchup with Google Earth**



This is a Project-Based Learning lesson type. This lesson would be very good for linear plotting especially in a real world significance as the kids could plot the trajectory of a tropical type storm. In doing several plots of the storms trajectories, then the students could then see the patterns that each graph has and thus begin to predict where the storms would go with only a handful of coordinates and data. Plus they can get used to describing what the graphs look giving them a much deeper mathematical understanding of the linear plotting. I just love the activity because it allows them a real world significance that I do believe they can get into the lesson. I would assume that this grade level for this activity would be algebra based so in either algebra I or II. The instructional approach to this lesson would be to first work with them through a classroom type storm where the whole class is involved. You could get them to guess where they expect the storm to go though the better would be just to have them plot where the storm goes. Then I'd love to just give them a few storms with various constraints to work where they have to plot them. Finally I'd let them pair up and give them only a short amount of data so as they can problem solve with each other and discover where the storms could go using the techniques they had just learned. The strengths to this lesson are that it gives the students that real world lesson, and it can further there understanding in linear plotting. However the big weakness to what this lesson provides is that it could cause confusion with how to predict where the storm would go due to the fact that the tropical storms that come our way from Africa are coming right to left on a graph which might confuse some students. Nonetheless this is only a small weakness that can be easily overcome compared to other weaknesses that could be there. Plus once they learn that graphs can be plotted many different ways, then they can understand plots and graphs in a much deeper understanding. I would love to use this activity for my future classroom as well as some of the other activities. Basically any activity that provides that rich mathematical thinking and goes along with the lesson that you are trying to present while giving the students a real world example is very enriching in my opinion, and I look forward to utilizing them. I can imagine I will make changes to the project, but they would really only be slight tweaks that have to deal with what type of class that I teaching at the time.


 * Google Sketchup Problem

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What is the length of the diagonal of the cube having been given the dimensions?


 * Google Sketchup** **Importance

Google Sketchup offers many things that can be very beneficial for the classroom environment. First and most importantly it can allow the students to visualize the problems that they are learning in many different aspects. The visualization can be given to the students quickly as well as it can allow them to work on the problems first hand instead of just seeing the teacher work them on the board. This in itself gives the students the ability to experiment on the problems and test theories such as the Pythagorean Theorem on their own to establish a foundation for why those theorems occur in mathematics. Secondly Sketchup allows for me as the teacher to provide my students with a chance to see real world examples through this device. I can set up different scenarios such as building a house or chair or possibly determining the length of one's shadow through Sketchup. This capability along with the fact that I can provide these at a faster rate than I typically could allows for a quicker grasp of the conceptual learning that needs to take place in my classroom. **