Teachers Implementing Imaging and Imagery for Classroom Learning

Abstract of Plan for Implementing Technology into Teaching

Alexander Alvarez

August 19, 2005

Problem Statement: I teach Geometry to 8 th grade students at Chestnut Accelerated Middle School in Springfield , MA . In the fall we study a unit on transformations as part of the Geometry strand of the Massachusetts Frameworks. As part of this unit we study reflections, translations, rotations, symmetry, tessellations and dilations. During the past years, I found that students have difficulty understanding this unit, mainly because I teach this topic using transparencies and doing transformations on the board using rulers, compasses and protractors. One of the most difficult transformations for students is rotation. Sometime students get confused with the number of degrees that they need to rotate certain objects. This is especially true when they use a protractor and ruler to apply the rotation process - most of the time the result is not accurate.

Motivation: I always like to explore new ideas of how to present my lessons to my students. Last year the school bought a mobile computer lab with 16 laptops, including a projector, which can be used by teachers who have been trained. Of the 106 teachers in the building, only 6 signed up for the training. I was one of these teachers and therefore I will have access to this lab. I think that with this valuable technology resource I can create lessons involving Adobe Photoshop Elements and PowerPoint presentations. With these presentations students can have a better understanding of transformations because they can visualize the process of geometric figures rotating and changing sizes in a common plane.

Approach: I will create several lesson plans to cover the entire unit of transformations. I will take pictures of several geometric figures, manipulating them with the Adobe Photoshop Elements program. Then, I will teach my students how to apply transformations to a given object in the same plane. I will address their difficulties applying rotation with a protractor and ruler, and using Adobe Photoshop Elements I will teach them to be more precise. As an activity, I will ask students to work in groups to create a PowerPoint that they will present in front of the class.

Results: I am hoping that if students visualize transformations with my PowerPoint presentations, they will understand the topic better and be able to produce their own transformations. Several questions in the MCAS relate to transformations and after these activities students should be able to answer these questions on the test effectively.

Conclusions: I hope this presentation can be shared with my colleagues during faculty meetings, because I think that technology is a powerful tool for teaching and learning. Also, I hope my students become interested in the software and ask more questions about it. Moreover, I would like to integrate this tool not only in my Geometry classes but also in my Algebra classes and work with other teachers in my school.