Sallie's+Research

Student Need: My goal is not just to teach my students information to pass a test but for life long application and retention.

Research Question: Will a daily 20 question quick flash warm-up help to move recently learned objectives from short term memory into long term memory (of my precious little 7th graders)?

Literature Review: Still looking :) I will let you know as soon as I know.

Intervention Plan: I have designed a 20 question flash warm-up that they students doing daily. The Warm up incorporates things they know well to things they have learned as of yesterday in math class.

Evaluation Measurements: I randomly collect warm up to check for understanding and progress. I am tracking the students on number of answers correct and the type of questions they are getting correct. Is the information they are consistently getting correct new information?

Results:

3/2/09 I am so excited. When I first started this my students were getting 3-5 questions out of 20. Now the majority of them are competing against themselves to get 20 out of 20! They are recalling information from the beginning of the year and even from prior years!! LOVE IT!!!

Year Two: 2009-2010

 Student Need: The purpose of this study is to see how the use of technology in the math classroom will impact student engagement and performance for 8th grade math students at Deer Valley Middle School. Technology can help create a classroom environment where every child has the opportunity to succeed in this time of electronic media and global communications.

 Research Question: The purpose of this study is to show the effects of technology on student engagement and performance in the mathematics classroom. I will be measuring student engagement and academic improvement with the increased use of technology. I will be measuring data at the beginning of the project and will take measures again at the end of the project. The project will also have a quasi-control group. A similar eighth-grade math class uses the same curriculum but does not use technology on a regular basis. While this is not an optimal control group it will give me a similar comparison group to look at. In addition to comparing data to that of another class I will also be comparing student performance from student A to student A. I will do this by teaching with technology on a daily basis and then I will cover material not using technology to compare student performance against the individual student rather than that of another teacher.

Literature Review: Guerrero, S., Walker, N., & Dugdale, S. (2004). Technology in support of middle grade mathematics: What have we learned? Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 23(1), 5-20. Retrieved from http://www.aace.org Schooler, S. R. (2004). A "chilling" project integrating mathematics, science, and technology. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 10(3), 116-121. Retrieved from http://my.nctm.org/eresources/article_summary.asp?URI=MTMS2004-10-116a&from=B Seaton, D. M., & Carr, D. (2005). The impact of participation in an ancillary science and mathematics program (SEMAA) on engagement rates of middle school students in regular mathematics classrooms. School Science and Mathematics, 105(8), 423. Retrieved from http://ssmj.tamu.edu Simpson, E., & Clem, F. A. (2008). Video games in the middle school classroom. Middle School Journal, 39(4), 4-11. Retrieved from www.csa.com Spires, H. A., Lee, J. K., Turner, K. A., & Johnson, J. (2008). Having our say: Middle grade student perspectives on school, technologies, and academic engagement. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40(4), 497-515. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/JRTE/Issues/Volume_401/Number4Summer2008/Having_Our_Say_Middle_Grade_Student_Pers1.htm Ysseldyke, J., & Bolt, D. M. (2007). Effect of technology-enhanced continuous progress monitoring on math achievement. School Psychology Review, 36(3), 453-467. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/publications/spr/index.aspx?vol=36&issue=3

Intervention Plan: When I started teaching last year I was of the belief that students should come in to the classroom, sit quietly in rows and listen to me lecture for 53 minutes. This is how I learned when I was a student and assumed that since it was good enough for me more than 20 years ago it would still work today. The problem is that today children learn very differently and by way of many different media types. As a parent, I see my children learning a wide variety of things by way of technology. My children are not simply learning they are mastering a wide variety of skills using technology. This observation of the learning of new material at home got me thinking about the learning that I want to happen in the classroom. I want my students to master the state objectives and to have fun while doing it. My vision would be to have the learning of the math objectives resemble learning a new video game. Students play their games over and over again and when they “die” they start over without any real penalty, other than having to start over. The game can be started over as many times as the player is willing to attempt beating the game. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I observed students in my classroom while I would teach and I looked out on to a sea of boredom. The only students that were engaged were the students who normally got “A’s” in classes. I also noticed that anytime we turned on the TV for student announcements all the students were fully engaged and “awakened”. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I asked my students how they felt about math. They said that they did not like it, it was hard, and/or it was boring. I knew at this moment if I was going to engage them in math I needed to change my delivery method of the lessons. My lesson had to grab them as if I had turned on the television. I believe bringing technology into the classroom will “awaken” my students. They will become engaged and excited to participate in math and learn new skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I started to do some research on what I could do with the recently installed Smart board in my classroom. I found an immeasurable number of math lessons that I could use to present my lessons in a way that was engaging and would improve performance of my students. In addition to the Smart technology, I also was introduced to the Aspire assessment system that our district has started using to do formative assessments. While Aspire is an incredible tool, the use of this assessment system requires students to take assessments in the computer lab. With an entire school giving assessments this quickly became problematic in that there are not enough computers labs for all the classes that are trying to use this assessment system. This dilemma led me to more research to attempt to find a resolution. I found eInstruction’s classroom performance system or CPS RF Clickers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System Clickers are helping to totally engage students and create a dynamic and interactive teaching environment. The Classroom Performance System clickers are small, handheld devices that allow students to answer questions. Questions can be asked in a variety of ways, verbally, on paper or on the board and allows the teacher to instantly assess the comprehension of the lessons. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">In addition to all my technology discoveries I found the math curriculum that was adopted last year by our district came with interactive software that could be used with the smart board and the Classroom Performance System clickers. In addition to having interactive software at my fingertips I was able to get a classroom set of clickers to use with the Glencoe interactive classroom material. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">With the integration of technology into my classroom I have found that students are engaged and excited to come to math class. Students have been overheard saying that they love math and they are excited to see what we will be learning today. In the first quarter of the school year I look out and find students with their heads up, bright eyed, and ready to learn more. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">This school year I came down with a respiratory infection and was sent home by the school. I was home for three days. I took this opportunity to teach my lessons from home via Skype. Skype is a combined Voice and Video over Internet Protocol (VoIP) tool which is allowing teachers to share and exchange ideas to a remote user. It is also a vehicle which can allow a student to “Skype into the classroom” if they are home sick. I called into my classroom and taught my lessons and our lessons stayed on pace even while I was not able to be in the classroom. I even found that my students were more engaged and on task for virtual me than reality me. I had student engagement and participation! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Since the beginning of the school year all of my students have been taught using a wide variety of technology. I will be measuring the attitudes of my 4th hour class about math using an anonymous survey asking various questions about their feelings on math class. I have chosen this class because this class has the most at risk students for retention and/or failure of the state math achievement assessment. The class is made up of 35 eighth grade students. Ten of these students are second language learners. Six of the students have special learning accommodations. There are 13 students total in the class that I will be looking at. These thirteen are either second language learners and or they have special needs in the classroom. This is my largest class and they are the class I would say has the most learning obstructions in comparison to my other classes of 8th grade students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">The students that are second language learners range in ability. The lowest ability is that of one student that has very limited understanding of English. The highest ability is that of a 5 students that are proficient in English. All of the second language learners in this class speak Spanish as a first language. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">My students who have special learning needs range from students who are at a 3rd grade level ability in mathematics to at level with accommodations for reading ability and or language. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I believe that the technology integration will be highly beneficial to students who struggle with language. The reason for this is that I will be able to offer more visual aides to these students to improve their understanding of the lesson that is being taught for the day. The lesson will also benefit those students who have special learning needs. These students will get the information that is required for learning in a variety of different ways which will increase the potential of retention of the material. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">It is in my fourth hour that I see a greater amount of students who lack engagement in the classroom. I believe this is due in some part to boredom. If the students do not understand what is being taught and the lesson is not interesting enough to make the student want to participate then the student has not gained anything by sitting in my class. With the use of the technology these same students find the lessons more engaging and exciting and want to be a part of the class. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Skype as well as all the Web 2.0 tools I will be using this year will allow me to see the benefit of technology integration as I become a coach and collaborator with students and other teachers rather than just a dispenser of knowledge (teacher centered). With today’s innovative technology it is possible for students and teachers to collaborate with peers in other schools, other states and other countries. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I predict that when technology is removed from the lesson and the classroom that student engagement will decrease significantly as well as the student attitudes toward math.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Evaluation Measurements: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Technology is becoming increasingly more dominant in the world. Every day, new advances are made and innovations are discovered. Technology is all around us whether we want it to be or not. It is the in our homes, our cars, in stores, and increasingly more in classrooms. I believe technology will have a major impact on student engagement and achievement of current and future generations of students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Current and future educators need to adapt their approach to teaching in order to complement the wide variety of technological resources that are available to aid student learning and engagement. To meet the increasing demands of educational instruction and engagement it is necessary to employ a range of technological multimedia into current curriculum. I define multimedia as the incorporation of multiple methods in a teacher’s lesson of the performance objectives. By implementing innovative multimedia in the classroom, students will become engaged and less likely to be victims of the mundane lessons that promote the drifting attentions of students. This will be accomplished by the use of a variety of technological media. This will include but will not limited to images, sound, motion, interactivity, and text/words in such a way to communicate the day’s objectives. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">The prevailing view in the field of technology in the classroom is that it will increase student engagement and student understanding of the content. The NCTM summarizes the technology principle by saying, “technology is essential in teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students’ learning.” Technology in the classroom also improves students’ attention in class, communication with parents, and increases homework completion rates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">By using technology in the classroom, visual and audio aids are able to support curriculum. The greatest increase to teaching and learning has been the computer. Computers merge all of the technical aids used in the classroom and add a great deal more. It is also makes available a resource of information at the touch of a finger. Students are able to access libraries as well as a variety of information from sources all around the world. They are no longer limited to their school or local library. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Technology is an important part of life and as a result it is an important part of schooling. The National Council for teachers of mathematics states, “Calculators and computers are reshaping the mathematical landscape, and school mathematics should reflect those changes.” Students go home to play their video or computer games. Then they come to school and they are expected to want to work in books and complete worksheets. These tasks are exceptionally boring compared to the stimulating games they have waiting for them at home. What if teachers could allow students to use their knowledge of technology at school as well as at home? I believe teachers would find more students excelling in mathematics. Through the creation amazing software such as Geometer’s Sketchpad, Smart Technology, eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System (CPS) and even the same game systems students use at home, students can enjoy learning mathematics and a number of students may even find mathematics fun. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Different learning styles are the talk of many school districts around the world. The study of different learning styles has gone back since the late 19th. It is common knowledge that students have different ways of learning, as teachers we try to teach the way our students learn the best. There are different types of learning styles for example: visual, audio, and kinesthetic. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Auditory is a learning style where a person learns through listening. A student who prefers this style of learning may struggle to understand a chapter they have read, but then experience understanding as they listen to the class lecture. An auditory learner can gain understanding of written material by using the speech recognition tool that is available on many PCs. Our text book provides an audio tool when accessing the online text book. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Kinesthetic learning is the learning style in which learning takes place by the student carrying out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration. A kinesthetic learner is someone who learns things from doing or being part of them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Visual learning is where ideas, data, and other information are connected with images. It is one of the three basic types of learning styles that also includes kinesthetic learning and auditory learning. Visual learners also thrive when shown illustrations. These techniques are used in visual learning to enhance thinking and learning skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">There are many ways to use technology to create different learning styles within the classroom. Because technology is given in many forms, it allows us to communicate with one another faster, relay messages quicker as well as learn. Creating different ways to learn is less complicated now that technology has given us different methods from which to choose. The use of technology in the classroom is making it easier to actively engage students of different learning styles. With students more engaged and actively involved in mathematics it is to be expected that they will have higher achievement rates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Technology is essential to in the classroom as it allows students to rapidly make connections that would be lost without the speed and accuracy of computers. Technology allows for the reproduction of mathematical algorithms that are already known by the students. Imagine how long it takes to solve higher level mathematics problems without the aid of calculators for division, multiplication, exponents, and logarithms. On the other hand, imagine how many students are left behind when learning a new concept in mathematic because they struggle with basic math facts. When students are allowed technological resources in the classroom they are more likely to understand new concepts because they do not miss a new concept because of a lack of knowledge of basic math facts. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Technology is currently utilized in every facet of school education. More and more, teachers are requiring students to make use of information from technological sources. With the use of technology in the world increasing at an astounding rate, it is necessary for the methods of instruction to change in order to keep up with the ever-changing world. There are many types of technology and activities that can be utilized to help teachers develop an attitude among students that is fearless as student’s use technology and inspire them to involve technology. With the technological society of today, it is likely that the integration of technology the traditional methods of the classroom will have to change. Introducing the use of technology in the classroom as a learning tool will better prepare my students for their future and increase student achievement. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">To measure students’ engagement and academic success I will use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. The purpose of collecting data from more than one source is to prevent the possibility of bias in the data collection. One of the quantitative data collection techniques I will employ will be a survey using a 4-point Likert scale. I have chosen the 4-point scale because it is a forced choice method. Students will be forced to make a decision as to whether they agree or disagree because the neutral option will not be available. The statements I will ask students to rank will include but will not be limited to: I am good at math, using technology in math makes math fun, my attitude about math has improved this year. This last statement will help me measure how the use of technology has changed the attitudes of students. Some of the students who will be measured were students of mine last year as well as this year. Because I used technology in the classroom last year and the other 7th grade teachers did not, I will be able to get a comparison of attitudes between the different students. The survey will be given multiple times to measure attitudes before, during, and after lessons in which I may or may not be using technology as a tool on any given day. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">As a means of qualitative measurement I will interview students who at the beginning of the year had expressed to me they did not like math. Because of their dislike for the subject, I am anticipating this data will have more validity in that I want to know if the implementation of technology will improve student attitudes about math. I will incorporate the use of narrative stories in the interview process by occasionally asking students to write stories about their life as a math student compared to previous years. That will be the only prompt the students will receive to allow for more accurate data. I only want them to write about the technology if that is what has inspired them, not because it was part of the prompt. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Another form of qualitative data collection I will be using will be that of a passive observer. At our school, we utilize instructional coaches. I will provide her with an evaluation form to fill out while observing my class on multiple dates. I will request that I not know on what days that she will be coming in. The instructional coach will not be aware of the purpose of the survey in order to avoid any bias in her observations. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I will start my intervention by collecting data on student attitudes about math. The survey that will generate this data will be given on various dates. Once I have the data I will review notes on what was taught during that time and the amount of technology that was used to teach the various lessons. I will also use the interviews and instructional coaches’ observations to insure there is no bias in my interpretation of the data. To guarantee that I am not depriving students of available resources I will be selective as to the dates I do not use technology in the classroom. On the dates I am not using technology I will employ at least one method of data collection. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I am anticipating there will be more methods of data collection than what I have planned. Any additional data will be recorded either electronically or in a journal. My action research journal will keep track of my personal observations as well as any changes to the schedule. In addition to notes and personal observations, my action research journal will include transcripts of interviewed students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">My action research journal will be used during Phase Four to analyze and organize all collected data according to the actual timeline. I will insert student “stories” on their attitude and feelings about how they are doing in math this year.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Results:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Quantitative Results <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">For my quantitative data, I used a seven question Likert survey. Because this data is ordinal, I will be able to see variations in the data. I will not be able to assign a measure to these variations. Because of the type of data that will be collected using the Likert scale, the mean and the standard deviation are not good measures of the data. The best measure to use is most frequent response or the mode. Displaying the survey data this way will make it easier for the audience to interpret. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I analyzed responses from different classes to evaluate variations in the data. I chose one class to whom I taught a lesson utilizing technology. A second class was taught another lesson of the same caliber but without the use of technology. The classes were surveyed both pre and post assessment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">The seven questions asked included: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· I use more technology in Math 8 than in any other class <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· I am good at math <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Using technology like clickers, Smartboard© and computers makes math fun <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Technology like Smartboard© and clickers helps me pay attention better <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· I like being told right away if I have a question wrong on a test <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· The Smartboard© and clickers help me learn math better <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">The two bar graphs to the left show one class’s responses to “I like being told right away if I have a question wrong on a test” on two different dates. The graph on the left shows student responses after taking an assessment for which they received immediate feedback. 19 students strongly agreed and 10 students agreed. No students disagreed. After taking an assessment for which no immediate feedback was provided, students were surveyed again. In the second survey students chose strongly agree with regard to getting immediate feedback. Post assessment 28 students strongly agreed and four agreed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">My supposition is that the students did not initially recognize the correlation between immediate feedback and improved performance. While they did appreciate immediate feedback it was not until it was removed that they fully grasped the impact of the feedback on their assessment scores. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The two bar graphs to the left are somewhat more revealing. These are the student responses to “Technology like Smartboard© and clickers helps me to pay attention better.” The bar graph on the left shows eight students strong agreed, nineteen students agreed and two students disagreed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">After the second lesson in which students did not have technology for the lesson or the assessment, student opinion had changed to 17 students strongly agreeing, 15 students agreeing, and no students disagreeing. On the second assessment, student scores dropped significantly. I believe that the students attributed the decrease in scores to the lack of technology during the second lesson. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Surveys have shown that about 80 percent of my students agree that they are more aware and alert in the classroom when my lessons implement the clickers. They appreciate the anonymity of the devices. They are aware of the fact that they, like their classmates, may sometimes provide erroneous information, but there is no stigma related to having presented information. They are comforted by the knowledge that there are communities of people who learn differently and that they belong to one of those groups. They are no longer isolated by the way that they think.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Qualitative Results <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">For my qualitative data, I randomly selected students to complete an open response three question questionnaire. All students were given the opportunity to answer the surveys on a computer so that I could access the results in an electronic format. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Questionnaires were analyzed one at a time. As I read the surveys, I recorded high frequency words in each response. I made comments on each questionnaire of the high frequency words. The list of high frequency words are listed below. These terms or codes summarize the events and actions that are describing something that happened or was said by students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Understating <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Help, helping, helps <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Easier, easy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Fun <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Learn, leaner, learning, learned <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">· Privacy, no one knows <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">All of the questionnaires are from students that I have either in my classroom this year, or, in one instance, from a student who was in my class last year. All the questionnaires show exactly what I had thought they would show; that is that the students believe that the use of technology in the classroom has improved their learning and their performance on their assessment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Technology has enabled me to engage and motivate students who then produce high-quality work; to see the relevance, importance, and brilliance of mathematics; and to involve students in more complex tasks. One student wrote this about the use of technology in math class: “I liked using technology because we could use the Smartboard© to do math on the board, and it showed us what we were doing wrong right away”. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">To take advantage of the available technology, thoughtful implementation of its use in the classroom has to be well excuted. After the implementation of technology in my classroom, I realized it not only transformed the way I taught math, but it also drastically changed the way I as­sess student work in the classroom. In addition to more conventional methods of assessment, I am able to monitor students’ thinking while they are working on rigorous concepts make notes of students’ abilities to think at higher levels, and assess their reasoning skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Through my action research, I have seen how technology can motivate students and can help them create math­ematics problems mentally. It enables them to work on more complex tasks involving real-life applications of mathematics. The use of technology in the classroom has also helped me to move beyond simple reproduction to exploration and discovery of mathematics. I feel that the immersion into a technology-based classroom has allowed my students to explore more complicated, in-depth problems successfully and therefore produce a much higher quality of work. Technology makes learning fun for students.

<!--[if gte mso 10]> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Reflections <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Looking back at the last year and my action research, I am proud to say that I consider it a success. Because of the utilization of technology, my students stayed more engaged, and as a direct result of their engagement, they learned more and will hopefully retain more as well. Through technology, I was able to teach in such a manner that my lessons were more rigorous and thought-provoking. Students had to think about what they were seeing in order to grasp the concepts. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Now that my students are in the process of taking their AIMS test, I am even more confident. Many of them are reporting back to me that the AIMS test is drastically less rigorous than any of my classes or assessments. I see this as a victory. Anytime students believe that the classes they are taking have over-prepared them for an assessment is good cause for celebration. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">I would recommend that educators who have not familiarized themselves with the use of technology in the teaching process should take the time to do so. Technology is here to stay and it yield amazing results when used for educational purposes. I understand it may seem overwhelming, but it is worth taking the time to jump in somewhere and start the educating oneself. Additionally, the current generation knows nothing else but technology. From the time they played with their first toy, technology was involved and was interactive with some kind of immediate feedback based on their actions. To take those children and put them in a classroom where there is an absence of technology and immediate feedback based on their thought processes is denying all that they know

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">New Questions <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">All the research I conducted supported my findings. I frequently get newsletters from the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM) and noted within each one is more research touting the importance of technology in the classroom. Technology allows students to learn through exploration. The simple act of looking up information with such an extensive resource can keep students engaged in a project and learning far longer than they would with a set of encyclopedias or a basic textbook. It must be noted that there were some articles that found that the use of technology encouraged the student to explore beyond the bounds of what was necessary and become distracted and off-task. I would venture to say that this appears to be more of an issue of classroom management than fault of technology. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">As to what I would approach differently, I would plan more extensive use of technology. To that end, I would make sure I had all the required technology and that they were all in working order before I conducted research around the use of those things. I want to write a grant to get a classroom set of graphing calculators on my campus. Allowing students to see the immediate impact on a graph by the changing the equation would be most beneficial. We would be able to work on more graphs because having to graph them by hand takes much longer, and we were not able to get anywhere near as much done in a class period. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">In the future, I would like to look at how much further my school can take technology in the classroom. As my school is a Title I school, I feel we could implement and employ greater amounts of various types of technology. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 12pt;">I would also like to know how the use of technology in my class now impacts future success in higher level mathematics courses regardless of the amount of technology used in those classes.


 * Year Three: 2010-2011**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">In looking at the Gallup data that Paula sent to me it is clear based on the results, that our students could greatly benefit from learning how having a positive self image can help improve their over all performance in a given area of their life. "Gallup's research has shown that hope, engagement, and well-being are key factors that drive students' grades, achievement scores, retention, and future employment."
 * Student Need:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Will the use of daily written affirmation statements in the math classroom will impact student engagement and performance for 8th grade math students, in my fourth hour, at Deer Valley Middle School?
 * Research Question:**

__**Literature Review**__: (What literature/articles/books have you looked at to support your question and to help guide you in your intervention?)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">GALLUP Student Poll | America's Promise Alliance © 2010

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">ATTITUDE TOWARD MATHEMATICS:OVERCOMING THE POSITIVE/NEGATIVE DICHOTOMY Rosetta Zan1 & Pietro Di Martino Dipartimento di Matematica, Pisa, ITALY

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Personal Development and Mathematics An Article from Xamuel.com
Change Attitudes with Affirmations in Problem Solving - http://www.co-bw.com/BSC_CPS_affirmations_attitudes.htm

http://motivationalmagic.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/math-positive-affirmations-math-positudes/


 * __Intervention Plan__**:

Students will keep a weekly affirmation log, provided by me. The log will have a place to write in a daily math affirmation. Students will keep their logs during the week and turn them into me over the week end so that I may read them and respond with positive feedback. Statements like I don't know, idk, and I can't will be redirected so that they student can restate what they are trying to communicate in a more positive way.


 * __Evaluation Measurements__**:

At the beginning of the project I exported all the students names, AIMS scores and current grade in Math into an excel spread sheet. then I gave the students a quick survey asking questions about their attitudes in math. Because I had not realized the topic of my actions research at the time of my initial assessment students did not take the first attitude survey until 2 weeks after their first math assessment.

Students will periodically take 4 question survey using a likert scale measuring the level of agreement or disagreement with the following statements:
 * 1) I like math
 * 2) This class is challenging
 * 3) Math is my easiest class this year
 * 4) Math is easier this year than last year


 * __Results__**: