May 13 2011
Flight Path
I am a middle school math teacher, soccer/basketball coach, a wife, and a parent to five young adults. I swim, bike, run and cycle in order to stay sane.
I have taught in both the public and private systems, in schools with few resources and those with a seemingly endless supply. I have always enjoyed teaching and I think part of it is that I enjoy change and the challenge of finding the best way to teach a topic. It is very easy to repeat the same problems, worksheets etc every year in math as really, things don’t vary much. Some students find math easy and some will always struggle. I believe that all kids with an average intelligence can do well a math once they believe it themselves and if they are willing to “climb over the obstacles” and “fight through the fog”.
Technology provides me with options with which I can help students understand, excel and learn to enjoy the mysteries of math. Being actively involved is important for learning. (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). Some of the programs which I have used over the years are:
- Animations: great for math concepts
- ThatQuiz: provides immediate feedback to skill based questions
- Assistment: provides immediate feedback, hints and scaffolding to questions
- Smartboard
- Clickers (student response systems): students and I love them
- Khan Academy
- First Class: post homework, assignments, notes
- Class website: repository for videos, practice sites and games
- Screenflow: make tutorials
- Google Sketchup
- Donald in Mathmagicland video…so old (1959)…but still so relevant
I am always trying something different and some efforts fall by the wayside while others become part of my core teaching. I began with the clickers this year and even with the extra work required to set up questions it was a worthwhile endeavor. Although it is not recommended to overuse the system (Martyn, 2007), we use them almost every second class and the novelty has not warn off. I think it has to do wit the younger audience.
I presently use a Communication System, which has many features although its primary use is for posting homework assignments, posting Smartboard notes, and sharing documents. I am very interested in discovering Learning Management Systems and am very much looking forward to creating a Moodle site with the intention implementing it in my class in September.
I recently saw a dynamic pdf, which was used as a quiz for students. I never thought of doing this and would be interested in why it is not done more often. What are the pros and cons? As far as tools go I would like to work more with editing videos, the SmartPen, and dynamic pdfs. I like to envision how programs link together to form an effective learning experience using the appropriate tools (Bates and Poole, 2003).
The resources I need to master the technologies are time, patience, and confidence.
Bates, A. W. and Poole, G. (2003) Effective teaching with technology in higher education: Foundations for Success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.
Chickering, A., Ehrmann, S. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: technology as lever. AAHE Bulletin.
Martyn, M. (2007). Clickers in The Classroom: An Active Learning Approach. Educause Quarterly Magazine , 30 (2), 666.
