Let me first say that there is a wealth of information about education in the edu-blogosphere! I was initially overwhelmed by the task to find postings from two edubloggers to comment on, simply due to the sheer volume of options. Ultimately, I was helped by a comment from Jeff on one of my earlier posts that led me to the blogs of David Wees and John Golden. (Thanks, Jeff!) After reading through several entries by each of them, I decided to comment on two very different posts. The first, by David, begs the question, "Why teach math?" The second, by John, takes a look at using a mathematical learning inventory to identify what types of learners are filling the desks in your classroom.
I was immediately attracted to the first post simply by the title. This is a question that I know will shape my teaching practice for my entire career. David's thoughts about teaching math as "a way of thinking and learning" rather than as an endless toolbox of procedures prompted me to consider whether the current standards for assessing students and teachers support what's truly important in math education. What struck me the most from this post was his suggestion that teachers might be able to illustrate the "beauty and elegance of math." I can't express how many times I have struggled to explain how wonderful the patterns, logic, relationships, etc. that are so present in math are, and I am hopeful that I will be able to discuss this with other math educators throughout my career.
The second post caught my eye because I have been wondering about how to effectively implement differentiated instruction in a math classroom with a wide variety of learners. John talks about a math learning inventory that categorizes learners as mastery, interpersonal, self-expressive, or understanding, and I was hoping for some thoughts, ideas, or reflections on how to use that information to reach all four types of learners in the same classroom. I ended up posing this question in my comment, and I hope to get some feedback from John.
Overall, the experience of following two edubloggers was quite positive. Both authors covered a wide range of topics and provoked much thought on some of the issues that I have been learning about and pondering in both my education classes and my student teaching. Their thoughts and ideas are such that I would consider applying them in my own teaching practice. I now have two more blogs to follow along with Shawn Cornally's, which I explored during the summer, in my career as a high school math teacher!
Monday, November 18
Tech In My Placement
This class has introduced me to a multitude of ways that technology can be used in the classroom. As a result, I am considering trying things in my future teaching practice that I never thought I would before taking this class. It's very exciting (and a bit scary) to think about how I will integrate technology into my classroom and, more importantly, how I will manage it. There is one thing, however, that keeps coming up in our discussions about different technological tools and our ideas for using them in the classroom, and that is the issue of access.
After completing the "tech in my placement" survey toward the beginning of the semester, I had the opportunity to talk to a few of my fellow math majors about what they had found in their respective schools. It should not have come as a surprise that the results of the survey varied quite a bit from school to school, but I think that people sometimes forget that there will always be the "haves" and the "have nots" (and everything in between) when it comes to expensive school resources like technology. Fortunately, for the students at my field placement, access does not appear to be an issue.
The high school that I am placed at has a wonderful selection of technological resources for its students and teachers. In the large media center, students have access before, during, and after school to computers that are equipped with software for video editing, sound editing, image editing, web page authoring, and productivity tools. The internet access is unrestricted, but every teacher and student signs an agreement for appropriate use and faces consequences if they do not adhere to it.
Every individual classroom is equipped with a projector, and laptop carts are available by reservation. One complaint that I have heard regarding the laptop cart and any other technology that is available by reservation (e.g., digital cameras) is that the protocol is not always followed for using these shared resources. Some teachers will use them without properly reserving them, which could interfere with another teacher's reservation, and some teachers will keep the resources for longer than they are supposed to. In the grand scheme of things, this seems like a small price to pay for all of the resources that are available to students and teachers.
One final thing to note is that the school uses Power School, which allows parents, students, and teachers access to certain levels of information about student grades, attendance, and other important information (e.g., birthdays and health issues). The fact that parents and students can keep tabs on grades throughout the semester and report any concerns long before report cards go out seems to allow for a smoother process. All in all, I think that the students and teachers at my placement are pretty lucky in the realm of technology. I would like to see more technology use in my mentor teacher's classroom to get a more concrete idea of how a math classroom can be transformed with the use of some of the resources described above.
After completing the "tech in my placement" survey toward the beginning of the semester, I had the opportunity to talk to a few of my fellow math majors about what they had found in their respective schools. It should not have come as a surprise that the results of the survey varied quite a bit from school to school, but I think that people sometimes forget that there will always be the "haves" and the "have nots" (and everything in between) when it comes to expensive school resources like technology. Fortunately, for the students at my field placement, access does not appear to be an issue.
The high school that I am placed at has a wonderful selection of technological resources for its students and teachers. In the large media center, students have access before, during, and after school to computers that are equipped with software for video editing, sound editing, image editing, web page authoring, and productivity tools. The internet access is unrestricted, but every teacher and student signs an agreement for appropriate use and faces consequences if they do not adhere to it.
Every individual classroom is equipped with a projector, and laptop carts are available by reservation. One complaint that I have heard regarding the laptop cart and any other technology that is available by reservation (e.g., digital cameras) is that the protocol is not always followed for using these shared resources. Some teachers will use them without properly reserving them, which could interfere with another teacher's reservation, and some teachers will keep the resources for longer than they are supposed to. In the grand scheme of things, this seems like a small price to pay for all of the resources that are available to students and teachers.
One final thing to note is that the school uses Power School, which allows parents, students, and teachers access to certain levels of information about student grades, attendance, and other important information (e.g., birthdays and health issues). The fact that parents and students can keep tabs on grades throughout the semester and report any concerns long before report cards go out seems to allow for a smoother process. All in all, I think that the students and teachers at my placement are pretty lucky in the realm of technology. I would like to see more technology use in my mentor teacher's classroom to get a more concrete idea of how a math classroom can be transformed with the use of some of the resources described above.
Thursday, October 31
Flipped! (Or Not.)
I have been hearing things about flipped classrooms from several people in several places this semester. It seems to be one of those "all the rage" topics in education right now, at least for a certain community of flipped classroom enthusiasts. The basic idea is that the students watch video lectures (whether traditional teacher-in-front-of-the-whiteboard style or something more creative) at home to learn new material the day before they use it in class. What used to be done while sitting in a classroom becomes homework, and what used to be homework moves to the classroom where the students can work with their peers and ask questions of their teacher. The first time I heard about it, I believe my reaction was, "Wait...what?!"
Perhaps it goes hand in hand with my old lady-esque resistance to new technology (which I'm trying to get over), but the idea just seemed crazy to me. I must admit, though, that I wanted to learn more about it. As it turns out, three of my fellow math majors are student teaching in flipped classrooms for Algebra 2 and Geometry. They have had different experiences and challenges with it, and what worries me the most is how realistic (or not) it is to flip a classroom in a school district that doesn't provide access to computers or tablets for all of its students and doesn't have a serious issue with students not being accountable for doing their homework. If the students don't have access to the proper technology to watch the lectures or just plain don't do their homework, they will never learn the material in the first place, which prevents them from being able to use it in the classroom.
After thinking about this at different points over the past couple of months, we ended up having a guest speaker in class who flipped his Physics classroom and has created some pretty amazing videos that would be the homework. He was beyond passionate, beyond enthusiastic, and he had me with one foot firmly on the flipped classroom bandwagon and the other close behind until one of my classmates started to ask some really important questions. What if the students just don't watch the lectures? What if they don't respond to you when you express the importance of doing so? What if your class isn't an advanced course full of highly motivated upperclassmen who chose to take it? What if your students have a lot of trouble getting their hands on the technology to watch the lectures at home? What if, what if, what if?
Alas, off I jumped from the bandwagon, but my exit may not be permanent. What I need is more information about how best to implement a flipped classroom style, as well as more comprehensive data on the impact of doing so on student learning and performance. I'm still very interested in how it might be effective in some of my future math classrooms, but I'm cautious (if not a bit skeptical) for now. I do think that a flipped model could work with my accelerated Pre-Calculus students in my field placement. They're motivated, they all have access to the proper technology, and they work well in partners and small groups when asked. Quite to the contrary, I think the flipped model would fail miserably for a good portion of the ninth graders in my Algebra 1 classes. There are so many of them who don't do their homework, and I don't think that would change under the flipped model. When the homework is learning the material for the first time, as opposed to applying the material that was learned in class earlier that day, I think the stakes are too high to risk a decent portion of my students not watching the videos.
Perhaps it goes hand in hand with my old lady-esque resistance to new technology (which I'm trying to get over), but the idea just seemed crazy to me. I must admit, though, that I wanted to learn more about it. As it turns out, three of my fellow math majors are student teaching in flipped classrooms for Algebra 2 and Geometry. They have had different experiences and challenges with it, and what worries me the most is how realistic (or not) it is to flip a classroom in a school district that doesn't provide access to computers or tablets for all of its students and doesn't have a serious issue with students not being accountable for doing their homework. If the students don't have access to the proper technology to watch the lectures or just plain don't do their homework, they will never learn the material in the first place, which prevents them from being able to use it in the classroom.
After thinking about this at different points over the past couple of months, we ended up having a guest speaker in class who flipped his Physics classroom and has created some pretty amazing videos that would be the homework. He was beyond passionate, beyond enthusiastic, and he had me with one foot firmly on the flipped classroom bandwagon and the other close behind until one of my classmates started to ask some really important questions. What if the students just don't watch the lectures? What if they don't respond to you when you express the importance of doing so? What if your class isn't an advanced course full of highly motivated upperclassmen who chose to take it? What if your students have a lot of trouble getting their hands on the technology to watch the lectures at home? What if, what if, what if?
Alas, off I jumped from the bandwagon, but my exit may not be permanent. What I need is more information about how best to implement a flipped classroom style, as well as more comprehensive data on the impact of doing so on student learning and performance. I'm still very interested in how it might be effective in some of my future math classrooms, but I'm cautious (if not a bit skeptical) for now. I do think that a flipped model could work with my accelerated Pre-Calculus students in my field placement. They're motivated, they all have access to the proper technology, and they work well in partners and small groups when asked. Quite to the contrary, I think the flipped model would fail miserably for a good portion of the ninth graders in my Algebra 1 classes. There are so many of them who don't do their homework, and I don't think that would change under the flipped model. When the homework is learning the material for the first time, as opposed to applying the material that was learned in class earlier that day, I think the stakes are too high to risk a decent portion of my students not watching the videos.
Podcasting in the Classroom
Over the past several weeks, I have enjoyed listening to my classmates present on a variety of technological tools. The main focus of these presentations has been the potential for using these tools in a classroom setting, and it has been really interesting to hear everyone's ideas for using them in different content areas. The presentation that I found to be the most intriguing was the one about podcasting. I'm sure that part of the intrigue was due to the creative, engaging presentation (shout out to SB, RB, MB, and GP), but I will definitely give some credit to the tool itself.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am quite possibly the opposite of tech savvy. I don't like to try new technology. I may even be afraid of it. However, it seems that this class is determined to make me face my fears time and again. For the most part, this has turned out well, and my mind is slowly opening to the idea of using more technology in my own classroom some day. As a future math teacher, I often struggle to think of meaningful, worthwhile tools to use in a math classroom. The ideas that my fellow math majors and I come up with feel forced a lot of the time, and I don't support the use of technology for technology's sake. I have to be honest, though. I really want to find a way to use podcasting in my math classroom.
What I really liked about the tool, (I believe my classmates used Garage Band in their presentation), was the relative ease of use and the ability to create rather sophisticated sounding products without using complicated equipment or becoming some kind of an expert. I walked away from the presentation feeling confident that I could do what my classmates had done (and they made some pretty nifty podcasts), which is not typical of me at all. The sound effects, the background tracks, the layering of different voices, it was just plain cool, and I think that students would really enjoy listening to podcasts and creating their own.
One of the ideas that the other math majors and I came up with for using podcasting in a math classroom is to have students listen to podcasts that are already out there about seeing and using math in the real world. In my brief experience as a student teacher, I have already been asked by my students multiple times about when they will really "need to use this stuff." This could be one way to answer that question. Another idea that we had was for students to create their own podcasts in small groups. They could explain a new concept knowing that their podcast would be used to introduce that concept to every section of their subject (e.g., Algebra 1). One problem with this idea is that math is a very visual subject, so it might be difficult to explain a concept only using audio. To help us with this roadblock, one of the presenters told us about vodcasting, which is basically podcasting with a visual element added in. This is something that I definitely want to explore because I see a lot of potential for getting students excited about learning a new concept and explaining it to their peers through vodcasting.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am quite possibly the opposite of tech savvy. I don't like to try new technology. I may even be afraid of it. However, it seems that this class is determined to make me face my fears time and again. For the most part, this has turned out well, and my mind is slowly opening to the idea of using more technology in my own classroom some day. As a future math teacher, I often struggle to think of meaningful, worthwhile tools to use in a math classroom. The ideas that my fellow math majors and I come up with feel forced a lot of the time, and I don't support the use of technology for technology's sake. I have to be honest, though. I really want to find a way to use podcasting in my math classroom.
What I really liked about the tool, (I believe my classmates used Garage Band in their presentation), was the relative ease of use and the ability to create rather sophisticated sounding products without using complicated equipment or becoming some kind of an expert. I walked away from the presentation feeling confident that I could do what my classmates had done (and they made some pretty nifty podcasts), which is not typical of me at all. The sound effects, the background tracks, the layering of different voices, it was just plain cool, and I think that students would really enjoy listening to podcasts and creating their own.
One of the ideas that the other math majors and I came up with for using podcasting in a math classroom is to have students listen to podcasts that are already out there about seeing and using math in the real world. In my brief experience as a student teacher, I have already been asked by my students multiple times about when they will really "need to use this stuff." This could be one way to answer that question. Another idea that we had was for students to create their own podcasts in small groups. They could explain a new concept knowing that their podcast would be used to introduce that concept to every section of their subject (e.g., Algebra 1). One problem with this idea is that math is a very visual subject, so it might be difficult to explain a concept only using audio. To help us with this roadblock, one of the presenters told us about vodcasting, which is basically podcasting with a visual element added in. This is something that I definitely want to explore because I see a lot of potential for getting students excited about learning a new concept and explaining it to their peers through vodcasting.
Monday, September 30
The Digital Takeover: Curriculum & Portfolio Integration
In class last week, we heard from the lead Instructional Technology teacher at a local high school. He is currently spearheading an initiative to create curriculum sharing sites and student portfolios using Google tools. The initiative is in its early stages, but the goal is for every discipline area to use curriculum sharing sites and for every individual student to maintain a digital portfolio throughout all four years of high school. I was really intrigued by what they have accomplished so far and what they envision for the future. While listening to the presentation, I learned of some very clear benefits of both, but I was also left with some reservations and questions.
Having each student create a digital portfolio as a freshman and maintain it throughout high school is promising in so many ways. On a basic level, the digital portfolios cut down on the amount of paper used and make it easier for students to stay organized with less loose-leaf paper floating around in their backpacks and lockers. Using Google tools can allow for easy collaboration on group projects and efficient turnaround of teacher feedback on assignments. I was particularly struck by the speaker's point about how the digital portfolios help the students maintain ownership of their work since they are in control of who they share it with and who maintains sharing privileges at the end of each term. Not having to hand over the only copy of a paper that took three weeks to write is pretty nice. What I consider to be the biggest benefit of these portfolios is that they help prepare students for a digital world. The students will be using these types of tools in their professional lives and any further education, and it is important for them to be experienced and comfortable.
I do have a few concerns about the student portfolios. First, it is pretty clear that every student needs to spend time on a computer or tablet every day. Not every student has a computer or tablet at home, so that means they would have to use the media center before or after school. This could be difficult for students who depend on the bus to get to and from school and for students who have after-school clubs or sports. These portfolios would also be next to impossible to implement in school districts that cannot afford to furnish their schools with enough computers and tablets to support the students. Another concern I have is about how reasonable an all digital format is in a subject like math. Are the students supposed to get rid of pencil and paper work altogether? That is not very conducive to a math class.
Maintaining curriculum sharing sites for each discipline area seems like a pretty obvious win to me. Not only would the sites make it easier to spread work across all of the teachers within a discipline and leverage resources, but they also provide a perfect forum for sharing positive and negative experiences with different pieces of the curriculum and suggestions for changes. With curriculum sharing sites, it seems easier to create and maintain a common curriculum within a discipline area and to make sure that it continues to evolve and improve based on the experiences of various teachers every year. These sites could also be visible to teachers in other discipline areas, which could provide a nice opportunity to get fresh ideas and different perspectives. One other important benefit of these sites is that, by using them, the teachers become familiar with the same technology that the students are expected to use. My only concern about the curriculum sharing sites is that they may encroach on each individual teacher's freedom to make their own choices about what they do and teach in their classroom.
Having each student create a digital portfolio as a freshman and maintain it throughout high school is promising in so many ways. On a basic level, the digital portfolios cut down on the amount of paper used and make it easier for students to stay organized with less loose-leaf paper floating around in their backpacks and lockers. Using Google tools can allow for easy collaboration on group projects and efficient turnaround of teacher feedback on assignments. I was particularly struck by the speaker's point about how the digital portfolios help the students maintain ownership of their work since they are in control of who they share it with and who maintains sharing privileges at the end of each term. Not having to hand over the only copy of a paper that took three weeks to write is pretty nice. What I consider to be the biggest benefit of these portfolios is that they help prepare students for a digital world. The students will be using these types of tools in their professional lives and any further education, and it is important for them to be experienced and comfortable.
I do have a few concerns about the student portfolios. First, it is pretty clear that every student needs to spend time on a computer or tablet every day. Not every student has a computer or tablet at home, so that means they would have to use the media center before or after school. This could be difficult for students who depend on the bus to get to and from school and for students who have after-school clubs or sports. These portfolios would also be next to impossible to implement in school districts that cannot afford to furnish their schools with enough computers and tablets to support the students. Another concern I have is about how reasonable an all digital format is in a subject like math. Are the students supposed to get rid of pencil and paper work altogether? That is not very conducive to a math class.
Maintaining curriculum sharing sites for each discipline area seems like a pretty obvious win to me. Not only would the sites make it easier to spread work across all of the teachers within a discipline and leverage resources, but they also provide a perfect forum for sharing positive and negative experiences with different pieces of the curriculum and suggestions for changes. With curriculum sharing sites, it seems easier to create and maintain a common curriculum within a discipline area and to make sure that it continues to evolve and improve based on the experiences of various teachers every year. These sites could also be visible to teachers in other discipline areas, which could provide a nice opportunity to get fresh ideas and different perspectives. One other important benefit of these sites is that, by using them, the teachers become familiar with the same technology that the students are expected to use. My only concern about the curriculum sharing sites is that they may encroach on each individual teacher's freedom to make their own choices about what they do and teach in their classroom.
Thursday, August 1
Fifth Day Reactions
I've decided that "evaluation" and "assessment" are two of my least favorite words right now. Pretty much everything that has been discussed around these topics in all of my classes has brought out feelings of frustration, confusion, and even panic at times. As I was making the decision to leave the actuarial profession to pursue a career in teaching, I was aware of the tension around these issues that is so present in Michigan's educational community right now. There were even teachers in my life who told me to really think the career change over because they had become so jaded by what was going on at the policy level. Alas, I didn't let their warnings deter me. I certainly don't think I have made a mistake, but the uneasiness around teacher evaluation is becoming more and more real for me.
Learning about the Smarter Balanced Assessment that will be implemented in the spring of my first year of teaching (yikes!) was a bit shocking, especially when we discussed all of the things that students will need to know just to be able to complete the assessment at a functional level (e.g., typing, scrolling, dragging/dropping). The list kept getting longer and longer as we continued to discuss it, and it really brought to light how easy it would be to have to sacrifice lesson time that should be spent on broader curriculum goals in order to make sure that the students know what to expect from an online assessment and that they will be able to work their way through it.
Something that was made very clear is that teachers need to be thinking about these issues long before they are actually upon them. We came up with lists of things to do to get your students ready for the Smarter Balanced Assessment, as well as ways to make sure your classroom and school have the technological resources they need. These thoughts and ideas are not something that should just be shelved until the situation becomes an emergency. Too often, the "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" mindset leads to disaster, and when your job is on the line, it's just too risky!
I've never been one to follow politics, but it has become quite evident that I need to start, especially where education is concerned. When I start meeting with my mentor teacher at the end of the summer, I plan to discuss these issues with him early on so that I can continue to familiarize myself with everything that's going on and what it could mean for my future as a teacher. After all, if I want to be able to advocate for myself, my colleagues, and/or my students, I need to be fully aware and educated!
Learning about the Smarter Balanced Assessment that will be implemented in the spring of my first year of teaching (yikes!) was a bit shocking, especially when we discussed all of the things that students will need to know just to be able to complete the assessment at a functional level (e.g., typing, scrolling, dragging/dropping). The list kept getting longer and longer as we continued to discuss it, and it really brought to light how easy it would be to have to sacrifice lesson time that should be spent on broader curriculum goals in order to make sure that the students know what to expect from an online assessment and that they will be able to work their way through it.
Something that was made very clear is that teachers need to be thinking about these issues long before they are actually upon them. We came up with lists of things to do to get your students ready for the Smarter Balanced Assessment, as well as ways to make sure your classroom and school have the technological resources they need. These thoughts and ideas are not something that should just be shelved until the situation becomes an emergency. Too often, the "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" mindset leads to disaster, and when your job is on the line, it's just too risky!
I've never been one to follow politics, but it has become quite evident that I need to start, especially where education is concerned. When I start meeting with my mentor teacher at the end of the summer, I plan to discuss these issues with him early on so that I can continue to familiarize myself with everything that's going on and what it could mean for my future as a teacher. After all, if I want to be able to advocate for myself, my colleagues, and/or my students, I need to be fully aware and educated!
Sunday, July 28
Edublogger Investigation: ThinkThankThunk
I took a peek at several teacher/educator blogs before deciding to focus on ThinkThankThunk. The blog's subtitle hooked me right away: "Dealing with the fear of being a boring teacher." As a future teacher of a subject millions of students declare to be boring every day, I thought this blog might have something I could grab onto. The author has a series called "Calculus: A Comedy" that I was particularly interested in, as Calculus is the subject I am most interested in teaching.
Although he was trained as a science teacher, the author ended up teaching Calculus, which was a challenge from a pedagogical perspective. The series talks about his transition from what he admits is a very vanilla approach to the curriculum, to something much more engaging and challenging for both the students and the teacher. He goes into detail about the methods he finds to be the most effective (and why) and how teachers can be successful in using them. He also discusses certain challenges that are likely to come up.
Most valuable, in my opinion, are his posts on various course topics. He gives a synopsis of how he presented a variety of topics in his Calculus class. One of the best things about these posts are that most of them have some sort of connection to something in the real world that the students could relate to, and quite often there is humor involved. I'm not sure how helpful these would be to a brand new math teacher who's really just trying to find her footing, but they could certainly be beneficial when that same math teacher is looking for a way to take things to the next level after a couple of years.
The author also has a series called "Standards-Based Grading" that he describes as "a technique devoted to giving students formative control over their own progress (and grade)." The key is to have a grading system that provides a level of transparency for students and their parents that allows them to see where they are proficient and where they still need work. Getting a 71% on Quiz #4 hardly tells a student anything they need to know to succeed, and this series addresses that grading hurdle along with many others.
I'm certain that there are a lot of great teacher/educator blogs out there with a lot of useful information, but I'm equally certain that there are a lot of not-so-great blogs with a lot of not-so-useful information. I think it's up to the consumer to search for valuable information that is applicable to their own practice. I for one am planning to revisit ThinkThankThunk in the future.
Although he was trained as a science teacher, the author ended up teaching Calculus, which was a challenge from a pedagogical perspective. The series talks about his transition from what he admits is a very vanilla approach to the curriculum, to something much more engaging and challenging for both the students and the teacher. He goes into detail about the methods he finds to be the most effective (and why) and how teachers can be successful in using them. He also discusses certain challenges that are likely to come up.
Most valuable, in my opinion, are his posts on various course topics. He gives a synopsis of how he presented a variety of topics in his Calculus class. One of the best things about these posts are that most of them have some sort of connection to something in the real world that the students could relate to, and quite often there is humor involved. I'm not sure how helpful these would be to a brand new math teacher who's really just trying to find her footing, but they could certainly be beneficial when that same math teacher is looking for a way to take things to the next level after a couple of years.
The author also has a series called "Standards-Based Grading" that he describes as "a technique devoted to giving students formative control over their own progress (and grade)." The key is to have a grading system that provides a level of transparency for students and their parents that allows them to see where they are proficient and where they still need work. Getting a 71% on Quiz #4 hardly tells a student anything they need to know to succeed, and this series addresses that grading hurdle along with many others.
I'm certain that there are a lot of great teacher/educator blogs out there with a lot of useful information, but I'm equally certain that there are a lot of not-so-great blogs with a lot of not-so-useful information. I think it's up to the consumer to search for valuable information that is applicable to their own practice. I for one am planning to revisit ThinkThankThunk in the future.
Thursday, July 25
Fourth Day Reactions
The theme of the week was gaming and education, and we talked a lot about the educational benefits of certain video and computer games. A few potential benefits that stood out to me were that they can provide students with a sense of identity and agency, as well as a safe place for students to take risks and challenge themselves. Toward the end of class, one of our instructors told us a story about some of his high school students and golfers who find school to be boring and tedious but love to play video games for hours on end. He asked us the following question: Can we incorporate the elements of gaming that students enjoy in a classroom setting? If so, how?
My immediate thought as a future math teacher was to build off of the "safe place to take risks and challenge themselves" aspect I mentioned above. Learning new math concepts is often challenging for students, but the cool part is that they typically build off of previous concepts. In most video games, there are multiple levels with a "boss" to defeat at the end of each one. After successfully completing one level, players move on to higher, more difficult levels where they will use the skills they mastered in the previous levels to succeed. What if a math teacher looked at each concept as a "level" and the quiz or test at the end of that section as the "boss" for that level? As students move along, they will continue to use what they learned in the lower levels to take on new risks and challenges in the new levels. If they fail a quiz, they can have the mind set that they have another chance to start from the last level they completed successfully, just like in a video game. The final exam could be considered the final "boss" at the end of a video game, where passing it means you have completed the entire game (or course). Perhaps there could even be a system of bonuses and aides along the way.
My second thought was about the school houses used at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yes, I will take any opportunity to incorporate Harry Potter into anything! The entire student body is sorted into four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. In these houses, students earn and lose points throughout the school year for things like good/bad behavior, providing correct answers in class, winning Quidditch matches, or winning a life-sized game of Wizard's Chess. At the end of the school year, the house with the most points wins the coveted House Cup. Within a classroom, students could be sorted into "houses" or "teams" at the beginning of the semester and earn and lose points for things like helping other students, following/breaking rules, performance on assignments and exams, winning exam review games, etc. Extending a challenge to the students at the beginning of the semester and asking them to work with a team could give them extra incentive and excitement around class activities and build a lot of skills and character traits along the way. There could be some sort of prize at the end of the semester for the team with the most points (e.g., pizza lunch, bonus points on the final, etc.)
I'll be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on these ideas! Who knows, maybe I will try one (or both) of these when I have my own classroom!
My immediate thought as a future math teacher was to build off of the "safe place to take risks and challenge themselves" aspect I mentioned above. Learning new math concepts is often challenging for students, but the cool part is that they typically build off of previous concepts. In most video games, there are multiple levels with a "boss" to defeat at the end of each one. After successfully completing one level, players move on to higher, more difficult levels where they will use the skills they mastered in the previous levels to succeed. What if a math teacher looked at each concept as a "level" and the quiz or test at the end of that section as the "boss" for that level? As students move along, they will continue to use what they learned in the lower levels to take on new risks and challenges in the new levels. If they fail a quiz, they can have the mind set that they have another chance to start from the last level they completed successfully, just like in a video game. The final exam could be considered the final "boss" at the end of a video game, where passing it means you have completed the entire game (or course). Perhaps there could even be a system of bonuses and aides along the way.
My second thought was about the school houses used at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yes, I will take any opportunity to incorporate Harry Potter into anything! The entire student body is sorted into four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. In these houses, students earn and lose points throughout the school year for things like good/bad behavior, providing correct answers in class, winning Quidditch matches, or winning a life-sized game of Wizard's Chess. At the end of the school year, the house with the most points wins the coveted House Cup. Within a classroom, students could be sorted into "houses" or "teams" at the beginning of the semester and earn and lose points for things like helping other students, following/breaking rules, performance on assignments and exams, winning exam review games, etc. Extending a challenge to the students at the beginning of the semester and asking them to work with a team could give them extra incentive and excitement around class activities and build a lot of skills and character traits along the way. There could be some sort of prize at the end of the semester for the team with the most points (e.g., pizza lunch, bonus points on the final, etc.)
I'll be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on these ideas! Who knows, maybe I will try one (or both) of these when I have my own classroom!
Sunday, July 21
Video Games & Education: Dr. Mario Revisted
When tasked with investigating the use of video games for educational purposes, I decided to revisit an old favorite of mine, Dr. Mario. I may be dating myself here, but my family loved this game when it first came out on the original Nintendo back in 1990. My older brother and I would play against each other as long as our parents would let us, and I swear they would send us to bed early just so they could have a turn. It was addictive. Since I no longer have the original Nintendo, I had to download Dr. Mario for the Wii, which was conveniently quite cheap. My boyfriend and I started playing against each other, and the soundtrack was all too familiar. We were able to find a groove pretty quickly! After playing for an hour or so, I started to reflect on what my future math students could potentially get out of it. I landed on three main things: quick thinking, spatial awareness, and strategic planning.
Quick Thinking: Dr. Mario demands that you make very quick decisions about where to direct each pill that gets tossed into your prescription bottle. Depending on what speed you're playing at, the amount of time you have until the pill reaches the bottom of the bottle on its own can be very limited. This requires you to stay sharp, pay close attention, and think on your feet.
Spatial Awareness: Each pill has two ends, which can be two different colors or the same color, and viruses of the various colors are spread throughout the bottle. You have to be able to tell where the viruses are in relation to the pill once it's thrown into your bottle. If you misread where a virus is and slam your pill down one spot to the left or right of where you meant to, you have to make up for that setback. You also have to figure out how you want your pill oriented (up, down, left, or right).
Strategic Planning: There are a few types of strategies that you can use in Dr. Mario, two of which I'll discuss here. The first one is planning ahead. Whenever a pill is tossed into your bottle, you can see the next couple of pills that are coming. If you're going to fully take advantage of this, you should make decisions on where to place the current pill given what's coming up. This can help you be more efficient and get the most out of every pill. The second strategy is to kill multiple viruses at once for more points and more punishment on your opponent. You can set up your bottle so that, with one additional pill, you can kill two, three, or four viruses. This sends broken pill pieces to your opponent that they have no control over. Both of these strategies require a lot of continuous thought and planning.
Overall, I wouldn't use Dr. Mario directly with my students, but I think the skills it helps develop can be valuable in math and other areas. As long as they don't spend too much time staring at the computer or television screen, kids can get a lot of valuable skills out of playing computer and video games. I guess it's up to parents to monitor their kids' playing time and decide how much is too much.
Quick Thinking: Dr. Mario demands that you make very quick decisions about where to direct each pill that gets tossed into your prescription bottle. Depending on what speed you're playing at, the amount of time you have until the pill reaches the bottom of the bottle on its own can be very limited. This requires you to stay sharp, pay close attention, and think on your feet.
Spatial Awareness: Each pill has two ends, which can be two different colors or the same color, and viruses of the various colors are spread throughout the bottle. You have to be able to tell where the viruses are in relation to the pill once it's thrown into your bottle. If you misread where a virus is and slam your pill down one spot to the left or right of where you meant to, you have to make up for that setback. You also have to figure out how you want your pill oriented (up, down, left, or right).
Strategic Planning: There are a few types of strategies that you can use in Dr. Mario, two of which I'll discuss here. The first one is planning ahead. Whenever a pill is tossed into your bottle, you can see the next couple of pills that are coming. If you're going to fully take advantage of this, you should make decisions on where to place the current pill given what's coming up. This can help you be more efficient and get the most out of every pill. The second strategy is to kill multiple viruses at once for more points and more punishment on your opponent. You can set up your bottle so that, with one additional pill, you can kill two, three, or four viruses. This sends broken pill pieces to your opponent that they have no control over. Both of these strategies require a lot of continuous thought and planning.
Overall, I wouldn't use Dr. Mario directly with my students, but I think the skills it helps develop can be valuable in math and other areas. As long as they don't spend too much time staring at the computer or television screen, kids can get a lot of valuable skills out of playing computer and video games. I guess it's up to parents to monitor their kids' playing time and decide how much is too much.
Thursday, July 18
Third Day Reactions
For the "Organizing Your Online Life" project, I presented information on Evernote, which I really enjoyed learning about and will probably continue to use. The other members of my group presented Diigo and Pinterest. I was most interested in how these tools can be used in the classroom by both students and teachers.
With Diigo, I was underwhelmed. At this point, I think that most browsers have an adequate bookmarking system of their own, especially to meet my needs. One cool feature, though, is the ability to highlight text on webpages, provided the webpages won't change or go away. That is a unique feature that I've never come across before. As a student, that could be beneficial when doing research for a project. I didn't really see any value for teachers, though. I suppose the ability for students to share bookmarks and comments with each other if they're working on a project together could be helpful.
Pinterest is something I was already quite familiar with but have not used myself. I'm not a big fan of it, as it doesn't really appeal to any of my tastes or interests. I would never use it directly or indirectly with students, as I don't think there are any appropriate features to be applied to them. I would, however, take advantage of the boards about teaching. It's really neat that there are boards out there with specific ideas on how to present different lessons in math, science, language arts, etc. When working with kids, I think it's important to mix things up and find new ways to keep them engaged in the learning process, and Pinterest could be a really good resource for ideas on how to do that.
Of the three tools I learned about, Evernote is the one that I felt had the most to offer in the classroom. I think it would be really cool for a teacher to set up an account that all of the students have access to in the classroom and at home. They could submit assignments on it for quicker turnaround, and teachers could post resources for further review. One idea that I thought was great was for a teacher to take pictures of the white board when a particularly important concept has been laid out and post it on Evernote for students to reference indefinitely. Teachers can also use Evernote personally to build and organize lesson plans, assignments, and projects.
All in all, learning about the different tools was pretty fun. Hearing some of the suggestions on how best to use them in the classroom got me thinking about the types of things I want to do and how I can leverage technology to enhance them.
With Diigo, I was underwhelmed. At this point, I think that most browsers have an adequate bookmarking system of their own, especially to meet my needs. One cool feature, though, is the ability to highlight text on webpages, provided the webpages won't change or go away. That is a unique feature that I've never come across before. As a student, that could be beneficial when doing research for a project. I didn't really see any value for teachers, though. I suppose the ability for students to share bookmarks and comments with each other if they're working on a project together could be helpful.
Pinterest is something I was already quite familiar with but have not used myself. I'm not a big fan of it, as it doesn't really appeal to any of my tastes or interests. I would never use it directly or indirectly with students, as I don't think there are any appropriate features to be applied to them. I would, however, take advantage of the boards about teaching. It's really neat that there are boards out there with specific ideas on how to present different lessons in math, science, language arts, etc. When working with kids, I think it's important to mix things up and find new ways to keep them engaged in the learning process, and Pinterest could be a really good resource for ideas on how to do that.
Of the three tools I learned about, Evernote is the one that I felt had the most to offer in the classroom. I think it would be really cool for a teacher to set up an account that all of the students have access to in the classroom and at home. They could submit assignments on it for quicker turnaround, and teachers could post resources for further review. One idea that I thought was great was for a teacher to take pictures of the white board when a particularly important concept has been laid out and post it on Evernote for students to reference indefinitely. Teachers can also use Evernote personally to build and organize lesson plans, assignments, and projects.
All in all, learning about the different tools was pretty fun. Hearing some of the suggestions on how best to use them in the classroom got me thinking about the types of things I want to do and how I can leverage technology to enhance them.
Sunday, July 14
Organizing Your Online Life: A Look at Evernote
Full disclosure: I'm pretty much always intimidated by a new piece of technology and reluctant to embark on the adventure of using it. As you might infer from this information, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the Organizing Your Online Life project that was assigned last week. I think the first thought that went through my mind when it was introduced was, "Ugh, really?" Needless to say, I saved it for last in my extensive list of things to do this weekend. It's funny how this habit of mine never helps matters at all.
The assignment asked that I explore a piece of software called Evernote, develop a one- or two-page handout on how to use it, and put together a 25-minute presentation to go along with it. Yikes! Little did I know that I would find the process of completing this assignment positively delightful. I started off by going to the Evernote website and poking around for some basic information about it. As a compulsively organized person, I was intrigued by the promises on the homepage: Remember everything. Capture anything. Access anywhere. Find things fast. From there, I decided to check out the Wikipedia page to see if I could get a better idea of how Evernote works. My last step before taking the plunge and clicking on the "Get Evernote - It's Free" button was to check out some consumer reviews, which were very positive. Then off I went!
After installing the free version of Evernote and registering for a personal account, I started to play around with creating notes and such. I was surprised at how easy it was to use, and I appreciated the aesthetics. I love the pale green and gray color palette and the elephant logo, as well as the layout of the program. I"m sure I have a long way to go before I really take advantage of its full functionality, but I'm definitely on board to keep investigating.
All in all, I'm really happy with the experience. You'd think I might have been more optimistic going into the Organizing Your Online Life project, considering the first word in its name is ORGANIZING, and that's one of my favorite things to do. Lesson learned, I guess! Heck, I may even USE Evernote now. Who would have guessed?
The assignment asked that I explore a piece of software called Evernote, develop a one- or two-page handout on how to use it, and put together a 25-minute presentation to go along with it. Yikes! Little did I know that I would find the process of completing this assignment positively delightful. I started off by going to the Evernote website and poking around for some basic information about it. As a compulsively organized person, I was intrigued by the promises on the homepage: Remember everything. Capture anything. Access anywhere. Find things fast. From there, I decided to check out the Wikipedia page to see if I could get a better idea of how Evernote works. My last step before taking the plunge and clicking on the "Get Evernote - It's Free" button was to check out some consumer reviews, which were very positive. Then off I went!
After installing the free version of Evernote and registering for a personal account, I started to play around with creating notes and such. I was surprised at how easy it was to use, and I appreciated the aesthetics. I love the pale green and gray color palette and the elephant logo, as well as the layout of the program. I"m sure I have a long way to go before I really take advantage of its full functionality, but I'm definitely on board to keep investigating.
All in all, I'm really happy with the experience. You'd think I might have been more optimistic going into the Organizing Your Online Life project, considering the first word in its name is ORGANIZING, and that's one of my favorite things to do. Lesson learned, I guess! Heck, I may even USE Evernote now. Who would have guessed?
Wednesday, July 10
Second Day Reactions
The world we live in is one where people constantly lie in
wait for the “next big thing” in technology.
People will line up for hours – or even days – to get the latest product
from Apple, or even a newer version of a product they already have. With the release of new and improved
technology comes a unique excitement. It’s
as if people have a thirst for technology that simply cannot be quenched. Each new purchase is enough to soothe the
burn for a bit, but sooner or later, the people will be parched yet again.
The first question weighing on my mind is simple. Why?
Why are we such slaves to technology?
Why do we constantly feel the need to upgrade our gadgets? Why are we willing to buy used cars and secondhand
clothes but shudder at the thought of buying a used cell phone? I think it all comes down to one thing: What is it that technology promises us that
we just can’t seem to turn down? From
our discussion in class, the two promises of technology that I think have the
greatest influence on our obsession with it are efficiency and information.
Modern society is fast-paced, and for most people, time is
at a premium. Technology promises to help
us navigate through the daily labyrinth that is our modern existence. We can consolidate and organize information
in ways that appeal to the ears and the eyes.
We can reach colleagues, family members, and friends via multiple
avenues in an instant. We can find our
way to and from places we have never been without a hitch. Pretty much any question we could ever ask has
an answer, or at least a substantial amount of information to consider, that is
right at our fingertips and can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
This all sounds terrific to me, as I'm sure it does to most people. Many of these resources have become what I would call a necessity in my life, and I’m nowhere near "tech junkie" status. So, my next question is: What’s the problem, then?
Although the benefits of technology are innumerable, what
are the costs? My answer is the widespread
loss of the skills that technology performs for us. How many children will grow up not knowing
how to read a map because their GPS just takes them where they need to go? Will people forget (or never learn) how to
write a letter to their grandmother and send it in the mail? Will we stop using our minds to solve
problems and instead just look up the answers?
Will there be a day when children no longer create imagined worlds in
their backyards because everything they could possibly think up is already in
front of them in the form of a movie, TV show, video game, or computer app?
We can neither ignore nor deny the positive impacts of technological advances in an ever-changing world. To do so would be utterly obtuse. What I think we need to acknowledge, however, is that there are some negatives that come along with the positives. We have to ask ourselves whether we're willing to hand certain tasks over to our gadgets for good and create a dependence on technology. If we do that, are we losing something that we can't get back?
Monday, July 8
The Wisdom of John Dewey
I found John Dewey's "My Pedagogic Creed" fascinating, especially for having been written in 1897. I think his beliefs are quite progressive to this day, and many of the things he criticized are still in wide use in the American education system. This calls into question how much (or little) progress has been made over the past 100+ years. For the most part, I found myself nodding my head in agreement as I read his beliefs one by one.
Something that really stood out to me was Dewey's emphasis that the student should not be a passive learner. This is an issue that I have considered a lot since deciding to become a teacher. My brother and I have had more than one conversation about what makes a person go from taking everything they're taught as fact to being an active consumer of knowledge who raises questions and thinks critically. When I reflect on my own high school experience, I don't recall engaging in such behavior very often. Whatever my teachers said at the front of the class was inherently true. It wasn't until I went to college that I really began to apply my own thoughts, experiences, and beliefs to what I was being taught in the classroom. My college professors were a big influence on this change, as they encouraged this type of learning (unlike the teachers I had up until that point).
Something that I had never really considered, but that made a lot of sense as I was reading it, was Dewey's belief that children are born with an innate power to construct knowledge and that the best way for them to learn is to relate to their social life. If we are to prepare children to be responsible, contributing members of a community of learners, they need to construct new knowledge around what they already know. Traditional teaching styles often stifle this power, as they don't allow children to draw from their own past, present, and future experiences. When children enter a classroom and are expected to believe or hold as fact whatever their teachers present to them, they are moving backward in their own development as active, critical thinkers. Moreover, they are lacking the opportunity to find and build connections to their own world.
One of Dewey's beliefs that I couldn't fully get on board with was his insistence that subject matter is only valuable as it contributes to the nature and growth of social life. Although I agree that this is part of the value in education, I can't get passed the idea that, as Dewey put it, "the study of science is educational in so far as it brings out the materials and processes which make social life what it is." As a future math teacher, I can't imagine how a sufficient education in basic, foundational math curriculum could possibly be focused solely in its contribution to social life. As I read this section of the creed, I was imagining a limit being put on the amount and complexity of math material that would be taught in the classroom, and I found this to be as damaging as everything else that Dewey was arguing against. Perhaps I need to dig deeper into what the quote above really means and how it would impact my job as a math teacher.
All in all, I found Dewey's beliefs exciting to ponder as a brand new future teacher. Here's hoping that I will have the tools to enact some of his beliefs in the classroom one day!
Something that really stood out to me was Dewey's emphasis that the student should not be a passive learner. This is an issue that I have considered a lot since deciding to become a teacher. My brother and I have had more than one conversation about what makes a person go from taking everything they're taught as fact to being an active consumer of knowledge who raises questions and thinks critically. When I reflect on my own high school experience, I don't recall engaging in such behavior very often. Whatever my teachers said at the front of the class was inherently true. It wasn't until I went to college that I really began to apply my own thoughts, experiences, and beliefs to what I was being taught in the classroom. My college professors were a big influence on this change, as they encouraged this type of learning (unlike the teachers I had up until that point).
Something that I had never really considered, but that made a lot of sense as I was reading it, was Dewey's belief that children are born with an innate power to construct knowledge and that the best way for them to learn is to relate to their social life. If we are to prepare children to be responsible, contributing members of a community of learners, they need to construct new knowledge around what they already know. Traditional teaching styles often stifle this power, as they don't allow children to draw from their own past, present, and future experiences. When children enter a classroom and are expected to believe or hold as fact whatever their teachers present to them, they are moving backward in their own development as active, critical thinkers. Moreover, they are lacking the opportunity to find and build connections to their own world.
One of Dewey's beliefs that I couldn't fully get on board with was his insistence that subject matter is only valuable as it contributes to the nature and growth of social life. Although I agree that this is part of the value in education, I can't get passed the idea that, as Dewey put it, "the study of science is educational in so far as it brings out the materials and processes which make social life what it is." As a future math teacher, I can't imagine how a sufficient education in basic, foundational math curriculum could possibly be focused solely in its contribution to social life. As I read this section of the creed, I was imagining a limit being put on the amount and complexity of math material that would be taught in the classroom, and I found this to be as damaging as everything else that Dewey was arguing against. Perhaps I need to dig deeper into what the quote above really means and how it would impact my job as a math teacher.
All in all, I found Dewey's beliefs exciting to ponder as a brand new future teacher. Here's hoping that I will have the tools to enact some of his beliefs in the classroom one day!
Thursday, July 4
First Day Reactions
Throughout my K-12 education, which was from 1990 to 2003, the world of technology changed tremendously. In the classroom, I went from watching filmstrips, to video tapes, to DVDs. I was thrilled to have a Walkman when I was in elementary school, which was upgraded to a Discman in Jr. High, and was eventually replaced with an iPod in college. At home, my family went from not having a computer at all, to sharing one bulky PC with limited functionality, to having multiple computers in the house. Our first printer used continuous stationery, and from there we had several stops along the way to a laser printer with scanning, copying, and faxing capabilities. Widespread use of the internet and e-mail really happened while I was in high school. We went from no cell phones, to one clunky cell phone with prepaid minutes for emergencies, to individual cell phones. It wasn't until I had finished my undergraduate degree in 2007 that everyone seemed to be upgrading to smart phones. Social networking didn't really become mainstream until I was in college, and it has rapidly grown from MySpace and Facebook to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and who knows what else!
I don't consider myself to be on the cutting edge of technology by any stretch of the imagination. I'm one of the last people to finally get the "latest and greatest" piece of technology, and it's quite often after something even "later and greater" has already hit the market. In class the other day, I didn't even know that my Kindle Fire is considered to be a tablet, and I was told by a classmate that I was probably the only person who owns one and uses it exclusively for reading books. It took my boyfriend about two years to convince me to get a smart phone, which I have only had for about a year, and I probably only use it for about 10% of what it's capable of. When I began graduate school this summer, I was positively flabbergasted by the almost exclusive use of laptops by the other students during our classes. What happened to good old notebooks, folders, pens, and pencils? I'm currently struggling to make a rapid adjustment to paperless learning.
As a future high school teacher, I find technology use in the classroom intimidating and worrisome. The biggest reason for this is my lack of knowledge about what's available, how to use it myself, and how to manage my future students' use of it. How in the world can I keep control of a classroom of 30+ teenagers armed with smart phones, iPads, and whatever else is out there that I don't know about? What I'm really looking forward to in my Teaching with Technology course is to get a handle on what technology is available and how it can best be used. I don't deny the importance of using technology in the classroom for efficiency, innovation, and preparing students for a world that is filled with it, but in order to be effective at teaching with technology, I have a LOT to learn!
I don't consider myself to be on the cutting edge of technology by any stretch of the imagination. I'm one of the last people to finally get the "latest and greatest" piece of technology, and it's quite often after something even "later and greater" has already hit the market. In class the other day, I didn't even know that my Kindle Fire is considered to be a tablet, and I was told by a classmate that I was probably the only person who owns one and uses it exclusively for reading books. It took my boyfriend about two years to convince me to get a smart phone, which I have only had for about a year, and I probably only use it for about 10% of what it's capable of. When I began graduate school this summer, I was positively flabbergasted by the almost exclusive use of laptops by the other students during our classes. What happened to good old notebooks, folders, pens, and pencils? I'm currently struggling to make a rapid adjustment to paperless learning.
As a future high school teacher, I find technology use in the classroom intimidating and worrisome. The biggest reason for this is my lack of knowledge about what's available, how to use it myself, and how to manage my future students' use of it. How in the world can I keep control of a classroom of 30+ teenagers armed with smart phones, iPads, and whatever else is out there that I don't know about? What I'm really looking forward to in my Teaching with Technology course is to get a handle on what technology is available and how it can best be used. I don't deny the importance of using technology in the classroom for efficiency, innovation, and preparing students for a world that is filled with it, but in order to be effective at teaching with technology, I have a LOT to learn!
My Ideal Classroom
I was asked to draw a picture of my ideal classroom on the first day of my Teaching with Technology course. We'll see how I feel about it after a year of student teaching and studying education!
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