Aims

What are my aims for the course? As a math teacher, I find there is nothing more important than a pencil and paper. But I realize there is a wealth of technology out there that will engage and deepen my students’ understanding. What concepts can be taught effectively through the use of technology? How can I integrate technology in my lessons? What are effective ways students can engage with technology to demonstrate a mathematical skill or understanding? I would like to explore those opportunities in this class.

Reflection

When I started this class I was looking for ways to integrate technology into my classroom. I now have some great ideas (ideas that I have already used) and have set some goals for myself to continue to integrate technology into my lessons throughout the year. Some ideas I have include:

• Continuing to use Explain Everything as an opportunity for students to review material. Students can then use this as an opportunity to link two pieces of technology together in that they can add their EE-created tutorials onto their Google Sites e-portfolios recently generated in the Middle School!!
• Becoming more comfortable with using Twitter and Pinterest as resources and to determine which I prefer to use and for what purpose.
• Using LearnZillion as a resource for students to review or learn material independently as well as exploring the idea of a creating a flipped lesson in the future.
• Using Socrative as a hook, a team review or a pretest to gauge students’ understanding and thereby more accurately target my teaching.

I appreciate having had the opportunity to explore technology independently. I was able to find ideas relevant to my classroom and my students’ learning. But what I think was most valuable about that experience was realizing I don’t give my students that same opportunity. Therefore, another goal I have set for myself is to allow students that same opportunity. I was inspired by the Khan Academy TED Talk we watched and would like to try using Khan Academy as the practice for our fractions unit that is coming up next quarter. As a 6th grade teacher, I have noted that my students’ need for differentiation in regards to their diverse skill levels is particularly needed in this unit. The TED Talk described a method I would like to try in which students are provided guided independent study opportunities which will allow them to go at their own pace for part of the lesson. As opposed to the traditional method of teaching all the students with one lesson plan, students will be able to make progress at their level and I will be there to monitor and provide feedback as needed.

I think the most important thing I got out of this course was the opportunity and motivation to use technology in my classroom. I was reminded how valuable technology can be to engage students, introduce and reinforce material and to appeal to the different learning styles in my classroom.